Tackling terror-driven Islamabad

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has evolved his brand of assertive diplomacy in dealing with Pakistan, India’s immediate neighbour, which thrives on the proxy war of terrorism directed against this country.
This is how I look at PM Modi’s curt response to Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call for “working together for the betterment of their peoples”.
Modi firmly stated that “creating trust and an environment free of violence and terrorism were essential” for cooperation in fostering “peace, progress and prosperity” in the region. His stand is a reiteration of his earlier “redlines” on dialogue with Islamabad which clearly conveyed that “talks and terror” cannot go together.

On principle, I agree with PM Modi whose policy has paid him rich dividends electorally as he registered a magnificent victory for his second term after India’s air strikes on Balakot (Pakistan). This underlines the anti-terror mood of the people here.

Does Imran Khan have any appreciation of India’s tough stance on terror? Of course, there is no denying the fact that Imran Khan is a mere puppet in the hands of Pak Generals, including those controlling the ISI, who have strictly followed General Zia’s doctrine of proxy war. They have so far failed to appreciate India’s sensitivities and its ability to hit back hard. PM Modi has done it and shown the rest of the world the subversive potential of terrorism. It can silence generations by sheer reckless use of gun-power and destroy democratic institutions. It can also make people fearstricken without the authorities realising that the gun and the distorted preaching of Islam could cleanse the Muslim community of its traditional ethos and values.

We have had glimpses of such happenings in Kashmir. Indians, especially the people of Kashmir, have suffered a lot in the name of Islam. But then, Islam does not preach terrorism. It is a pity that the humanistic faith of Islam has been hijacked to the perverted sectors of fake Ulema to serve their sectarian and political interests.

Whatever methods PM Modi adopts to force Pakistan to see reason and stop cross-border terrorism, there must not be any room for complacency. Islamabad must realise that it cannot have better ties with India unless it stops aiding and abetting terrorist outfits.

The military rulers in Islamabad have used it conveniently for suppressing democratic aspirations and perpetuating their rule at the cost of civil liberties and people’s desire for freedom.

I am raising these basic issues concerning terrorism so that the people of J & K and the rest of the country have better appreciation of PM Modi’s tough policy on dialogue with Islamabad though, I believe, that at the back of his mind he has an invisible open mind on talks with Pakistan once he feels convinced that there is a genuine desire for a dialogue with the ruling elite in Islamabad.

Nawaz Sharif Just recall Modi’s first term as PM. He invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the swearing-in ceremony and went out of the way to develop friendly relations with the then Pak Prime Minister, who was not a puppet in the hands of the Generals and the ISI.
I know this fact personally since I had interacted with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after his largest ever democratic mandate given by the people there.
He then told me passionately in an interview that “it will be in the fitness of things that our economic and trade exchanges get a boost within the SAARC framework with a level-playing field for mutual benefit.
I got the impression that Nawaz Sharif wished to resolve all outstanding matters between the two countries with an open mind. That was in February 1997 when I was at the helm of The Tribune’s editorial affairs.

General Musharraf History thereafter had its own way of calling the shots. How the tables were turned against Nawaz Sharif by Gen Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him from power, is quite a chilling story.
It may also be recalled that General Musharraf had been selected for the coveted post by PM Nawaz Sharif superseding some able Generals.
But General Musharraf later sabotaged Nawaz Sharif’s power show in Islamabad. This is a typical characteristic of Pak Generals. They have no respect for democracy and it traditions. They believe in the rule by the gun and hardly care for who suffers in the process.

India as a nation is not negotiable. It has its own civilisational values. It is one of the extremely tolerant nations in the world.

It also may be said that in 2014, Modi had invited the rulers of all SAARC countries to his inauguration, with the spotlight being on Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif’s presence at the historic event.

By 2019, India’s approach has changed dramatically. Despite overtures by PM Imran Khan, India has stuck to its position that terror and talks cannot go together, and rightly so.

However, tackling Pak-sponsored terrorism will continue to be a big challenge. And the challenge here lies in neutralising the Pak Generals’ terror agenda against India. PM Modi has certain calculations behind his tough diplomacy vis-à-vis Pakistan.

India as a nation is not negotiable. It has its own civilisational values. It is one of the extremely tolerant nations in the world.

There is religious freedom. The Constitution guarantees this, and the judiciary and enlightened citizens defend all forms of freedom rather zealously.

In this context, any extreme Hindu outfit to launch a hate campaign against the Muslim community must not be tolerated.

Who is more communal and who is less so? What is more secular and who is less so. There are stereotyped answers to each of these questions depending on the persons they are addressed to. Unfortunately, today we have become a “Mutual Blame Society”!

Looking beyond, I honestly believe that everything needs to be viewed with an open mind. However, the future course of events depends on whether Pakistan’s military class is prepared to discard terrorism as an instrument of their foreign policy. We have to wait and watch.

Whatever methods PM Modi adopts to force Pakistan to see reason and stop cross-border terrorism, there must not be any room for complacency. Islamabad must realise that it cannot have better ties with India unless it stops aiding and abetting terrorist outfits.

Media liberty & dynamism of Indian democracy!

Courtesy: Media Friends

The Supreme Court message is wide-ranging and applicable to all areas of governance. It is a virtual warning to the authorities: to take the Constitution seriously and look and reflect on its clear provisions on the freedom of media. This freedom cannot be subjected to any senseless authoritarianism that goes against the basic norms of democracy.

How come the increasing number of media persons are becoming angry targets of the powers-that-be, be it Karnataka, West Bengal, UP and other states of the Union? Is there anything wrong with the way today’s journalists are going about their work? Or, are the media persons becoming the targets of growing intolerance to the slightest criticism of CMs and DMs?

As it is, direct communication and information flow from the authorities have virtually got snapped. In this changed political situation, media persons have to bank on second or third rate information sources and certain distortions in reporting in the process are but natural.

Even otherwise, the profession is becoming more of high-profile dhanda (business) than the service to keep the people better informed in a sensitive democracy like ours. This is a pity. Nothing can be achieved by shedding crocodile tears. Time has come to think and reflect on the goings-on and look for correctives to keep the dynamism of our parliamentary democracy alive.

Take, for example, the recent high-profile case of Delhi-based journalist Prashant Kanojia and two other journalists working for Noida’s Live India channel. It tells us about administrative excesses of the Yogi Adityanath government.

To say this is not to deny the growing casual approach of certain set of journalists. I do not wish to get into the details of such cases. But, I must say that the media has, by and large, conducted itself fairly well despite the changed ownership pattern. Today, there are no Ramnath Goenkas around who could take on the mightiest of the land for the sake of “freedom to say” what they wish to convey to the people.

Still, we are thankful to the judiciary for speaking out boldly for Liberty and Freedom of the Press. Recently, the Supreme Court’s bench of Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi directed the UP authorities to release Kanojia and two others on bail and advised CM Yogi’s government to be “magnanimous” as it was a “glaring case of deprivation of liberty”.

The bench rejected the State’s plea and questioned the lower court’s decision to send the journalists behind bars for 11 days. It said that “something is so glaring here that the court cannot hold its arms and ask the petitioner to go to the high court”. Liberty is guaranteed under the Constitution and it is sacrosanct and nonnegotiable, asserted the bench.

The Supreme Court message is wide-ranging and applicable to all areas of governance. It is a virtual warning to the authorities: to take the Constitution seriously and look and reflect on its clear provisions on the freedom of media. This freedom cannot be subjected to any senseless authoritarianism that goes against the basic norms of democracy.

In this context, I must say that the ills and limitations of democracy need not be forgotten. It is a great leveler, socially and politically. It has made the poorest of the poor conscious of his power, even though such power is normally exercised once every five years or so. This may be good enough in a society which prefers to crawl at a snail’s pace rather than move speedily.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows this reality fairly well. He knows that each promise made by him creates a new awareness of rights and wrongs. It also sharpens the assertiveness of the havenots, the tribals and the scheduled castes and tribes. The Muslims have their own pockets of unrest. No wonder, the Indian polity, more often than not, presents a picture of a split personality divided on grounds of caste, religion and community.

Viewed in this light, we have a long way to go to PM Modi’s vision of tomorrow ---- of two sets of people --- those who are poor and those who can help alleviate others’ poverty!

The Indian media has acted as a watchdog of democracy. It has reported cases of miscarriage of justice. It has exposed the wrong inflicted on the weaker sections of society. It has exposed some of the mightiest persons for corruption and scams. The press, in fact, knows how and when to pounce upon the authorities to safeguard its freedom and the people’s right to information.

Notwithstanding all its functional handicaps, democracy has helped to sharpen the rough edges of common sense among ordinary people, even in rural areas. Awareness is key to the success of democracy. As it is, modern communication network has supplemented traditional channels, like Itihas and Puranas, Harikathas, folk theatres, folk songs, folk messages and religious discourse.

I must say that the Indian media has acted as a watchdog of democracy. It has reported cases of miscarriage of justice. It has exposed the wrong inflicted on the weaker sections of society. It has exposed some of the mightiest persons for corruption and scams. The press, in fact, knows how and when to pounce upon the authorities to safeguard its freedom and the people’s right to information.

India’s media persons, by and large, understand their responsibility to inform the people and make them realise the rights and wrongs of the powers-that-be. Still, it has a lot more ground to cover in order to ensure its broader understanding of arrogance and one-track mindset of the authorities.

The challenge is: how to make the media in today’s changed political atmosphere a “rich marketplace of ideas and right information flow”? In this regard, I wish to say that the battle of ideas and communication must continue. We have to ensure that the latest communication technology should reach every nook and corner of the country. This is the only way to demolish past prejudices and mental barriers among different politicoideological groups. This will help to improve the quality of the country’s democratic life.

I am of the view that thinking persons must not be indifferent to the ugly facts of development and governance. It is a pity India’s thinking persons are getting increasingly politicized and communalized. In this situation, the truth becomes the first casualty.

Democracy flourishes best when the thinking class leads the people correctly and puts truth before the nation. The working of democracy, for that matter, cannot be left to the whims and fancies of the manipulators, crooks, scoundrels and black-marketers!

I must also say that the concentration of power in a small coterie of the Prime Minister’s office, as a fountainhead of all wisdom, has grown both in size and authority. This has given a blow of the accepted concept of collective responsibility of governments and legitimate distribution of power and patronage among various areas. A centralized system of functioning could be counter-productive and self-defeating. The PM needs to appreciate this fact.

There are, of course, no in-built safeguards against such authoritarian traits, except constant public vigilance by journalists, jurists, public-spirited persons and earthy common sense of common folks. Herein we shall find the vibrant dynamism of Indian democracy.