My views about the butcher Modi have been expressed many times. Here is an article by Zafar Hilali; an ex ambassador and seasoned foreign relations commentator.
Zafar HilalyWednesday, May 28, 2014
From Print Edition
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The election of Narendra Modi, a hugely controversial and polarising figure, bodes ill for peace in the region. Some feel a Modi victory is like a declaration of war. It’s a pity that Manmohan Singh did not seize the opportunity he had to fix relations with Pakistan. Instead he opened the cage door for the tiger Modi.
There is nothing about Modi that is reassuring. Not his past, nor his recent words or actions; and as for his political DNA it’s positively scary. Indians, who never lose a moment to sound off against extremists, have elected a Hindu extremist to the highest office of the land. It needs a rare detachment of spirit to be as hypocritical as they are and still go about preaching their mantra.
What is there that we do not know about Modi? He has never made any bones about his feelings towards Muslims and Pakistan. Actually, he’s been outspoken to a fault. Imagine accusing the Assam government of doing away with local Rhinos merely for the sake of accommodating Bangla-speaking Muslims. Even assuming that animals in some religions take preference over humans is that what Bangladeshis needed to be told by the next Indian prime minister?
I am not surprised Hasina Wajid isn’t coming to Delhi. As for threatening us with “a nuclear bomb in return for every bullet” and ‘taking out’ Dawood Ibrahim a la the Americans did Osama – let’s ignore that. It’s the kind of rhetoric to be expected from an Indian politician on the make.
More troubling are examples where Modi has not missed an opportunity to increase communal polarisation. For example, he has criticised the export of beef from India, thereby hinting that it’s the Muslims who are responsible for this presumably odious practice. Nor is it a mere coincidence that there is not a single Muslim in the 282 MPs elected on the BJP ticket. And who has not heard of Modi’s sordid role in the Gujarat riots of 2002.
A man of Modi’s beliefs, background and disposition will seize any opportunity to weaken and destroy Pakistan. The ‘vivisection’ of Bharat Mata that the existence of Pakistan epitomises for this RSS acolyte may be something Modi has to live with today but if he gets half a chance to undo Pakistan, he would.
Of course, there are many here who believe that Modi’s eagerness to appear ‘tough’ during the election campaign, and his scorn of Congress’s ‘soft’ response to ‘Pakistani terrorist attacks’ is really so much hot air, because a muscular approach towards Pakistan at the hustings yields rich electoral dividends – especially in the ‘cow belt’ states. Initially, I too went along with that interpretation of Modi’s antics but – here’s the catch – given Modi’s politico/religious DNA I suspect Modi may be foolish enough to practise what he preaches and therefore it’s best to be on our guard.
But try telling that to some Pakistani liberals and you’ll be branded an Indian basher. Unfortunately, here bitter truths are the property of a few. They have yet to be woven into the national fabric. And that’s because troubled and stressed-out Pakistanis crave good news, regardless of whether it is true or not. And if there is no good news to go around we employ all sorts of deceptions and cultivate illusions to make sure there is.
In short, we are past masters of the art of fooling ourselves. And Modi’s unprecedented invitation to Nawaz Sharif did just that. No one knew how to respond. So we witnessed outlandish interpretations and copious high-powered huddles wondering why Modi had acted the way he had and what our response should be.
At a TV talk show when I ventured to suggest that Modi was not Vajpayee and not the peace partner Nawaz Sharif wanted and, therefore, whether Nawaz Sharif went to Delhi or not really made no difference in the long run a TV anchor insisted that Modi “must have changed because at the time he was the chief minister of Gujarat but now he is the prime minister of India”.
When I remonstrated one of her assistants told me, “You see, sir, she wants to send the audience home brimming with anticipation for the future rather than upset and worried at the prospect of someone like Modi ruling India for the next five years”’
“Oh! I see”, I responded, “the aim is to energise the people with new hope, eagerness and faith that salvation was at hand, if only for a few days”. Her messenger nodded vigorously.
Such behaviour is not unusual. Recall, when we discovered there was no way out of our predicament during the Bangladesh war a rumour mysteriously surfaced that the US 7 fleet was on its way to bail us out. Some in Chittagong even rushed to the beach to see whether they could spot the US fleet anchored off the coast. In 1965 we were told that Indonesian submarines were arriving to help us whack India when nothing of the sort was even remotely on the cards.
That’s akin to what transpired when Nawaz Sharif announced he would be talking to the Taliban. Peace committees were appointed; ceasefires agreed to and the murderous Taliban were suddenly described as ‘our brothers’. Everything was done to suggest that peace with the Taliban was around the corner when, in fact, peace was no more at hand than Christmas. But then reality returned, as it inevitably does, to destroy make-believe and everything ended in a profusion of Taliban ambushes, air strikes and a welter of deaths.
Take another example, Finance Minister Dar knows it is infinitely better to be well-off than to seem to be well-off. But if the nation does not have the virtues or the resources to succeed and amass wealth and look well-off then Dar thinks it’s best to pose as if it can. So what does he do? He goes on and on about pie-in-the-sky development plans, entertains rich foreign rulers and boasts they plan to invest huge sums and when nothing happens, black-outs take effect and misery is compounded, Dar quietly goes back to prepare the country for yet another year of skimping.
Lest we all become victims of flowery and insincere words and emotions; of unfelt sentiments conveying nothing but a penumbra of half truths and plastic lies; or delude a people who are desperate to be deluded, let’s candidly admit that real life is very different.
And Modi, lest he remain under the delusion that India can beat and bully it’s way to solving problems, could usefully recall that the use of force ‘is nothing but a slothful attempt to ignore the complexity of reality’. And that force sometimes has the tendency to upset and overwhelm those who have recourse to it, as India learnt from the 1962 China war.
Had I, like in my past incarnation, been charged with preparing talking points for the Delhi visit I could have done no better than to recall the excellent advice someone gave BB and suggest he pass it on to Modi.
‘In an emergency’, the advice goes, ‘it is not enough to know that the problem is bad; it is also necessary to be reasonably certain that the problem has been properly described; fairly certain that the proposed remedy will improve it and virtually certain that it will not make it worse… This requires thought, common sense and careful judgement and, above all, no ill tested all-purpose solutions’. Perhaps only then we could look forward to peace.
Meanwhile Nawaz Sharif should try to pin Modi down to set a date for the next summit before he departs Delhi. If Modi balks, on one pretext or another, Nawaz will know better what’s in store.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email:
charles123it@hotmail.com
Masters of the art of fooling ourselves - Zafar Hilaly
