Imran Khan’s folly

NO matter what the political dispensation, there has been unanimity in Indian polity about the need for the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks being punished. The Pakistani hand in the attack is by now well accepted, as is indeed shown by the attempt, however ineffectual, by the Pakistan government to punish some of those who worked behind the scenes. Rather than examine chinks in India’s approach, Pakistan has to tackle its internal demons, the kind that kill public prosecutors to thwart justice and allow the Hafiz Saeeds to roam free. 

PM Imran Khan’s attempt to deflect his government’s inability or unwillingness to walk the talk on tackling terrorism by calling the BJP ‘anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan’ is a disservice to the Indian Muslims. Indeed, it is not clear how Pakistan has managed to acquire such an exaggerated notion of itself as the sole representative of Muslims. What about the rest of the Islamic nations? India, of course, remains home to as many Muslims as Pakistan. It is time Islamabad stopped looking at the world through the lens of religion alone.

PM Narendra Modi, soon after he was sworn in, had made an impromptu visit to Pakistan calling on the then PM Nawaz Sharif. However, soon after that, there was an attack on the IAF base in Pathankot, which carried an unmistakable cross-border signature. Pakistan and its PM know what has to be done to assuage the hurt that has scarred relations between the two neighbours. The question is whether the present leadership is bold enough to take action against terrorists that it cultivated and launched onto India. India and its institutions, political and administrative, are robust enough to ensure that the nation remains true to its multi-cultural and secular base. Whether Imran can loosen the theocratic constraints that have hobbled his country remains to be seen. If all the elements of the Pakistani state are on the same page, as Imran claims they are, he may find building on the Kartarpur opening more fruitful rather than finding motives in India’s cold shoulder.