From: Dawn, July 3, 1999
The real cost of KashmirBy Irfan Husain
UNTIL the Internet entered my life a couple of years ago, I was spared the news of fresh disasters at home when I was abroad. For a few all-too-brief weeks, I was virtually cut off from the perpetual doom and gloom in Pakistan as I met friends, saw good films and plays and ate at new restaurants. But the advent of the wired world is not without a price: now, I check the front page of the Internet edition of this newspaper every day. My excuse is that I need to stay in touch with developments to be able to comment on them.
In reality, I suspect the readers have no desire to read yet more analysis of the constantly worsening situation, which is not unlike taking the blood pressure of a man on the way to the ground, after he has jumped off the top of a skyscraper. However, there is something hypnotic about the steady escalation in Kashmir: both on the peaks of Kargil, and in the Indian and Pakistani media, the drums of war are sounding louder and louder. Mercifully, their echo in the western media is very faint. The comings and goings of the American envoy to the region rates perhaps a small paragraph on page 8 in Britain, while the hysterical rhetoric of South Asian leaders is mercifully ignored totally. The news here has predictably been dominated by Kosovo, with Wimbledon being the second lead story. So much for the efforts of Indian and Pakistani diplomats to put their respective viewpoints across.
The truth of the matter is that the rest of the world is heartily sick and tired of Kashmir. People here simply cannot understand why India and Pakistan have been unable to sort out the problem in over half a century. Even well-informed Britons look blank when one recites the well-worn history of the conflict: ìYes, but that was years ago. Why canít you people get on with life, reduce defence expenditure and address the huge backlog of unmet needs in your respective governments?î
Easier said than done, alas. As is true in other countries, defence budgets and establishments acquire a life of their own, and like all life-forms, they multiply and proliferate, seeking a justification for more resources year in and year out. We cite Indian arrogance, while they refer to our aggressiveness. Whatever the cause, the result is that both military establishments continue to burden us and divert scarce human and material capital from the pressing needs of development.
And whenever politicians make an effort to break the deadlock, a security threat is conjured up to ensure that there is no progress on the peace front. The Lahore Declaration is now a dim memory, and all the optimistic words written and spoken on that occasion have been cancelled out by artillery fire across the Line of Control. Once again, the hate-mongers have triumphed and the tiny but vocal peace movement on both sides has been silenced by the shrill jingoism emanating from both capitals.
In this escalating war of words and cannon fire, the real victims are often lost sight of by the two governments, excepting as fodder for official propaganda. A recent headline in this newspaper caught my eye: ten Hindu kiln workers had been shot dead as they slept by masked men. How does anybody in his right mind imagine such barbarism will advance his cause? Similarly, Indian security forces have done more to alienate Kashmiris from Indian rule by their vicious repression than years of corrupt and inefficient government from New Delhi.
For Pakistan, the Kargil incident may have been a brief military triumph, but it has been a major diplomatic disaster. The weak support we enjoyed from a few die-hard friends has been tested to breaking point. China, for example, has urged us to enter into a dialogue with India to defuse the situation. This is a far cry from their earlier steadfast support for our position that the 1948 UN resolutions be honoured.
Without going into who started it, the fact remains that virtually the whole world has asked us to put a stop to the fighting, implicitly blaming us for initiating and controlling the outbreak of warfare. Frankly, whatever the official version, it does strain credulity to suggest that Kashmiri freedom fighters have the military skills, equipment and logistical support to conduct this campaign entirely on their own. While respecting their courage, any intelligent observer is forced to conclude that it took more than a wink and a nudge from our government to put them where they are and sustain them all these weeks.
Granted, this sharp escalation has put Kashmir on the international agenda, albeit very low down. And let us remember that it is only there because the world is concerned that the irresponsible and immature leadership in both countries is capable of resorting to nuclear weapons in case the conflict escalates still further. So to get the international communityís ear, we are engaged in a kind of dangerous nuclear bluff that is putting millions at risk. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world gets on with real life while we stand frozen in a time warp with our single point agenda of Kashmir.
Apart from the direct financial price we have paid for our unswerving (some will say blind) commitment to Kashmir, internal political development has been warped as well. Because of our perpetual state of confrontation with India, we have developed a siege mentality that has blocked rational and legitimate debate and discourse on a wide range of topics. The ìcrimeî for which Najam Sethi continues to be persecuted even after his release from illegal incarceration is that he had the courage to voice his concerns for the state of the Pakistani nation. Most Pakistani writers and thinkers are now so cowedby the current environment of repression that they no longer analyse the causes of our steep decline.
One problem with what passes for our decision-making process is that the establishment views the world through the blinkers of Kashmir. This tunnel vision has blinded them to pressing needs in other sectors. As a result, Pakistan languishes near the bottom (or at 138 to be precise) of the Human Development Index. It is no consolation that India is right there to keep us company. Our stock markets are in the doldrums, and in the last three years, hardly a single new company has been floated.
Industry is stagnant, and the financial sector is still reeling from scores of billions of bad debts and the continuing fallout from the decision to freeze foreign exchange accounts last year. Against this dismal backdrop, you would think our leaders would have their hands full instead of embarking on rash adventures on our borders. On the other hand, knowing their capabilities, perhaps they have done so because they know their limitations and are trying to divert our attention from our real problems.
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