Emergency-enforced Pakistan

By O J George ( full name Oottupara John George)

Pakistan has again come under Emergency. There can be hair-splitting arguments about whether it is Emergency or Martial Law that has been clamped in Pakistan. An emergency can be enforced only in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. But the constitution itself has been kept in abeyance. What is now prevailing is martial law, according to one interpretation. Whatever it is, the people have lost their freedom.

Every tyrant there had proclaimed from the roof-top that to save the country from damnation, suspension of constitution and democratic rights was indispensable. General Pervez Musharraf has proved that he is not different. Let us sympathise with the people of Pakistan.

Countrymen, let us hail India, that is Bharat, for being our motherland. Do we think it over for a moment how lucky we are compared to the people living in our neighbourhood? We can howl and hoot, shout slogans against the government, stage hartals/bandhs and strikes on any number of days, like in Kerala, the southernmost state of India.

There can be political manoeuvring of any magnitude like what is happening in Karnataka now. Kerala can clamour for construction of a new dam in place of the 114-year-old Mullapperiyar dam and Tamil Nadu can vehemently oppose it. A Velu can carve out a Salem Railway division with the help of Lalu, no matter what happens to the Palakkad division. There can be hartals on this score on both sides of the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. There can be absurdity plays wherever we want these to be staged. We feel non-plussed only when terrorists hit us in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore or Ahamedabad. The terrorist variety has a different gene altogether. They cannot be tackled with our ‘democratic’ loquacity, be it from Shiv Sena, BJP or the leftists.. Forget about Congressmen. They are, more or less, an uninjurious lot.

Perhaps now, more than ever before, Pakistan might need some disciplining in the wake of terrorist outfits overtaking the established structures of governance. A nuclear-powered Pakistan cannot be complacent in its rule. Nuclear arms should not fall into the hands of terrorist outfits, whoever they are. It is difficult to keep count of the names of Islamic terrorist organisations. Al-Qaeda, Taliban, LeT, Jaish and what not have had their free run throughout Pakistan, in addition to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and other havens. Are they working for the good of the people?

We cannot choose our neighbours. Therefore, there is no alternative to living with the neighbours, however problematic they are. From the very beginning, Pakistan has been a nuisance to India. There can be many points for and against. But democratic processes have been a chimera in Pakistan, in spite of fiery Bhuttos ( Zulfiqar Ali and Benazir) and Nawaz Sharif in the recent decades. Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul-Haq and the like had led the country on the strength of military support. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged without a pang at the instance of Zia-ul-Haq.After a few years, Zia met with a suspicious chopper accident.

Experts say Musharraf is like Zia-ul-Haq. Now he has got a Benazir Bhutto to keep company. What would be its outcome, no one knows. Pakistan is an unpredictable territory. India might well take heed. The neighbour is in ferment. Its problem should not spring a surprise on us.

India might have been dubbed as a disheveled democracy. There may have been so many political satraps calling the shot in various parts of India. But no one could impose a military rule here. The cacophony of democracy is its strength, whatever be its other weaknesses.

There were humorous references about Partition of British India. Had the British known that Mohamed Ali Jinnah was suffering from TB, perhaps they would not have allowed a separate Pakistan. From its very inception, it has been diseased.