So lets start to next phase which being closer in the timeline of tye age of most PDF members here needs less explanation but first lets bust some myths:
1. Myth # 1
The basic issue between Pakistan and India is territory, specifically the territory of Kashmir.
Kashmir is only a symptom, and not the cause of the animosity between India and Pakistan. Even if in a fantasy world the Kashmir issue is ever resolved the enmity between Pakistan and India will remain, and in fact will increase.
Pakistan's case for Kashmir is simplistic and legalistic. Kashmir is a contiguous Muslim majority region which on the basis of Partition on religious grounds belongs to Pakistan. Overall the people's decision counts so per UN resolution a plebiscite should be held to determine the status of the territory.
India makes a much larger "moral " case beyond its own "legalistic stand ", that the state's tin pot ruler had acceded to India.
There are two stands by different political groups:
(a) The Congress Stand
The Congress stand is that regardless of who acceded claiming to be "king of Kashmir", India only recognizes a democratically elected government representing the Kashmiri people which has been there under "free and fair " elections ever since India took control of the territory. The "king" was sent packing. . A foreign sponsored plebiscite is out of the question,
On a moral stand, India rejects partition on religious grounds and ( unstated) a Muslim majority state living peacefully in Hindu majority India is proof of India's secular character. Pakistan must hand over the rest of Kashmir to unite the peoples so that they can live in peace.
(b). RSS stand .
Kashmir is part of Hindu majority mother India (Bharat Mata ) which Hindu armed forces have wrested successfully from Muslim control. The other half of Kashmir will also be shortly captured by military action, unless Pakistan surrenders like it did in 1971 in East Pakistan . Meanwhile Indian held Kashmir should have its Muslim majority status diluted by demographic change.The Kashmiris have no right to democratically elected state legislature such as is accorded to other states in the Indian Union. Kashmir must be governed by the army under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. giving the armed forces the right to search, arrest or kill any Kashmiri deemed a "terrorist" with impunity. Pakistan must be attacked or threatened to vacate Azad Kashmir without resistance. India is a Hindu majority state and no Muslim region or state will be tolerated.
So, that sums up the stands of the government and opposition.
Myth # 2.
Indian Muslims are factor in Indian Pakistani relations. How India treats its Indian Muslim population will affect relations.
In fact Indian Muslims have nothing to do with Indo-Pak animosity.
Indira Gandhi was well liked by Indian Muslims, and she maintained a strictly secular stance, , but was bitterly against Pakistan. The same has been the case with Nehru, Shastri, Chandrashekhar, Morarji Desai, I.K. Gujral, and Dev Gowda.
General stand: Pakistan is an illegitimate artificial state which must be dismantled because it is best for Indian Muslims.
The stand of the saffron brigade is well known. For them Pakistanis and Indian Muslims, Kashmiris are the same and worthy of slaughter and pogroms. Till full preparations can be made for Pakistan's destruction the slaughter has to be confined to India only.
So now that we recognize the Myths above what are the real causes of the enmity between Pakistan and India ?
We have seen in the two posts above that Pakistan's very existence is an embarrassment to any centrist, secular progressive government in India, even left wing governments.
While centrist left wing, left of center, and left suported governments such as those headed by Rajiv Gandhi, V.P.Singh, Dev Gowda, I.K. Gujral, Manmohan Singh traditionally tried to de-escalate the confrontation with Pakistan ( preferring the "ice cube in warm water" approach ) there was a "deep state" in India comprising nominally secular bureaucrats, army officers and diplomats who were of the view that given India's overwhelming conventional military advantage there was no reason to lessen any military or diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. According to the then (1985-1987) perceptions of this deep state were that even a tactical military defeat on Pakistan such as the loss of a major city to a sudden Indian military offensive, would humiliate Pakistan's armed forces to the extent that the general population of Pakistan would deride them and rise up in a left wing revolt with elements of the Pakistan Army itself revolting. This was analogous to the Tsarist Army revolting in Russia after reverses on the front against Germany in World War 1.
Cold War hawks such as Natwar Singh were concerned that the Soviet Union was loosing the war in Afghanistan, and a jubilant Pakistan would once again focus its attention on Kashmir. The USA would reward Pakistan with support just as it had supported Pakistan in the 1950s to the mid 60s. Also, though unconfirmed there were suspicions that Pakistan would in time develop nuclear weapons which would render any military operations against it untenable.
In 1987 Operation Brasstacks, the final blow to finish Pakistan off was planned. Rajiv Gandhi was in power then but even he had very little knowledge that such an operation was underway.
Operation Brasstacks was ironically planned by General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, the most left wing secular COAS India has had since Sam Bahadur. Unlike Sam Bahadur who had modeled himself on his British colonial peers ( baton swinging, mustache twirling gin and tonic
Koi hai) with limited education, Sundarji was a highly educated thorough professional, using all the techniques of modern Warsaw Pact and NATO war strategies on highly mobile air-land concepts, based on PERT-CPM war gaming scenarios.
We can discuss the military aspects of the operations and why Brasstacks failed separately but it is sufficient to say here that this was India's secular deep state's last military "fling" to destroy Pakistan militarily. Even defense minister George Fernandez himself a non-practicing Christian married to a Muslim, and a hard core leftist never considered a large scale military offensive to take Pakistan, which became nuclear under his tenure.
Over the decades India's character changed, and the secular deep state in India withered away . The Congress Party and its left wing allies were smashed into oblivion, by a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and Hindutva, and a completely new power structure. There is no deep state but a brazenly extra constitutional center of authority the RSS that basically governs India's domestic and foreign policy , particularly the policy against Pakistan. With a controlled mass media both the government and its handlers enjoy overwhelming support from India's masses who have been convinced of a historical moment to wreak their vengeance on Muslims, Pakistan, and "Islam " for the centuries of wrongs done to them. The Indian Armed Forces as the new guardians of Hindutva pride and honor will avenge with all the force at their disposal.
What is more the Indian armed forces top brass have long since been transformed from the earlier apolitical old guard trained by the British, to the completely ideologically committed Nazi style military hierarchy that takes it orders not from the Ministry of Defence but from the RSS directly. There is even talk of arming the RSS and inducting it into the Indian Armed Forces as separate fighting units.
Unlike the earlier reticence of Indian military officers in expressing their sympathies for Hindutva and reluctance to openly call for the destruction of Pakistan, the new breed of Indian Military brass (as symbolized by Major Gaurav Arya and General Bakshi ) has no such reservations. General V.P.Mallik who led India's Armed Forces in the Kargil conflict in 1999 was the last of the old guard.
We will discuss the role of the RSS and its influence amongst the Indian Military brass separately .
At this time the threat faced by Pakistan is real. The conflict has been transformed from India's quest for a modern secular inclusive nation hood to India's determination to form a religious fundamentalist nuclear armed Hindutva state that will wreak vengeance on the population of Muslims within, and Muslims outside of India's current boundaries. We will discuss how the level of professionalism in India's foreign and military policy advisers has deteriorated, and how this directly threatens Pakistan and its existence. The era of realists ( equally motivated) like D.P.Dhar, P.N.Haksar, Natwar Singh has been replaced by the era of Ajit Doval guided by the RSS.
Pakistan is facing a religiously motivated nuclear armed military apparatus that is bent on revenge. Unfortunately their professional capabilities are insufficient to estimate the consequences of the actions that are in the works.
(To be continued.)