In the final episode of the fourth season of ‘The West Wing’, an American President, belonging to the Democratic Party, learns that his youngest of the three daughters has been kidnapped. Unable to discharge his duties as the President of the United States, the Democratic President invokes the 25th Amendment, letting the speaker who belongs to Republican Party take over the Oval Office. Just a few episodes ago, the President had ordered, discreetly, the assassination of the Defense Minister of a country in the Middle East, and hence, the kidnapping is linked to that assassination. When the news breaks out, the media questions the Republican President, who himself along with his party was unaware of the assassination until the kidnapping. Here is an excerpt from the press conference that follows.
“Reporter: Doesn’t the murder of a foreign official undercut our moral authority to condemn human rights violations in China and Africa?
President Walken (Republican President): We live in the real world. Our moral values system only works if everybody plays by the same rules.
Reporter: But didn’t it violate the Neutrality Act protecting citizens of friendly nations from prosecution?
President Walken: Terrorists are not nations and the Neutrality Act does not give a free pass to people who support the murder of women and children.
Reporter: What about violating international law
President Walken: International law has no prohibition against any government, superpower, or otherwise, targeting terrorist command and control centers. Moreover, Abdul Shareef was a walking command and control center.
Reporter: You stated that as Speaker, you knew of and supported the assassination. Do you now regret that support?
President Walken: My only regret is that we only got to kill the bastard once.”
Eventually, the daughter gets back home, safe, and as one learns, a few white supremacists had orchestrated the kidnapping, thus negating any links to the assassination that had been carried out by the Democratic President. However, in those few fine moments of television history, one learned that parties, divided by their agendas, politics, and ideologies stood united in the face of a crisis that had rendered their Commander-in-Chief weak and dejected at a personal level.
The relations between India and Pakistan are far more crude and brutal than the one in the above story; for they are governed by decades of mistrust, failed policies, and wars that have been waged by Pakistan in order to desperately prove they amount to something meaningful as a nation. How cute.
When the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav were subjected to shocking psychological harassment at the hands of Pakistani authorities during their visit to the country, it was difficult to contain one’s outrage, for this is not what why we elected this government in the first place. The insult was not subjected to 2-Indians alone, but to those millions of Indian civilians who believe in and worship the sanctity of motherhood and marriage.
When the government came to power in 2014, they sought progressive relations with Pakistan. However, after repeated terrorist attacks and unrest in the valley, the talks took a backseat, SAARC became history, and speculations were ripe about India amending the Indus Water Treaty, given how the river sustains the nation. Some swift action was indeed seen, given the double-century of the Armed Forces in Kashmir, surgical strikes, and US’ pressure on Pakistan to mend its ways. Unlike the Congress days, time was not wasted in dossiers and discussions.
The visas being issued also declined. Only 34,000 visas were issued in 2017, against 56,000 in 2016, and against over 170,000 visas in 2014 and 2015. However, the marketing of those visas done by our Honorable Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on her Twitter handle, lately, has become excruciating to look at. Firstly, I do not question her credentials as a minister, for she has delivered some hefty blows at the UN, conducted rescue operations, and must have facilitated backdoor diplomatic conversations wherever necessary. However, when it comes to Pakistan, the story takes a sour turn, even though the visas being issued declined in number significantly.
In my capacity as one of the editors of our Facebook page, The Frustrated India, I wrote a few posts about how India needs to set some conditions before Pakistan. These included having Hafiz Saeed jailed and his stay being monitored by global third-party security agencies. In addition, I drew an analog citing a dog that is looking to rip apart the hand that comes forward to feed it, and pointed out the cross-border terrorism that is fueled by Pakistan to further its agenda in Kashmir. Many of our readers and subscribers vented out their anger, poured their thoughts and shared their opinions pertaining to the issue, and from here, I shall address a few of them.
https://www.facebook.com/TheFrustratedIndian/photos/a.510971422271674.1073741825.370463842989100/1543762058992600/?type=3&theater
Medical Assistance and Politics is not the Same Thing:
Calling for humanity, people feel that medical assistance must not be confused with politics and the internal disputes that govern the relations between India and Pakistan. Even if one were to agree with this opinion, Pakistan has left no room for its justification after its treatment of Jadhav’s family. As President Walken said in that press conference, our moral systems work only if everybody plays by the same rules.
India needs to showcase its Humanitarian Face to the World:
Sushma Swaraj, in her attempt to woo the Muslims back home and to highlight the same humanitarian angle of India at the global stage, voted against the resolution put forward by the US to cite Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. While embarrassment at the international stage could have been avoided had India chosen to abstain from voting, but greater embarrassment was earned back home when this happened.
Now, I am all for humanity, for I love humanity and the Avenger superhero collection I have. However, if our humanitarian move is not enough to convince this party in India, where lies the assurance that we shall be able to melt the heart of parties and people that follow far more crude and cruel ideologies on the other side of the border, unless we wish to have our hand ripped apart?
https://www.facebook.com/TheFrustratedIndian/photos/a.510971422271674.1073741825.370463842989100/1546273265408146/?type=3&theater
It would be cheap to target people with Health Problems
One of the quotes that govern my analysis of any global or domestic affairs is that in our personal capacity, we must look at the world as it is and now as we would like it to be. Yes, targeting ailing patients is never going to be ideal in any form, and no justification to deny visas to patients suffering from last-stage cancer can ever look humane. However, we have ailing families at our side too, the ones wrecked by the loss of sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers in war, the ones wrecked like those of Jadhav’s wife and mother. The kind of world we live in, the first responsibility of any government is to look after its citizens, and how given how Pakistan treats its terrorists, they have already attached a far lower value to the lives of their citizens before we even initiate the process of absolute visa denial. Narendra Modi’s Government is obligated to serve its own citizens.
Calling for Visa Denial is Spreading Hate
Sure, as if those Pakistani sponsored terrorists in Pathankot, Uri, and Amarnath came with love and compassion in their hearts for our people in the Armed Forces.
Pakistani Citizens love India, it’s the Government that’s behind all this
Sure, but I have never seen these India-loving Pakistani citizens raise a voice against their government when it is involved in attacks like those in Mumbai or Pathankot? Many cricketers and actors have expressed their love for India, about how much they admire the work culture here, and so on, but I do not see any point of such love when you cannot raise a voice against your own government treating one of India’s citizens in a heinous manner.
https://www.facebook.com/TheFrustratedIndian/photos/a.383308258371325.77997.370463842989100/1544522992249840/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/TheFrustratedIndian/posts/1548277181874421
What India can do next?
If any lessons have been learnt from similar incidents in the past, chances of Jadhav’s coming back to India, as of now, look bleak. Pakistan, fueled by its own hatred, will never agree to give up Jadhav unless India outshines them diplomatically at the ICJ.
From here, two cases can be taken into question. One, Jadhav comes back. If he does, and in all capacity, we wish he does. India and Pakistan, together, must look to create a mechanism where cases like these can be resolved quickly on both sides. Using innocent civilians from either of the nations is no good when it comes to forwarding one’s agendas.
However, if he does not come back, India must demonstrate its ruthless side. Medical visas should come to an absolute end. Pakistani citizens can import nurses from their pool of 72-virgins promised to each Jihadi or else, beg China to get them a cancel facility. India must also look to add pressure using the Indus Water Treaty and other channels. Needless to say, the Armed Forces must be given a free hand in Kashmir to do what they feel is right, and if Pakistan wishes to continue this proxy-war, India should respond strongly.
It is high time we stop pretending that Pakistan’s establishment or its prominent faces have any soft corner for India. Alongside their cricketers, even their artists must be discouraged in our industry. There is either room for peace or for conflict, and as much as India loves peace, one can be sure that Pakistan is not going to go out of its way to cease this dynamic conflict.
As I said last night in one of my posts on Facebook, “We are not war mongers, we hate war, and we understand war never settles anything, but we cannot ask the GOI to offer food to a crazy dog looking to rip their arm apart just because it looks humanitarian”.
