The India Factor
By Dr Shireen M. Mazari
At this time of devastation
and tragedy the nation has shown a remarkable spirit
of giving and a tremendous sense of gratitude to
the international community for providing an ever-increasing
amount of aid. After all, whatever aid is extended
by the international community needs to be appreciated
as it is voluntary and reflects a basic humanity
that overrides politics and conflicts. In that context,
Pakistan has also appreciated the aid sent across
by India. Realizing the massive scale of the disaster,
Pakistan has welcomed aid and assistance from wherever
it has been offered.
However, it is unfortunate that India has not missed
the opportunity to try and score political points
even at this time of immense tragedy that has also
impacted the territory of Kashmir occupied by the
Indian state. It is even more pitiful that some
in Pakistan have fallen prey to this Indian game
and have been haranguing the state of Pakistan for
refusing to accept Indian military personnel and
helicopters for rescue operations in AJK.
Certain points need to be clarified from the outset.
To begin with, the Indian offer of military helicopters
with their military crews was made only once when
the earthquake struck and this seemed to have been
enough to rally round the Indophiles in this country.
But they forgot that the quake had also struck Indian
Occupied Kashmir (IOK). If the Indians had an excess
capacity of helicopters, why were Kashmiris in IOK
lamenting the lack of response from the Indian state
and civil society? Given that aid had not reached
the remote quake-stricken areas in IOK even after
three days of the disaster, why were the available
copters not being deployed in that region by the
Indian state? Five days after the quake, survivors
in areas such as Salamabad, Gundishot and Gawalan
had yet to see the face of any assistance -- either
from civil society or the Indian government. Reuters
quoted farmers like Syed Mukhtar Hussein expressing
anger that “the government of India is sending
relief to Pakistan and they are not helping us,
who they claim are their people.” Yasin Malik
of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front declared
that the disaster “was a golden opportunity
for the government of India to show a human face
but the government missed the opportunity.”
Nor is the Kashmiri anger in the occupied territory
directed only at the Indian government. A Reuters
report, dated October 14, cites Noor Ahmed Baba,
head of the Political Science Department at Kashmir
University, Srinagar, complaining: “When the
tsunami happened, Kashmiris donated money and were
involved in the aid effort. But this time we have
not seen Indian civil society moving to help Kashmir.”
The slow response of the Indian state and society
in aiding the stricken in IOK drew a sharp comment
from Mir Waiz Umar Farooq during a special prayer
at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid on Tuesday, October
11. Contrasting the response of Indian civil society
to the Gujarat earthquake, he lamented: “It
is sad that people have not responded to this great
tragedy. This was not expected. When Latur and Bhuj
were ravaged, big industrialists stepped forward
to help. But no one seems to be coming to our aid.”
(The Hindu, October 13.)
The Indian state’s slow response in terms
of aid and assistance to the Kashmiris living under
its occupation has also resulted in a public litigation
filed in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in which
the petitioners have also alleged that the injured
were being charged an ambulance fee of between Rs
300 and Rs 1,500 for shifting them to Srinagar hospitals,
adding that the government had made no attempt to
send aid beyond Tangdhar. So where is the excess
capacity of the Indian military in terms of the
helicopters that they apparently want to sent to
AJK? Worse still, a week after the quake, according
to Reuters, UNICEF was still waiting for permission
to enter IOK and set up its relief efforts -- unlike
in AJK where it is in the forefront of relief work.
Clearly the Indian ‘offer’ of helicopters
was more of a point-scoring move, given its own
situation in Occupied Kashmir. But there was a more
devious purpose as well, in case Pakistan had succumbed
to the Indian game plan. Any Indian military personnel
given access to AJK would not only have seen the
lay of the land but also the military situation
relating to the Pakistan Army -- including the damage
in lives and material.
In contrast, the Indian media has been given access
to AJK with NDTV moving in almost immediately. Would
India allow similar access in IOK to Pakistani media
teams? So far that has not happened, but if UNICEF
is finding it hard to get into IOK with relief,
certain rational conclusions can be drawn regarding
Pakistan’s media presence.
Indian intent regarding the extent it is prepared
to go to in aiding relief efforts can be assessed
from the Indian conditional permission to allow
Pakistani copters to fly in the one-kilometer-wide
“peacetime no-fly zone” over the LoC.
Given how the Indians feel it quite proper for us
to allow their military presence in AJK, why has
the Indian government been so niggardly in granting
permission to Pakistan to fly over this zone only
on a case-by-case basis? What possible threat would
India have faced if it had given this permission
unconditionally, so that time would not be wasted
in having the DGMO on the Pakistani side of the
LoC first contacting his Indian counterpart every
time a Pakistani rescue helicopter had to enter
this zone? So it is time the Indophiles in Pakistan
woke to the reality of the Indian state’s
mindset.
Unfortunately, the India factor is impacting more
than just the helicopter debate. The strong Indian
influence over the BBC is evident not only in the
time given to discussion on the helicopter issue,
but also in the fact that while reports on the quake
from India are being handled by an Indian BBC stringer,
for reports from AJK and Pakistan the Pakistani
representative of the BBC was obviously seen as
suspect and so we have had BBC reporters descend
on us from London itself. As a result the Pakistani
face of the BBC is barely visible on the screen.
But the real absurdity is the BBC Urdu Service on
the radio. Seemingly full of Indian-origin interviewers,
they have been conducting pre-interview interviews
to ascertain who can be critical enough of the Pakistani
state so that his/her voice can be broadcast. I
witnessed one such event where in the pre-interview
interview the interviewer desperately tried to make
a doctor declare that the Pakistani state had failed
and the hospitals were neglecting the injured and
so on. When that did not work the interview was
simply cut off! So much for the BBC’s credibility.
So while we as Pakistanis must be grateful for all
international aid, including that from our neighbors,
we must not allow anyone to make political capital
out of our human tragedy.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. Courtesy The
News)
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