The Pakistan government has been steadfastly honest
about its skewed international diplomacy in relation to its neighbor India—keeps
offering the bait of peace and talks, and reciprocates with military attacks
and terror strikes the moment the offers take shape. When a round of bilateral
talks starts or ends positively it gets invariably neutralized by some kind of
ridiculous and controversial statements or actions on the Pakistan front.
When a Pakistan President or
Prime Minister or Minister visits India in a most amiable atmosphere Pakistan
sponsored terrorists deliver a strike or the Pakistan army does something nasty
on the Line of Control (LoC). Cricket has always been an integral part of Pak
diplomacy too. Banking on the cricket crazy millions in both countries this
politics works faster and more effectively. After a long gap since 2008 the Pak
cricket team came to India
in December-Jan, 2012-13 for a short ODI Series and fans were delighted. But on
January 6, the day of the last match, Pakistan army masterminded a brutal attack on the Indian side of the LoC.
On March 9, 2013
Prime Minister of Pakistan paid a personal visit to a Muslim shrine in Jaipur
and had lunch with the Indian Foreign Minister. Just four days later Pakistan
militants launched a major terror attack on a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) camp in Srinagar, Jammu and
Kashmir—a state ravaged by politics of terror over the decades. The tortured
state where democracy is never allowed to bloom continued to reel under violence
with regular murders of political leaders and in recent times murders of
village headmen who dared to talk about democratic norms. But for three years
the state was spared of major terror attacks. After the hanging of Afzal Guru
another round of terror politics began taking advantage of the tension created
due only to the rule of the militants there. Pakistan link to the attack was
proved again with the arrest of two more terrorists.Ironically, the terrorists came dressed as cricketers with their sports kits.
The very next
day, that is 14th March, Pakistan did the unthinkable taking
full advantage of the terror politics. The Pakistan Parliament adopted a resolution
condemning the hanging of Guru and asking for the body of the hanged terrorist
for proper burial there. The political storm that ensued in India was only to
be expected as opposition political parties demanded to know when the
Government of India would assert itself and how long it was going to be
tolerant and silent. The immediate casualty was the cancellation of the forthcoming
bilateral Hockey Test Series between the two neighbors as the Government of India had to take some action. Yes, sports relations
always suffer first due to politics.
The vested
interests in Pakistan
never want normal relations established between the two neighbors and whenever some
positive signs emerge they promptly crush it off. These vested interests are
represented by the militants of various hues and colors including the Taliban. Problem
is they have taken a vicious hold on Pakistan with its ‘democratic’ government
too weak to get out of it and the army becoming indistinguishable from the
militants. Some very solid hopes surfaced in 2011 when Pakistan decided to give Most Favored Nation (MFN)
status to India,
but as usual, the implementation part is yet to happen. A false sense of hope prevails over the people who want peace and good neighborly relations.
India Vs
Pakistan—a malignant match that never ends. Does the future hold the key? Maybe…maybe
not.
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