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Pak daydream, wake-up call
There is a phenomenon peculiar to the Pakistani Establishment, that unique combination of its army, intelligence agencies and bureaucracy that constitutes its permanent government, and therefore spelt with a capital “E”. Every 10 or 12 years, it starts believing that it is winning. Winning what, how and to what effect, are not facts it wants to be confused with. It just believes, at that particular moment, that it is “winning” against India. This is when the foundation of an impending disaster is laid. Unfortunately, if you’ve been exasperated at the sudden turn in the Pakistani Establishment’s conduct, you have to understand that they are currently caught in the throes of another such irrational euphoria. They again think they are “winning”.
The first phase of madness was 1947-48, that led to the invasion of Kashmir and ruined our relationship at the very start. The next came along with our war with China which, they thought, was a wonderful time again to seize Kashmir, through negotiated, US/UK-backed blackmail (India was desperately seeking American military aid then) and, when that failed, through war against a recently “defeated” army. That led to the misadventure of 1965. That moment of madness came yet again in 1971, when they misread the significance of their emergence as the link between Nixon’s America and China to mean that they had a superpower shield and could crush the revolt in their eastern half as brutally as they wished. They lost half of Pakistan.
Then, almost exactly 12 years later they saw another “wonderful” opportunity in India’s Punjab, with rising Sikh militancy. This was just the moment to wage a war of a thousand cuts they were perfecting along with the Americans in Afghanistan. That phase of belligerence was put down only after the reality check of the Operation Brasstacks standoff in 1987. But check the IMF/ World Bank figures of annual economic growth. It is around this time that Pakistan permanently lost the sizeable edge it had maintained against India in terms of economic growth. In 1993, again, came the next moment of the same “we are winning” illusion, because of troubles in our Kashmir and the victory of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. A full-fledged
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Reader's Comments(15) | Post a comment
We need a indian leader not foreigner like sonia . we need BJP not chapluso ki party like congress. madam is boss rest is worst.
Shekhar ji, your ideas won't work. Americans and the whole world knows that India is a coward state. They know what we did after Kargil (did not attack Pak); after Parliament Attack; after 26/11 attack. They know that we simply move the forces to the border but don't have courage to attack Pak. They know that an impotent Sardar is ruling India who cannot win a single vote of his own. They know that the proxy-ruler is a foreigner lady who does not care for India, or rather who is a puppet of the Italian Rome and Pope. Your whole article is illogical. The Congress Government is deliberately not deploying funds in defence forces. It is a conspiracy to weaken India. Muslims are deliberately pampered in India. To weaken India. So, Pak will continue to molest and rape India. You cannot do anything. Just watch helplessly. Of course, a person like you can theorise sitting in an air-conditioned chamber.
As usual Shekhar Gupta has hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately where we lack is converting such analysis to actionable measures.That requires much more than giving statements in TV studios and seminars.Still hope that we become alive to this constant threat to our way of life..
Shekhar is right of course. That "winning" feeling is bizarre and I have always been able to link their misadventures with this winning feeling. Must be the side effect of some once in a decade poppy bloom.
Correctly anyalised.Also this is the only leverage we have.We should have a mechanism for civilian thoughts to be used in strategy.