Making Pakistan ‘secular’

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat’s homily to Pakistan asking it to turn into a secular state from an Islamic nation if it has to stay together with India would have ruffled several feathers in the Foreign Office. It has been India’s consistent policy, bar a few aberrations, not to be prescriptive about the political arrangement in other countries. This stance is on display in the ongoing G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia may be in the West’s doghouse for the murder of journalist Adnan Khashoggi and is an Islamic country to boot. That didn’t prevent PM Modi from discussing urgent matters of state with him.

Similarly, it is of little concern to India that China is a one-party state. As long as it does not imperil its national interests, India is happy to go along with China regardless of its political structure and sense of destiny. That also presumably is the political line the Army Chief is compelled to adhere to. The Army is the last line of defence and the Chief has to keep the morale of his men high and inspire them into combat. His exposition on the need for Pakistan to change its identity hardly promotes any of those prerequisites.

General Rawat superseded two senior officers on the way to becoming the Chief. The reason for the supersession, a rare happening in the Indian Army, was his vast experience on the Line of Control and in the Northeast. The Army has risen to the occasion in both sectors, but General Rawat betrays a lack of sensitivity and propriety when he weighs in on issues outside his domain. In this case, he also displays a naivety, if that is the case, about the fragility of the circumstances. The Kartarpur corridor has provided an extraordinary opening for India and Pakistan to get out of a diplomatic cul de sac. The situation requires India to display a unity of purpose among different actors for the tough bargaining that is inevitable. It could do without creating the impression of dissonance.