The Hindu : Misplaced jingoism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 31, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Misplaced jingoism

By Rajeev Dhavan

There cannot be a policy of communalism in Gujarat and secularism in Kashmir... India must be dedicated to a secular peace.

INDIA IS on the brink of a war. The situation is unprecedented and is totally different from fighting infiltration in 1947-48 or the ground and air strikes of 1965 or the controlled operation of the Bangladesh war. Nor is it a cross-border skirmish like the Kargil war. These take place all the time. Fire is returned by fire. It is suggested India should go further because — to borrow Grotius' phrase — it is waging a `just' war. But, to fight an anti-terrorist war entails strikes on major terrorist bases as the United States id in Afghanistan — to be followed through by ground operations more complicated than America's in Afghanistan and, apart from the nuclear threat, more frightening than Vietnam. All this is misplaced jingoism portending terrible risks and consequences.

The BJP-led Government at the Centre cannot support a Hindu jehad in Gujarat and fight a secular war in Kashmir. Today, India is being savagely criticised for growing communal tendencies. These criticisms cannot be ignored and are not without relevance to the terrorist war which Pakistan has supportively unleashed on India. We cannot shrug off the indictments as being biased international reports. A very serious issue was raised by British courts in the Nadeem extradition case as to whether a Muslim could get a fair trial in India. I do not believe the judgment is correct. But, I have seen the expert human rights evidence. There was enough material to string together and make out a case that communalism was on the rise. The misuse of TADA against Muslims adds support to the allegations against the system. Although I believe that our courts are not communal, things are basically going wrong with secular governance in India. Now, Amnesty International has raised the basic question about whether Muslims can expect a fair deal in India. This comes close on the heels of justified concern about Gujarat by the European Union, various countries including Indonesia, Human Rights Watch and others. These concerns are replicated by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the independent fact-finding mission called "Gujarat Carnage 2002: A Report to the Nation" (April 2002), the CPI(M)-AIDWA report "State-sponsored carnage in Gujarat" (March 2002) and a detailed summation of the decimation of the lives, finances and futures of Muslims in Gujarat by Communalism Combat (March-April 2002). It needs no repetition that the BJP did nothing against Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister whose Government is rightly guilty of complicity and misrule. What was supported in Gujarat was a politically-motivated and protected Hindu jehad especially invented to excite political support. It is necessary to repeat this in order to understand where the two trajectories of Gujarat and Kashmir meet. Following the post-Babri Masjid riots (1992) and with the Graham Staines murder has begun a conspirational support for communal violence and communal issues. Let us see how the trajectories proceed. From January 2001, the Ayodhya temple issue was raised. The Government allowed the movement to grow despite warnings throughout the year and culminated in the crisis of March 2002 when the Government specifically supported the foundation ceremony. It is during this period — and especially after the September 11 attack in New York — that Pakistan-supported terrorism seized on the opportunity to attack our Parliament, target the Srinagar Assembly, slaughter innocents in Jammu and increase cross-border terrorism to a high intensity `war' operation resulting in events leading to the murder of politicians such as Abdul Gani Lone.

The analysis that this is a spillover of the Afghan situation resulting from a surplus of available mercenaries is idle and misleading. Nor is there any great home truth in dramatising the fact that a desperate Pervez Musharraf is trying to revive his political standing through aggression and war. All these factors exist, but they evade the real issue. Concerted efforts at triggering terrorist wars do not emerge by accident. They are planned. Pakistan and the hardliners in Kashmir have seized precisely on this political moment, when charges of communalism are high, to unleash what they now call a `just' war. We need not go back to the definitions of international law to define what constitutes a `just' war, why the Bangladesh war was one of liberation and why the Kashmir conflict relates to terrorism. All that only raises debating points. The real issues stare us in the face. India is not a communal country. Nor are its huge millions communal people. But, the incidents of the last few years, culminating and continuing in Gujarat, leave the world baffled and compel it to ask the question asked by English courts, foreign Governments and others: "Can India in the light of the recent past give a fair deal to its minorities — especially Muslims?'' This question becomes more poignant because of the sins of omission and commission of the BJP-led alliance.

Now, let us return to the war situation in Pakistan. Does India have a comprehensive strategy to deal with this war? There are three strands to this strategy. First is the diplomatic initiative. India's stand is to ride on America's post-September 11 anti-terrorist plan and to ask the U.S. and NATO to be even-handed against terrorism irrespective of whether it relates to Kashmir or Afghanistan. This strategy has to be pursued on sound common sense-based Kautilyan principles. But, there are political catches in all this which go back to the fundamental indictments that the European Union itself has made about communalism in India. Second, there is the military strategy as to whether India should make a cross-border strike as Islamabad increases bases and training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as also in Pakistan itself. The total Pakistan operation is large and elaborate. But, we are not talking of cross-border skirmishes. Assuming that it is desirable — and, it is not — is India really in a position to mount an operation which would have to be as big as the Gulf War or the recent U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan? We do not have the military or economic resources to mount such an operation involving air strikes, ground and commando operations. Whether the attack is on the six training camps in PoK or the eight training bases in Pakistan, a full retaliation can be expected in which many foolish things can happen. The very idea of going beyond non-escalatory cross-border skirmishes is unthinkable — logistically or otherwise.

But, there is a third aspect to the strategy which goes to the heart of India's case. It is a simple statement that we are the most complex and the greatest multi-cultural country in the world and that no doubts can be cast on the integrity on Indian secularism. Our entire case on Kashmir, whether with Pakistan or the rest of the world, rests on the principles of anti-communalism, which draw India to peace and togetherness. Our present Government cannot promote misplaced jingoism whilst underlining support for rabid communalism. Nor can it isolate issues of war as if they are not inter-connected with issues of peace. There cannot be a policy of communalism in Gujarat and secularism in Kashmir. This is an explosive cocktail. India must be dedicated to a secular peace. This can only be done without compromising on any issue.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

The elusive diplomatic divident

World Cup

Misplaced jingoism

Investigation as collusion — I

The Kashmir quandary — II

A road map to peace

Voters confused, apathetic