When the Supreme Court verdict on Article 370 was announced recently, Pakistan said it doesn’t accept it! Why? Oh, please don’t laugh as a Pakistani spokesman mumbled something about Resolution 39 of the UN! And the other UN resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir. As if these were the questions before the honourable court, which was hearing petitions on whether the Modi government’s actions initiated on August 5, 2019, were constitutional or otherwise.
Frankly, does anyone in India care about Pakistan’s views on Article 370? Except perhaps Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who dismissed the apex court as ‘’not God’s word’’. Not only this, going a step further, she said her party’s struggle for restoration of “special status’’ of Kashmir will continue. She uses the word Kashmir as if it denotes the entire original state of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh as also Gilgit-Baltistan, which Maharaja Hari Singh had acceded to India.
Pakistan has been saying for decades that Kashmir is its “jugular vein’’ but that amounts to nothing better, or worse, than baying at the moon. A futile exercise meant to hoodwink its own citizens as gullible separatists and secessionists in India. If we seriously consider Pakistan’s jugular vein analogy, we can see that without the waters of Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, Pakistan can die.
India is now shining as a bright moon among the comity of nations, marching onwards with every passing day, and its radiance can’t be diminished by howling jackals. There were frenetic attempts by Pakistan to mobilise Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) but there were only feeble noises. So much so that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not even name its prime mover. Leading lights of OIC like Saudia Arabia, UAE and others have better things to do than be trapped in Pakistan’s fulminations.
If truth be told, the rich Gulf nations despise Pakistan which is ever present at their doorsteps with a begging bowl, seeking alms. On the other hand, they eagerly await opportunities to engage with India. Calling Pakistan a failing state is a trifle odd, as it has already failed. It is as failed a state as its national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is which doesn’t have fuel to fly its aircraft!
Pakistan is as failed a state as its failed Election Commission, which could not conduct elections to the National Assembly on time. It is a failed state, as big a failure as Imran Khan who sold the dream of Naya Pakistan. And 50 years ago also, it had failed as East Pakistan died and from its ashes rose the new nation of Bangladesh, helped by Maneckshaw.
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal doesn’t make it a worthwhile, potent adversary of India, as it scrounges the barrel to feed its teaming millions. Tinpot Pakistan Army Generals have been presiding over slaughtering of innocent Baloch, the Pushtoons, the Sindhis and the Mohajirs after Bangladesh’s birth. Pakistan Army’s “strategic depth’’ concept and its execution by ruining Afghanistan has turned even the present Taliban regime against it. That says something about this failed state which is the prime cause of instability in South Asia.
Of late, one has been reading statements in Pakistani papers from Nawaz Sharif about trying to improve relations with India when he comes (back) to power. He often praises Narendra Modi for his statesmanship. Sharif had dealt with Modi 1.0 in 2014 and later but the new Modi 3.0, all set to be back in 2024 polls, is going to be a distinctly different cup of tea, or chaiwala if you please.
In his new avatar and third coming, Modi will be far more aggressive on Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK), Gilgit-Baltistan and even Chinese Occupied Ladakh Territories (COTL). The recent election results of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh have shown that Modi 3.0 will be a reality and a nightmare for Pakistan.
The maps of Ladakh and J&K unveiled by Modi government in November 2019 were not mere cartographic lines meant for drawing rooms. For idle chatter and no further action as our western neighbour mistakenly believes. Five years of thinking, discussions, awakening of Indian masses, rapid development in J&K as also Ladakh are being keenly watched on the other side of the line. The day is not far off when people of areas in control of Pakistan will revolt and throw away their yokes of slavery.
