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Statesmanship, the need of the hour
V.R. Krishna Iyer
Let India be firm and fair but never surrender to military mania, whatever the provocation from across the border.
No patriotic Indian or sensitive world citizen can be indifferent to the tragic deterioration of Indo-Pakistan relations in recent days. A politician manipulates for the next election while a statesman has a vision of the good of the next generation. India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh are so close to one another that their peaceful co-existence is a fundamental factor of survival and guarantee of progress for the whole Asian region.
If this century belongs to Asia, the people of these countries must build a larger community of fraternity and society of amity, and must avoid militant tension and military manoeuvres. Above all, they should establish diplomatic cordiality and people-to-people cultural comity. They should absolutely abolish terrorism, wipe out political and geographical antagonism and liquidate every form of friction that is likely to explode into belligerency. The recent outbreak of quasi-hostile exchanges, which began with that atrocious, outrageous and barbaric attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, has deepened the distrust between India and Pakistan and brought in dubious voices from the Bush secretariat.
Meanwhile, inflammatory statements from the two countries have exacerbated the not-too-happy state of relations between the two, what with the pugnacities of Azad Kashmir and treacherous training centres aggravating the alienation. In this context, the Indian Prime Minister, unlike a naïve colleague of his, has cleared the atmosphere by means of an outstanding and timely gesture as a statesman of stature. Consequent on his statement calculated to bring about some tranquillity, I wrote to Dr. Manmohan Singh. Here are some passages, reproduced in extenso, from the letter:
Nobody wants war is your tranquillising message to the people of India and Pakistan, why of the world. India doesnt want war with Pakistan but would like Islamabad to dismantle the terror machine existing on its soil. This is your statesmanship, your super-nationalism, your global vision, so timely and necessary when jingoism, chauvinism and near-belligerency, played up aggressively by bedlam media and political propaganda and unfortunately articulated by the innocent Foreign Minister without deeper thought about potential developments and axis formations. Pakistans provocation, pugnacity and frictional delinquency deserve to be condemned, [they are] too frequent to be ignored (although the people are friendly and occasionally governments too). I have a hunch that Islamabad is not the final or complete master of that country which has a dubious democracy, dangerous militancy and terrorist coteries with no accountability to humanity. Hostile, treacherous, barbaric groups emerge, with fanatical fury, to explode recklessly on Indian soil. Such gory, grabby rascality has to be handled not by war but by a supremely sober and profoundly cultured Bharat with firm and calm steps, sure of its power, clear about its moral stance and never hysterical yet ever prepared to punish if every patient measure of sanity, diplomacy and tolerance has reached vanishing point.
As Prime Minister, your voice must crystallise the vibrant wisdom of Indian humanism unsullied by egregious hurry, immature excitement and puerile verbomania or hasty abracadabra. This confidence I read in your grave warning, inspired by presence of mind. Even if the USA and its President, who is on the verge of exit from the White House, or that frequent visitor Condoleeza Rice, supportively issue threats to Pakistan, we should not become bellicose. India is strong in its own right and shall not lose its head or embark on mini-military adventurism. Such steps will drive Al-Qaeda and like irresponsible organs to mobilise and mislead the Pakistani masses and incite a weak Islamabad to walk into absurd militarist measures. China is a dark horse and America itself is anybodys guess. We cannot gamble because todays world has so many desperate and depressive factors that the manoeuvres of several nations are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Deliberate peace, not provocation for war, must be our prime priority. Asoka to Gandhiji are our lodestar. Win we will if war breaks out and Pakistani atrocities and blackguardly opportunism shall not be allowed. Remember, good Prime Minister, the smallest international conflict takes place even if the world will lose. Pakistan cannot get away with it by indulging in insane terrorism. Let us unite, the whole nation, as a single, unbreakable rock of human solidarity, dissolving, on this issue, all polemical politicking. But unity means sanity, fraternity, integrity and mutuality. Greed for power, stratagems for votes, arrogance of communalism and arbitrary authoritarianism are not the stuff of socialist, secular democracy.
Surely the two countries must not stop here. They should rapidly evolve positive measures to create a scenario of peace, justice, trust and finer fraternity amidst Indo-Pakistan humanity. They should do this with a profound feeling of good neighbourliness. There should be no intervention or pressure by the United States: this is a desideratum. India is itself a power whose voice is weighty and whose culture is marked by comity. Democracy is Indias 61-year glory, while dictatorship, with military domination punctuated by rare spells of elections, has been Pakistans history. In a nuclear world, even a small nation with a mad army is a global menace. A war somewhere, whoever wins pro tem, is a defeat for humanity as a whole, in the long run. An Axis here or an Ally there spreads unwittingly into a global gamble of gory disaster. India is far superior and its cause is just beyond doubt. But the earth is gravely nuclear; the nations are a terror to each other if their rulers go berserk. Let us be firm and fair but never surrender to military mania.
In our nuclear universe, when there is an armed conflict between any two nations, Alliances or Axes may surprisingly emerge. But whoever wins, humanity loses. Therefore, supreme statesmanship, as is being displayed today by India, notwithstanding Al-Qaeda insanity, is a peace agenda that was spelt out long ago by Leo XIII: Nothing is more important than to war on war.
The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Statesmanship, the need of the hour
V.R. Krishna Iyer
Let India be firm and fair but never surrender to military mania, whatever the provocation from across the border.
No patriotic Indian or sensitive world citizen can be indifferent to the tragic deterioration of Indo-Pakistan relations in recent days. A politician manipulates for the next election while a statesman has a vision of the good of the next generation. India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh are so close to one another that their peaceful co-existence is a fundamental factor of survival and guarantee of progress for the whole Asian region.
If this century belongs to Asia, the people of these countries must build a larger community of fraternity and society of amity, and must avoid militant tension and military manoeuvres. Above all, they should establish diplomatic cordiality and people-to-people cultural comity. They should absolutely abolish terrorism, wipe out political and geographical antagonism and liquidate every form of friction that is likely to explode into belligerency. The recent outbreak of quasi-hostile exchanges, which began with that atrocious, outrageous and barbaric attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, has deepened the distrust between India and Pakistan and brought in dubious voices from the Bush secretariat.
Meanwhile, inflammatory statements from the two countries have exacerbated the not-too-happy state of relations between the two, what with the pugnacities of Azad Kashmir and treacherous training centres aggravating the alienation. In this context, the Indian Prime Minister, unlike a naïve colleague of his, has cleared the atmosphere by means of an outstanding and timely gesture as a statesman of stature. Consequent on his statement calculated to bring about some tranquillity, I wrote to Dr. Manmohan Singh. Here are some passages, reproduced in extenso, from the letter:
Nobody wants war is your tranquillising message to the people of India and Pakistan, why of the world. India doesnt want war with Pakistan but would like Islamabad to dismantle the terror machine existing on its soil. This is your statesmanship, your super-nationalism, your global vision, so timely and necessary when jingoism, chauvinism and near-belligerency, played up aggressively by bedlam media and political propaganda and unfortunately articulated by the innocent Foreign Minister without deeper thought about potential developments and axis formations. Pakistans provocation, pugnacity and frictional delinquency deserve to be condemned, [they are] too frequent to be ignored (although the people are friendly and occasionally governments too). I have a hunch that Islamabad is not the final or complete master of that country which has a dubious democracy, dangerous militancy and terrorist coteries with no accountability to humanity. Hostile, treacherous, barbaric groups emerge, with fanatical fury, to explode recklessly on Indian soil. Such gory, grabby rascality has to be handled not by war but by a supremely sober and profoundly cultured Bharat with firm and calm steps, sure of its power, clear about its moral stance and never hysterical yet ever prepared to punish if every patient measure of sanity, diplomacy and tolerance has reached vanishing point.
As Prime Minister, your voice must crystallise the vibrant wisdom of Indian humanism unsullied by egregious hurry, immature excitement and puerile verbomania or hasty abracadabra. This confidence I read in your grave warning, inspired by presence of mind. Even if the USA and its President, who is on the verge of exit from the White House, or that frequent visitor Condoleeza Rice, supportively issue threats to Pakistan, we should not become bellicose. India is strong in its own right and shall not lose its head or embark on mini-military adventurism. Such steps will drive Al-Qaeda and like irresponsible organs to mobilise and mislead the Pakistani masses and incite a weak Islamabad to walk into absurd militarist measures. China is a dark horse and America itself is anybodys guess. We cannot gamble because todays world has so many desperate and depressive factors that the manoeuvres of several nations are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Deliberate peace, not provocation for war, must be our prime priority. Asoka to Gandhiji are our lodestar. Win we will if war breaks out and Pakistani atrocities and blackguardly opportunism shall not be allowed. Remember, good Prime Minister, the smallest international conflict takes place even if the world will lose. Pakistan cannot get away with it by indulging in insane terrorism. Let us unite, the whole nation, as a single, unbreakable rock of human solidarity, dissolving, on this issue, all polemical politicking. But unity means sanity, fraternity, integrity and mutuality. Greed for power, stratagems for votes, arrogance of communalism and arbitrary authoritarianism are not the stuff of socialist, secular democracy.
Surely the two countries must not stop here. They should rapidly evolve positive measures to create a scenario of peace, justice, trust and finer fraternity amidst Indo-Pakistan humanity. They should do this with a profound feeling of good neighbourliness. There should be no intervention or pressure by the United States: this is a desideratum. India is itself a power whose voice is weighty and whose culture is marked by comity. Democracy is Indias 61-year glory, while dictatorship, with military domination punctuated by rare spells of elections, has been Pakistans history. In a nuclear world, even a small nation with a mad army is a global menace. A war somewhere, whoever wins pro tem, is a defeat for humanity as a whole, in the long run. An Axis here or an Ally there spreads unwittingly into a global gamble of gory disaster. India is far superior and its cause is just beyond doubt. But the earth is gravely nuclear; the nations are a terror to each other if their rulers go berserk. Let us be firm and fair but never surrender to military mania.
In our nuclear universe, when there is an armed conflict between any two nations, Alliances or Axes may surprisingly emerge. But whoever wins, humanity loses. Therefore, supreme statesmanship, as is being displayed today by India, notwithstanding Al-Qaeda insanity, is a peace agenda that was spelt out long ago by Leo XIII: Nothing is more important than to war on war.
The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Statesmanship, the need of the hour
