TeaThe language was unusual. Talking to an Arab news channel, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, ‘Pakistan has learned its lesson. We had three wars with India and the result of those wars was more misery, more unemployment and poverty. Lakhs of people were demoted from their level of satisfaction to a lower level of satisfaction.
The intriguing aspect of the statement was that Sharif was speaking the language of an aggressor who has seen the error of his ways. An Indian Prime Minister seeking peace with Pakistan would not use this tone or such language.
It has always been our stand that we have never attacked Pakistan or incited war. We were attacked and left with no option but to defend ourselves against the Pakistani aggression. So, there is no lesson for us to learn.
No one who is the victim of aggression ever says, “I have learned my lesson, I will not fight to defend myself.” Only the aggressor says that he has learned his lesson. His policy of provoking war has only drawn his people into more poverty.
There were several reactions to Sharif’s statement. Within Pakistan, the military-government complex responded with the usual baggage about Kashmir. And in India, our hawk said: He is not honest. He is just trying to appeal to the global community. Don’t take him seriously.
Others stated the obvious. Pakistan is in deep trouble today. Its economy is in a state of collapse. There is widespread discontent and a growing sense that something has gone very wrong.
Hence, Sharif’s compromising rhetoric.
Fair enough. But imagine that the roles were reversed. Imagine India faced with an economic crisis of this magnitude. Will any Indian leader respond to the crisis by talking about Pakistan or the futility of war? We came a little closer to a crisis like Pakistan in 1990. But still, although we had to beg the IMF for help and pledge our gold, Pakistan was farthest from our thoughts. It never occurred to us to link our economic problems with the conflict with Pakistan.
So, honest or not, Sharif’s statement tells us two things. One: Pakistan does not see itself as a victim of Indian aggression. It sees itself as an aggressor who has learned its lesson. And two, India is never far from the views of the leaders of Pakistan. Even when their economy is sinking, they link the crisis to a war with India.
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a country obsessed with neighborhood
As intriguing (or revealing) as Sharif’s statement was, I was equally impressed by the Indian reactions. Apart from the odd news channels trying to whip up anti-Pakistan sentiments, most of the Indian media covered the interview of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, but did not consider it as the big news of the day.
Would this have happened if Narendra Modi had given an interview like Sharif? Suppose the Indian Prime Minister announced that India has learned its lesson and wants to avoid further conflict with Pakistan because it has made our people poorer. This would have been the news of the year in Pakistan.
In a way, the muted nature of the Indian responses came as a relief. At times India has been concerned about Pakistan: for example, during the Bangladesh genocide, and after terrorist attacks. But most of the time, even if we don’t feel particularly warm towards Pakistan, it hardly dominates our thoughts. Nor is China, a more formidable adversary.
We are aware of the hostility on both our borders but it does not dominate our thinking. There is a lot going on in India – much of it positive and encouraging – and we are more engaged about it than our neighbours.
A few years ago, I began to worry that this was changing. Suddenly, the obsession of Pakistan took over the social media and TV channels. There will be endless debate about the Pakistani threat. Anyone with ties to Pakistan (even frequent visitors) was viewed with suspicion and the ‘go to Pakistan’ slogan was imposed on anyone who took a moderate position on Hindu-Muslim issues. imposed by authority became an abuse.
I wouldn’t care if some uneducated troll in the social media control room asked me to go to Pakistan (I’ve never been there and clearly have no desire to) but I imagine that many Muslims The British, against whom this slur was directed, regarded it as an implicit slur on their patriotism.
And perhaps that was its intention as well. Many of the so-called debates on Pakistan and the mortal danger it poses to the soul of India were nothing more than pseudo-Muslim bashing, a way to stoke communal passions and alienate minorities.
Communal prejudice in any form is revolting and always the last resort of the foolish and inadequate. But what worried me was whether Pakistan is so important to us that we waste so much time debating issues related to it? Sometimes I fear we are in danger of becoming a mirror image of Pakistan: a country dangerously obsessed with its neighbor.
Fortunately, that phase has passed. Even Hindutva trolls have stopped acting as unpaid publicists for the Pakistan Tourism Board and are now less eager to urge people to visit Pakistan. Irrelevant nonsense is still being debated on TV every night but very little about Pakistan. Normal service has been resumed. Our priorities are back in order.
Because frankly, it’s silly for a country the size and importance of India to obsess over Pakistan, a country with a population only slightly larger than UP, a troubled economy, and a volatile polity that threatens military intervention every now and then. decides to do.
It is in this context that we must see Sharif’s remarks about wanting peace with India and learning lessons. Yes, India matters a lot to Pakistan. Partly this is because his military has capitalized on the threat from India to secure its high position in the Pakistani system. And in part, it is because Pakistani politicians have spent decades stirring up anti-India sentiment for votes.
But Pakistan doesn’t really matter much to India. We do not live in fear of a medium sized country that has trouble feeding its own people and is enslaved by an army that has never won a war. Anyone who says that Pakistan is a mortal threat to us is undermining the strength and achievements of modern India.
Vir Shanghvi is a print and television journalist and talk show host. He tweeted @virsangvi. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)