Indian Press on Interfaith Relationships and Marriages, And 1971 War: New Age Islam's Selection, 16 December 2020
By
New Age Islam Edit Desk
16 December
2020
• Interfaith Relationships and Marriages: Watch Out
Religious Bias
The Telegraph India Editorial
• In Kashmir, Militants Are High On Recruitment, But Weaponless
By Khalid Shah
• A Victory to Remember
By Lt Gen SR Ghosh (Retd)
• How Pakistan Lost the Plot
By Abhijit Bhattacharyya
• Language Row Led To A New Nation 49 Yrs Ago
By Abhijit Bhattacharyya
• Pakistan’s Plan To Open Punjab Flank
By Harsha Kakar
• Iranian Stew
Statesman News Service
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Interfaith Relationships and Marriages: Watch Out
Religious Bias
The
Telegraph India Editorial
16.12.20
A law is
the codified expression of dominant social values. Or of the prohibitions they
imply. The determination with which the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi
Adityanath, pushed through the ordinance outlawing religious conversion
undertaken solely for the purpose of marriage sprang perhaps from a desire to
lead by following the followers.
The chief
minister’s own penchant for discrimination flows into and feeds on the same
cultural propensity of the state he governs. The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of
Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 violates the constitutional
right to practise any religion and the right to privacy and personal autonomy
interpreted as a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in 2017. “Unlawful”
conversion assumes the State’s right to judge whether anyone has been forced to
change religions.
The
religious bias that the UP government takes no pains to conceal ensures that
the ordinance is applied only in cases of Hindu women marrying or having a
relationship with men from the largest minority community. Projecting such
relationships as part of a plot by this community to change India’s demography
establishes a foundational myth that becomes an alibi for the aggression of the
dominant sections of UP society. The ordinance takes the myth as its premise
and formalizes unconstitutional action based on community and gender hatred.
Most
important, it legitimizes the intervention of families, relatives and
neighbours into interfaith relationships and marriages. They willingly turn
into useful representatives of the State, especially when a romance is about to
flower. At a later stage, just before marriage or just after it, there are the
police who can act on parents’ complaints, or temples and registration offices,
where officials act as informants.
It is not
even necessary to report to the administration; alerting a Hindutva organization
is enough for the State to leap into action. These organizations take great
pride in counting and declaring the number of ‘love-jihad’ unions they have
destroyed. The entire state of UP has gradually turned into an enormous
surveillance network, with its skeins running through the narrowest alleys.
Social media, too, are attuned to the same purpose — of spying and informing.
The informer syndrome demonstrates how the nurturing of distrust for one
community can become an internally divisive weapon for the other. Hatred does
not obey boundaries.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/up-love-jihad-ordinance-takes-the-myth-as-its-premise/cid/1800631
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In
Kashmir, Militants Are High On Recruitment, But Weaponless
By
Khalid Shah
15
December, 2020
Militancy
in Jammu and Kashmir has entered a crucial transitional phase. In the last five
years, it kept surging, its lethality increasing year after year—in terms of
recruitment, infiltration and violent attacks. The year 2020 marked a
remarkable shift in the trends of militancy, indicating a downgrading in
lethality despite high recruitment.
The
recruitment numbers for the year 2020 do not show a big change compared to last
year. As per news reports, the number of local recruits for this year (till
October end) stood at 145—the second highest in a decade. The spate of
recruitment suggests that the counter-offensive of security forces is proving
to be a zero-sum game, as for every militant killed a new one is being
recruited or infiltrated.
However,
there is another data point which depicts a significant downgrade in militant
operations. Data suggests that militants in Kashmir are witnessing a dearth of
weaponry and logistics, which is severely denting their capacity to carry out
big, lethal attacks.
Data accessed
by ORF shows that 176 counter-militancy operations were conducted by the
security forces till October end. Out of 245 weapons recovered, 101 were pistol
or handguns and 144 were various types of assault rifles—AK47, AK56, M4, Insas
etc. Many operations in which militants were killed/arrested/surrender had no
major weapon recovery.
Recovery of
ammunitions showed that the militants possessing pistols carried on an average
10 rounds for each weapon. In the case of assault rifles, an average of 66
rounds per weapon was recorded. A pistol is primarily a self-defence weapon and
can only be used to carry out targeted assassinations at point-blank range.
The above
data clearly shows that the pistol-wielding members posed a lesser threat as
they are not capable of carrying out big attacks against the military
establishment. This also explains why there weren’t any major terror attacks in
the year 2020 barring a few. The nature of attacks carried out in 2020 were
mostly targeted killings of civilians and stand-off attacks on cornered
soldiers. Data shows that this year, only one improvised explosive device or
IED was recovered compared to the 12 recovered last year.
The
critical metric to judge the state of militancy is not the disruption in supply
of weapons but the surge in demand for weapons. In other words, the continuous
flow of recruits suggests that the demand for weapons is much more than it has
been in the last few years. Perhaps, the weapon supply chain has primarily been
interrupted by shutting down of the cross-LoC trade and crackdown on the
overground networks of the militant outfits. In the past, trucks involved in
cross LoC trade have been caught by the security forces carrying weapons into
the Indian side of the LoC. In April
2019, India shut down cross LoC trade after investigative agencies found out
the route was used for “smugglings weapons, drugs and fake currency.”
It is an
open secret that militants also procured weapons through trade with rogue
members of security forces. DySP Davinder Singh, currently being investigated
by the NIA, brought this reality into the public glare when a former sarpanch
was arrested for supplying arms to Hizbul Mujahideen. The arrest of DySP
Davinder Singh and subsequent investigation has perhaps acted as a deterrent
against this network and created further problems in the procurement of
weaponry.
Officials
of the Indian Army and J&K Police have publicly stated that the militants
in Kashmir were facing a shortage of weapons. This deficit in weaponry has
provoked desperate attempts by Pakistan to find new routes and modes of weapon
delivery to militants in Kashmir.
On June 20,
Border Security Forces (BSF) shot down a China-made drone, carrying arms and
explosives, that had crossed the international border from the Pakistani side
near Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir. The hexacopter was carrying an M4
Carbine rifle and seven grenades. Similarly, on September 19, two AK 47 rifles,
two pistols and four grenades were recovered from three arrested militants who claimed
that arms and ammunition were received via drones. The incidents of weapon
drops through drones has not been limited to Jammu and Kashmir. Reports of
drone drops have taken place in Punjab as well along the international border
between India and Pakistan. It is possible that weapons dropped in Punjab are
then transported up north to Jammu and Kashmir.
These
incidents of airdrops of weapons have added a new dimension to militancy in
Kashmir. Most importantly, they are an indicator of the evolution of militant
groups in Kashmir. The shortage of weapons is affecting the traditional
militant outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) more than the newly created ones
like The Resistance Front (TRF) and People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAPF). The new
recruits in HM and LeT have to make do with the handguns, thereby, limiting
their activities.
After
statements by Indian Army officials regarding the shortage of weapons faced by
militants, TRF sought to counter the claims of security forces by issuing a
propaganda video on social media. In the video, which appears to have been
hurriedly recorded in a residential house, a militant of TRF is seen counting
eight assault rifles of AK 47 model, seven pistols and some hand grenades put
on display against a wall. The video put out a statement, which read, “there is
no scarcity of weapons.”
Even as
Kashmir witnessed a less lethal and downgraded militancy in the year 2020, the
trends suggest trouble is far from over. The rising recruitment in militant
ranks remains a point of concern and all efforts by security forces to stop new
recruits from joining militant groups have had no positive outcome. This will
remain a cause for worry in the coming months too. The incidents of airdrops
suggest that militant outfits and their managers are utilising new methods and
tactics to keep the pot boiling. Perhaps, these shifting tactics by militant
outfits are just a part of a bigger plan, which is yet to come in motion. They
may even be planning to launch a big assault in the future, much like the wave
of militancy that emerged after the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016.
----
Khalid
Shah is an Associate Fellow at ORF. His research focuses on Kashmir conflict,
Pakistan and terrorism. Views are personal.
https://theprint.in/opinion/in-kashmir-militants-are-high-on-recruitment-but-weaponless/566961/
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A Victory
to Remember
By Lt
Gen SR Ghosh (Retd)
Dec 16,
2020
An iconic
signpost on the Indo-Pak border read: “You are now entering Pakistan. No
passports required. Bash on regardless.” This was for India’s 54 Infantry
Division under the command of the charismatic Maj Gen WAG Pinto, spearheading
the Indian offensive into the Shakargarh Bulge in December 1971.
For the
nation, 1971 was a historic year and we, as newly commissioned second
lieutenants, were part of this history, part of this great military success.
And this victory is since celebrated every year on December 16 as Vijay Diwas.
Unfortunately,
over the years, it appears that the 1971 war is gradually fading from public
memory and being overtaken by Kargil, Balakot, Doklam and Galwan. Vijay Diwas
has been replaced by Kargil Vijay Diwas. Has the nation forgotten the greatest
ever victory achieved by its armed forces? Have all the sacrifices of our young
officers and men gone in vain?
Today, many
of us who were part of this great campaign are no more. The youngest alive are
in their 70s. All that is left for these veterans is a brief wreath-laying
ceremony on December 16 at a war memorial, for which most of them are not even
invited. The rest of the nation, in any case, hardly remembers this war.
In the
run-up to the 50th anniversary of the war next year, the nation needs to
commemorate December 16, 1971, when under the leadership of the iconic General
Sam Manekshaw, the Indian Army, supported by the IAF and the Indian Navy,
blitzkrieged its way to achieve one of the greatest victories by any modern-day
military, dismembering Pakistan, and bringing about one of the biggest
humiliations any country could ever have to undergo.
The ‘famed’
Pakistani Army was disgraced in the eyes of the world when Gen AAK Niazi and
his 93,000 soldiers prostrated themselves in front of the Indian Army in the
biggest military surrender after World War II. Till today, the Pakistani
military smarts from the ignominy of this defeat by an Army which it used to
sneer at.
December 16
is a day of rejoicing because on this day we, along with the Mukti Bahini,
liberated and created a free new nation, Bangladesh, and ended a barbaric
pogrom by the Pakistani Army of mass killing and rape of its innocent and
hapless people.
In a
memorable conclusion to the war, young Major Ashok Tara, VrC, in a brilliant
operation, rescued the entire family of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, held prisoner by
the Pakistani Army, including his wife Begum Fazilatunnesa and daughter Sheikh
Hasina, the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh and a great friend of India.
The war
produced heroes like our young Param Vir Chakra (PVC) recipients 2/Lt Arun
Khetrapal, Flying Officer Nirmaljit Sekhon and Lance Naik Albert Ekka, who
along with several thousands of unrecognised, gallant soldiers laid down their
lives with the words ‘Naam, Namak, Izzat’ on their dying breaths. We had
inspiring officers like Major Hoshiyar Singh, awarded the PVC for his
extraordinary bravery at Shakargarh, Major Ian Cardozo, who, given up for dead
due to gangrene, chopped off his leg with his khukri and went on to become a
Major General, or Maj KS Chandpuri, MVC, who with his small force, gallantly
defended the post of Longewala against the greatly superior Pakistani forces,
thus enabling the IAF to decimate the attacking enemy tank regiments.
A special
place of honour should be reserved for the silent service, the Indian Navy. In
a daring operation, its missile boats attacked the Karachi port, sinking and
damaging several Pakistan ships and destroying critical logistics facilities.
The Navy dominated both the western and eastern seaboards, thus greatly
restricting freedom of action of the Pakistani Navy.
The new
generations also need to learn about and honour extraordinary commanders like
Capt MN Mulla, MVC, who, in the highest traditions of the Navy, chose to go down
with his ship INS Khukri, along with near 200 officers and sailors.
On this
occasion, we, as a nation, should forever remember with great pride and
gratitude the ultimate sacrifice made by 4,000 Indian soldiers who laid down
their lives on the battlefield and 10,000 more who went home wounded or
disabled.
Let us also
never forget our 54 officers and men taken prisoners of war, who are dead or
dying in Pakistani prisons. How unfortunate and tragic that we as victors,
allowed 93,000 Pakistani prisoners to return home to their families but could
not bring back our own soldiers, while also returning 13,000 square km of
captured territory won with the blood, toil and sweat of our men.
Next year
is the golden jubilee year of the war. On this landmark occasion, not just the
Indian military, but India as a nation also needs to celebrate Vijay Diwas 1971
and remind the world of this great victory of the ‘righteous over evil’. Apart
from declaring 2021 as the Year of the Soldier, December 16 should henceforth
be celebrated as the Armed Forces Day and do away with the irrelevant and
antiquated Armed Forces Flag Day on December 7.
Let a
chapter be added to our history books so that future generations read about
this momentous victory and continue to remember and honour the sacrifices made
by the gallant soldiers of India.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/a-victory-to-remember-184889
------
How
Pakistan Lost the Plot
By
Abhijit Bhattacharyya
Dec 16,
2020
Commentator
and Author
WAS the
birth of the linguistic state of Bangladesh in 1971 a rare accident of history?
Or was it owing to invisible and inexorable forces of history? It’s the
‘geography of the demography’ that played a pivotal role, which, more often
than not, has been ignored.
India
rightly claims credit for her ‘politico-military midwife’ role in the creation
of an independent Bengali-speaking state in 1971, despite apprehension and
concern in some quarters as India’s border areas are vulnerable to turbulence
caused by China-aided and Pakistan-backed actors. Hence, the completion of 49
years of sovereign Bangladesh is all the more creditable if one assesses the
overlapping physical contours of geographical Bengal as a whole.
The stark
geography of the east was succinctly described by Dr Sudhindra Nath Bhattacharyya,
an eminent historian of Dacca University, in The History of Bengal. How the
Mughals faced problems in suppressing Bengal: “The task of conquest and
consolidation was rendered more complicated owing to insuperable difficulties
arising out of the nature of the country (side) and its peculiar geography.
Bengal, with its numerous rivers, streams, nalahs, creeks, swamps, its damps
and moist air, and its prolonged rains half the year, peculiar vegetation,
absence of barley and wheat, its no less peculiar language, foreign to Urdu and
Hindi alike — all these made Mughal grandees intensely dislike service in
Bengal.” Did the Pakistani army repeat the Mughal history in 1971?
Notwithstanding the brute force and savagery perpetrated on ‘blacks of the east’,
as infamously referred to by its army brass?
‘Blacks of
the east’, nevertheless were not the sole obstacle to Pakistan’s forces. There
existed something more deep-rooted. The geomorphology and terrain being the
biggest mismatch of demographic civility and civilisational chemistry between
the eastern geography of Bengal and the non-eastern topography of South Asia,
as gleaned from the monumental research work of Dr Nihar Ranjan Ray in his
path-breaking History of the Bengali people (1950).
Thus
described Yuan-ch’uang: “People of Pundravardhana (south of Brahmaputra) were
straightforward, virtuous and had great respect for culture and learning...
Tamralipti (coastal town Tamluk) people were brave, industrious, fond of
learning but rough in their manner. People of Samatata (coastal area) were
hard-working, while those of Karnasuvarna (central Bengal) were gentle, of fine
character, and gave much support to scholarship.”
On the
linguistic front, however, things didn’t appear optimistic. Bodhayana
Dharmasutra didn’t have good things to suggest on Bengali. “On return from
Vanga (Bengal) to central lands, or Aryavarta, it was necessary to perform
expiation” owing to ‘Vanga being barbarian territory and their people of low
origin” (does it have an uncanny similarity with the views of the army of
undivided Pakistan?) The contrary view, too, speaks for itself. The in-built
contradiction and confrontation between Bengal and Aryavarta: “Aryan language
and culture had neither understanding of, nor respect for, the language,
customs and culture of non-Aryan or pre-Aryan people of Gauda (Central Bengal),
Pundravardhana and Vanga.”
The
uniqueness of Bengal’s geography, therefore, constitutes an oft-forgotten
reality. That a country’s political boundaries and natural geographical
boundaries may not always be the same even if there exists a common linguistic
or homogenous ethnic group. Hence, the fertile land of Bengal invariably
attracted those who hailed from a comparatively barren and less fertile land —
for a better livelihood.
Another
important scenario of the east pertained to language, literature and learning,
traditionally the strongest features of the demography of Bengal. Its true that
ancient India’s learning is well known to have begun with Vedas, Brahmanas and
Upanishads. “However, the learning and scholarship embodied in Vedas, Brahmanas
and Upanishads, even in the Dharmashastras and Dharmashutras, had no effect on
Bengal for quite a long time,” according to Dr Nihar Ranjan Ray.
That said,
there also existed a notable characteristic of the Bengali language: the flexibility
to take/accept words, and usage, from the likes of Mon-Khmer and the Kola-Munda
group of languages. The latter brought about by a stream of the Dravidian
family of languages. Further came the language of the Tibetan-Burmese people.
This introduction, acceptance and induction of diverse languages in Bengal,
which began centuries before the birth of Christ, ultimately led to what one
sees today as the rich and easy-to-learn and understand lingua franca of 32
crore people of the world. Thus, those known as Bengali today are not all from
one, but diverse ethnic groups, their commonality and strongest bond being the
Bengali language.
Regrettably,
however, the historical challenge of geography, coupled with the depth of
sensitivity and conviction of Bengali-speaking people, conspicuously remained
incomprehensible to the gun-toting army rulers of Pakistan. Thus, when the
former chief of Pakistan’s Eastern Command, Lt Gen AAK Niazi, wrote in his
book, The betrayal of East Pakistan (1998) that “Bengalis had little chance of
standing against my well-disciplined and experienced troops”, it showed the
undiminished and ingrained arrogance and ignorance of the vanquished General.
Essentially, a military junta’s lack of knowledge led to an unprecedented
battlefield disaster. Little wonder the history of the Bengali-speaking
demography stands tall, dwarfing the army of Pakistan before its former eastern
wing. Sovereign Bangladesh has truly added a rich chapter to the history of
South Asia. The change from the Karachi-Dhaka axis in the 1950s to the
Delhi-Dhaka friendship of the 2020s appears impressive. At least for now.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/how-pakistan-lost-the-plot-184916
------
Language
Row Led To A New Nation 49 Yrs Ago
By
Abhijit Bhattacharyya
Dec 16,
2020
Jinnah’s
toxic temper, mixed with arrogance, sowed the seeds of irreversible Bengali
nationalism in the world’s most fertile soil
The world
knows that Bangladesh is South Asia’s youngest nation state, but few people —
and particularly those born well after the cataclysmic events surrounding its
birth, who are now in their 20s, 30s and 40s — are fully aware of the torturous
processes over a long period of time that led to the creation of arguably one
of the few linguistic nation states through blood, sweat, toil and tears? The
experience of living through the tumultuous 24 years (1947-1971), between when
India attained freedom from British rule and the December day 49 years ago when
Dhaka (then Dacca) became “the free capital of a free country” — in Indira
Gandhi’s ringing phrase in the Lok Sabha — are hard to fathom for those who
didn’t personally experience those momentous times. East Bengal, of course, had
known the agony and humiliation of separation even before 1947 when undivided
Bengal was partitioned into two halves, but nothing quite prepared it for the
experience of those 24 years as the eastern enclave of the nation called
Pakistan — and being treated as a vassal province.
The beauty
and reality of history is that it is usually written, rewritten or unwritten by
the victors, or deliberately distorted for the sake of the polity. When British
India was split into two with the independence of two nations in 1947, it also
created a geopolitical impossibility: two wings of the new nation of Pakistan
separated by the mother state with a 1,000-mile crater. It was an unbridgeable
disconnect making a mockery of a unified Pakistan, ostensibly founded on a
common religious identity. Its two wings were a political reality, but remained
a geographical and cultural disconnect since birth.
Just ask
any 74-year-old (or older) Bangladeshi (born in 1946 or earlier) about his or
her life journey. One is likely to hear the agonising experience he/she
underwent, changing his/her nationality. Ceasing to be Indian in August 1947.
Being a Pakistani for 24 years, being treated as an inferior and a second-class
citizen, discriminated against, till December 1971, and then attaining his/her
present identity as a free, independent Bengali-speaking Bangladeshi.
The worst
humiliation for the Bengali-speaking citizens of what became East Pakistan was
the insensitive linguistic policy forcibly imposed by an insolent, dictatorial
governor-general, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the country’s founding father, who
contemptuously treated them as inferior creatures in contrast to the
full-fledged citizens of West Pakistan.
Jinnah’s
toxic temper, mixed with arrogance, sowed the seeds of irreversible Bengali
nationalism in the world’s most fertile soil, and ploughing their mind with
confrontational ideas. Bengalis sullenly, but silently, bore this up to a
point. Till Jinnah left Dhaka, on his sole (and last) visit to East Pakistan,
which helped to create a “distinct Bengali nation within an indistinct and
intolerant Pakistani state”.
On March
21, 1948, Jinnah met a delegation of the Scheduled Castes; and on March 22
received another delegation of upper-caste Hindu members of the East Bengal
Legislative Assembly. However, what happened on March 21 at a public gathering,
addressed by Jinnah, was a bombshell. “Let me make it clear to you that the
state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language,” he
declared. “Anyone who tries to mislead you is really the enemy of Pakistan…
Every Mussalman should come under the banner of the Muslim League, which is the
true custodian of Pakistan”. It was a warning-cum-threat to the Bengali
language of “united” Pakistan. Jinnah misread the mood on the ground — and the
fact that Bengali-speaking people across the world usually define themselves by
their language, despite the significant role that religion may play in their
lives.
Thus, while
already nurturing a genuine feeling of deprivation, discrimination and
humiliation, it didn’t take long for East Bengalis to fall back upon their
linguistic pride. Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam were always dearer to
the Bengali head and heart than the divisive, hate-filled politics of violence
and murder of the rest of South Asia. Little wonder Rabindranath Tagore’s
eternal rhythmic words and sonorous lyrics were wholeheartedly embraced and
adopted as Bangladesh’s national anthem in 1971. It spontaneously took to the
1905 composed lines of arguably the greatest philosopher poet to have blossomed
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries east of Suez.
“Amar
shonar Bangla, ami tomay bhalobashi; Chirodin tomar akash, tomar batash, amar
prane bajay bashi” (My golden Bengal, I love you. Forever thy skies, thy air
set my heart in tune as if it were a flute).
Jinnah was
to face some of his worst moments in Dhaka before he returned to Karachi, which
was then Pakistan’s capital. His speech at Dacca University’s convocation March
24, 1948 had a kinetic effect. “There can be only one state language… and that
language in my opinion can only be Urdu”. Dhaka was instantly rocked by student
agitations: the pent-up feelings and suppressed grievances of Bengalis didn’t
take long to crystallise and burst. People fell back on the facts to disprove
Jinnah’s views as absurd and unacceptable to Bengali-speaking East Pakistanis, who
were a majority of the population.
Jinnah had
ignored the fact that Urdu was the mother tongue of only four per cent of
Pakistanis, while 55 per cent considered Bengali their mother tongue. Only the
Muslims of northern and northwestern India, from where most of the Muslim
League’s leadership came from, would benefit from Urdu as the state language,
along with some Punjabis and Pashtuns working for the state. The choice of Urdu
as state language also meant a total absence of Bengali-speaking Pakistanis from
state affairs.
What
happened later, in 1971, is of course part of the folklore of the proud new
nation. History will surely judge Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as an
outstanding leader of geopolitical vision who, ably supported by the Indian
armed forces under General (later Field-Marshal) Sam Manekshaw, managed the
shatter the myth of invincibility around Jinnah’s creation – and ensured the
surrender of Pakistan’s entire military in the eastern sector to the Indian
Army at Dhaka’s Ramna Maidan on December 16, 1971. What, however, remains an
abiding mystery is how Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in Washington and Mao
Zedong and Zhou Enlai in Beijing so misread the signs on the ground and tried
their best – unsuccessfully – to abort the birth of an independent Bangladesh.
https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/161220/abhijit-bhattacharyya-language-row-led-to-a-new-nation-49-yrs-ago.html
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Pakistan’s
Plan to Open Punjab Flank
By
Harsha Kakar
December
15, 2020
The
farmers’ agitation in India drew support from the global Khalistan movement. In
London, there were thousands of protestors outside the Indian High Commission
waving Khalistan flags. Amongst the participants were members of the Sikh
Federation, UK, known to be associated with the Khalistan movement. Also
present in the protest was Paramjeet Singh Pamma, a man wanted in India for his
connection to the banned terror group, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), which is
believed to be funded by Pakistan’s ISI. Attempts in the UK parliament to back
the protest were turned down by Boris Johnson, describing it as India’s
internal matter.
The
US-headquartered SFJ threatened to shut down Indian consulates in Europe and
North America through rallies in support of the ongoing agitation. Pakistan
also waded into the farmer’s protest. Their interior minister, Fawad Choudhary,
tweeted, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We must speak
up against injustice done to Punjabi farmers. Modi policies are a threat to the
whole region.” Pakistan has openly been attempting to rekindle the Khalistan
movement.
Simultaneously,
Delhi Police arrested five individuals who were planning a high-profile
assassination in the city. The group consisted of two Khalistan supporters and
three Hizbul Mujahideen members. Indian intelligence agencies, in coordination
with their counterparts in the UAE, detained ISI henchman, Sukhmeet Pal Singh
in Dubai. He had masterminded several killings this year, including that of
Shaurya Chakra awardee Balwinder Singh Sandhu. His arrest will be a major
setback for Pakistan as their links to the organization would be revealed.
Pakistan’s
involvement in the Khalistan movement is well documented. Zulfikar Bhutto had
stated in support of Khalistan, “Pakistan will also have a Bangladesh carved
out of India, except that it will be on Pakistan’s border.” This agenda was
further pushed by Zia-ul-Haq. Hussain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador
to the US, gave Pakistan’s reasons for supporting the movement. Firstly, it
could bleed India. Secondly, if the Khalistan plan succeeded, it could create a
buffer between the two countries and finally cut India’s land access to
Kashmir. He added that the Pakistan leadership is aware that Khalistan can
never emerge, however, it could result in turmoil within India.
A study of
the proposed Khalistan map displays the direct involvement of Pakistan.
Historically, Lahore was the capital of the erstwhile Sikh empire and amongst
its holiest shrines remains Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, now connected
through the Kartarpur corridor. None of these figure in the Khalistan map. The
fact that the Khalistan boundary runs along the Indo-Pak border indicates that
movement leaders are unwilling to anger their main financer, ISI. The presence
of Gopal Singh Chawla, a known Khalistan supporter, display of banners for the
referendum, and presence of members of the SFJ at the inauguration of the
Kartarpur corridor, proved Pakistan’s intentions.
While in
India there are few takers, abroad there is some support for the movement. In a
recent report titled, ‘Khalistan, a project of Pakistan’, Terry Milewski writes,
“Fantasy or not, it’s clear who’s really driving the Khalistan bus: Pakistan –
the same Pakistan where countless Sikhs were murdered and expelled in the name
of Islam.” He adds, “while separatist Sikhs complain loudly and properly about
the killing of several thousand Sikhs in 1984, there are no rallies to demand
justice for at least a quartermillion Sikhs massacred by Muslims in 1947.”
Milewski also quotes Hussain Haqqani whose comments on the proposed referendum
for Khalistan were, “the referendum is just a gimmick. And gimmicks make
headlines – they don’t change maps.”
Pakistan
has attempted to revive support for Khalistan by despatching drugs and weapons
across the border, employing traditional smuggling routes and drones.
Narcoterrorism is their current preferred option for purchasing supporters in
the state, an act which Indian security agencies are seeking to nip in the bud.
SFJ attempts to lure Sikh youth into joining the movement have largely failed.
Khalistan
supporters abroad have little link with realities in India. The last elections
where separatists received a drubbing is proof enough. Most supporters from
abroad protest on occasions such as the current agitation by farmers. Their
protests in the vicinity of Indian consulates and embassies give them media
coverage. Few would attempt to actively participate in anti-national activities
in India. On the other hand, anti-Khalistan supporters are in far greater
numbers within and outside the country.
Every
nation has radicals as part of its society. These are invariably exploited by
hostile countries to their advantage. The US Black Life Matters and antifa
movements are alleged to be funded by China. Radical Muslims in Europe are
being exploited to commit heinous crimes by the Islamic state. In India,
radicals in Kashmir and Punjab are exploited by Pakistan and in the North East
by China. A few slogans of Khalistan and Pakistan, even if raised during the
current farmer protests, are a sign of miniscule radical elements seeking
limelight, which must be ignored. They do not represent the majority nor are
they backed by the majority.
There are
reports of SFJ seeking to incite Indian army personnel into joining their
organization. This too is destined to fail. It is only when the government
turns a blind eye for political reasons to such movements is when they gain
support, which is not the case presently.
The
receding Kashmir terrorism, evident from the successful conduct of the District
Development Council elections, low local recruitment, incarceration of the
Hurriyat and limited political support, indicates Pakistan’s Kashmir policy has
failed. As an alternative, it is attempting to bring the Kashmir and Khalistan
causes together hoping to create internal strife within North India. The recent
arrest of the group consisting of Khalistan supporters and Hizbul Mujahideen
militants highlights this new attempt.
The
abrogation of Article 370 and failure of their Kashmir policy will push
Pakistan to attempt reviving the Khalistan card. For them, the closing of one
door implies opening a second. While support to the Khalistan cause will never
ever be a repeat of the eighties, security agencies must maintain a close watch
and prevent the movement from gaining steam.
----
Harsha
Kakar is a retired Major-General of the Indian Army.
https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/pakistans-plan-to-open-punjab-flank-1502940768.html
-----
Iranian Stew
Statesman
News Service
December
13, 2020
The
announcement by Iran that it is prepared to return to the 2015 nuclear deal
shepherded by former US President Barack Obama is a welcome development, coming
as it does soon after President-elect Joe Biden said he would bring his country
back if Teheran resumed compliance.
The
statement by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that his country would agree to a
snap return to treaty terms as soon as other parties resumed commitments is
therefore welcome. Mr Rouhani said on Wednesday that as soon as the five
permanent members of the Security Council ~ the US, Russia, the United Kingdom,
Russia and China ~ plus Germany who had joined the 2015 agreement resumed their
commitments, so would Iran. President Donald Trump had unilaterally withdrawn
the US from the deal in 2018 saying it was one-sided. But a change at the top
in Washington, and Mr Biden’s desire to bring the relationship back to
pre-Trump levels has been seized upon by Mr Rouhani, whose country has faced
crippling sanctions in recent times.
Certainly,
the chokehold applied by the sanctions may have played a part in Iran’s
announcement for the country has said they are coming in the way of procurement
of coronavirus vaccines. While officially there is no bar on procurement of
vaccines, clearly the shadow of sanctions has overwhelmed bankers. On Monday,
the governor of Iran’s central bank had said the country was unable to access
the Covax facility jointly managed by the World Health Organisation and Gavi,
the Vaccine Alliance.
While Iran
had parked billions of dollars in won-denominated accounts in Seoul to fund
vaccine procurement, it has reportedly been told by South Korean bankers they
cannot guarantee the funds will not be seized or blocked when payments are
processed. Vaccine procurement is of critical importance for Iran, the
worst-hit country in the region with more than a million infections and 51,000
plus deaths. Already, the Trump administration’s top official dealing with
Iran, Special Envoy Elliott Abrams has advised the incoming President to use
sanctions to arm-twist Iran into a deal which not just ensures full compliance
of treaty terms, but defangs the threat he believes Teheran poses to the
region.
The
severity of the sanctions and the urgent need to tie up vaccine supplies, though,
are not all of President Rouhani’s problems. Iran’s parliament, dominated by
conservatives after a poll in February, passed a bill this month to relaunch
enrichment of uranium to 20 per purity and included other legislative measures
that if approved would scuttle any deal. The bill must be signed by Mr Rouhani
in order to take effect, and his hands were weakened by a decision approving
the legislation by Iran’s Guardian Council that settles disputes between
parliament and the government. Mr. Rouhani has hinted he may yet not sign the
legislation. But clearly matters are on the brink and all parties will have to
work together quickly if the 2015 agreement is to be rescued and a humanitarian
crisis averted.
https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/iranian-stew-1502940457.html
-----
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