India’s hands of mercy to Pakistan

by Dr Rifai writes from London

(August 24, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) International community has been supporting Pakistan’s flood victims since flood disaster started before three weeks ago. Many western and eastern nations have been offering financial and material supports. As this disaster is worst than 2004 Tsunami, international community and all kinds of International charities have come forward to offer their support in this calamity and most importantly India, Pakistan’s neighbour and rival has come forward with 5m financial assistance for Pakistan flood victims and this is indeed, a good will gesture from Indian political leadership and Pakistan has highly appreciated India’s this offer. This should open a new Chapter in Indo-Pakistan relationship. This offer should wipe out all sorts of historical enmity and hostility between these two countries. Indian Prime Minster not only offered hand of help and assistance but also urged other Asian nations to support and help Pakistan in this time of calamity and tragedy. This is not only good diplomacy but also real words of comfort and console. This is a good example of Indian Leader and he expresses his willingness to cooperate in time of urgency. This is a real good sign that these two countries once again begin to build up mutual trust and confidence.

This is not a first time that these two countries exchanged help and relief aid in times of disasters. In 2005 a major Earthquake struck Pakistan and Indian Government offered relief aids to Pakistan. Pakistan also in some occasions offered support and aid to India in time of calamity for instance President Musharaff sent relief aid for Gujarat Earthquake victims in 2001.These are good signs of mutual understanding and good will gesture. Sadly sometimes, these mutual supports become by gone. These two countries do not sustain and maintain this trust and moral support. Very often any small incident could trigger fighting between two countries. In 1999 both countries almost went to war in Kargil. There is still a deep mistrust in both sides: Pakistan feels that India is a threat to its existence and India feels that Pakistan is a threat for its existence. This mistrust has been boiling out in hearts and minds of both sides since 1947 and because of this mistrust these two countries went to wars three times in the last 60 years. it is in the interest of these two countries that they both co-operate and support each other. I will discuss why these countries should cooperate and support each other to build up trust once again. It is in the interest of both countries equally. India is economically booming and it is expected that India will become one of the strongest economies of world soon and it is hoped that India could complete China in economy and China has become second largest economy of world competing Japan. It is imperative to India to maintain peace and stability in Subcontinent should India wish to grow economically. As in case of South and North Korea any war between these two countries will have very bad economic consequences. More importantly this is a crucial juncture for India as it has steady economic growth now. Moreover, though India is economically rapidly growing 80% of people in India are very poor and gap between rich and poor is rapidly increasing. It is reported that a larger numbers of Millionaires are increasing in India but majority poor people will be further marginalised if both these countries go to war once again.

India has it own internal problems and many Ethnic and Religious groups are fighting for autonomy within Indian territories. It is in the interest of India that it maintains peace with Pakistan. Otherwise, internal separatist groups could take advantage if the relationship breaks down between two countries. It is predicated that India could be divided into many autonomies if these separatists groups continue to fight like other world terrorists groups with consistency. It may be one of the reasons that India is willing to settle Kashmir issue with some kind of autonomy rather than triggering wider insurgency. Moreover, these two countries have now nuclear devices and any war could God forbids lead to a huge destruction and both countries do not want to see one more Hiroshima in Subcontinent. Even late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Butto and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi agreed unanimously that both countries must not attack nuclear facilities and leadership of both countries know well the corollaries of such occurrence. Moreover, there are a large number of Muslim minorities live in India and they will be badly affected if the relationship between Pakistan and India breaks down and moreover there a large number of Hindu and Sikh minorities in Pakistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh and Afgnistan and they will be badly affected by this as well.

It is true that Indian and Pakistan Leadership have been trying to resolve their differences many times. Indira Ghandi and Zulfikar Ali Butto initiated Simla Agreement to settle their differences through bilateral diplomatic and trade relationship. But they could not maintain it and once again Benazir and Rajiv Ghandi initiated bilateral relationship and they could not sustain it as well. In 1999 they nearly went to war and Nawaz Shariff nearly strengthens Pakistan relationship with India. He opened buss service and People begun to move freely between Pakistan and Indian. It would have been better for both countries had they maintain these agreement and moved forward to build up strong relationships. Trade and business between these two countries could generate higher rate of economic growth between two countries and in return both countries could prosper and flourish. From Pakistanis perspective Pakistan needs urgent peace for many reasons. First and foremost, Talibans are getting hold in Pakistan and any volatility in the country could increase support for Talibans. Furthermore, Most of Pakistan people are very much poor and they are poorer than their counterparts in India and Pakistan needs to spend a lot to enrich its human resources. With this type of natural disaster Pakistan may need at least more than one decade to rebuild it and therefore, it is in the interest of Pakistan to maintain peace and stability in the country. One elderly man righty noted in this flood disaster that Pakistan does not need nuclear devices and arms but rather it needs food to feed its people and money to rebuild it. Asian Countries do not need to engage in arms racing and they do not need to develop nuclear devices. It is due to greedy materialistic philosophies that western countries have a large numbers of nuclear warheads and devices. They have these to maintain the balance of military power between Russia and West. Do the Asian countries need such detrimental weapons to maintain peace? It is in a conducive and peaceful environment that economy of any country can grow and prosper. India and Pakistan should create such peaceful environment in the interest of both countries.