Who says Pakistan is a weak State?

Who says Pakistan is a weak State? It may soon be a non-existent State considering the Taliban are all over it, but it certainly does not resemble a weak State, if, that is, one goes by the way it has tackled the post-Mumbai scenario.

It has been over a month to the deadly attack, and Pakistan’s civilian establishment has handled the diplomacy — both with India and the world — pretty well for itself. For starters, it has managed to stave off the inevitable — of accepting Pakistani hand in Mumbai attacks — and that despite the staring evidence.

You could accuse Zardari and his establishment of chicanery, you could call them cunning and they may also be reprehensibly ruthless, but they are certainly no losers. Till their NSA shot off his mouth in a moment of what Pakistan’s political gameplan would call insanity, everything was going the way it had been cleverly planned — be in the denial mode, rubbish all evidence with impunity and keep blowing hot and cold till the war hysteria dies a natural death.

As an ostensibly much mature and internationally arrived India shrieked from the rooftops that Pakistan needs to take responsibility, as the oohing and aahing Indian establishment ran to the US with evidence, as the Indian public got on with normalcy, Pakistan stood steadfast — it blatantly told India and the world that it was not going to give an inch, come what may.

Along the same time, Pakistan also managed from the US a multi-billion dollar aid as India kept looking for succour and support from the American establishment.

May be, in the long run, India’s guarded response may achieve something (though it looks impossible from here), but the fact that stares our nation is that Pakistan has yet again gotten away — unscathed and scotfree.

What does that show us? It shows us that responsible behaviour can often help the culprits, as it has been doing where Pakistan (the real culprit, really and one must forget non-State players as a convenient figment of Zardari’s vile imagination) is concerned. It also shows us up as weaker of the two neighbours.

Of course, we are a much more advanced, tolerant, peaceful and organised society in comparison to Pakistan. Of course, Pakistan does not have an industry to its name; of course, it is seeped in terrorism and international debt and; of course, it is tethering on the brink of survival. But even in this chaotic, anarchistic state, it is managing to go scotfree — sometimes by cleverly labelling itself as a weak Government, sometimes by sheer denial of the terror factories it nurtures as a matter of State policy and, sometimes, by just being the expert manipulator it has always been.

It got away with Kargil; it has been getting away with Kashmir; and it is on its way to getting away with Mumbai — even as we are desperately trying to rein in a maniac.

Optimists would laud the Indian Government’s restrain on the entire issue. That may be the case too. But mere restraint is a deadly giveaway — of our inherent weakness of response to an emergency situation, of being victim of our own appeasement policies, to our taking life — and death — in our stride and to our immense capacity to take in many more horrors like Mumbai.

So what can we do to change our DNA? Not just shout ‘zero tolerance’ from the pulpit. Not just seek support in pacifism. Not just bide our time. But act — act responsibly, act swiftly and act for results.

Perhaps, it is time for us to stop calling ‘assertive action’ jingoistic; perhaps, it is time that a retort for Pakistan is not dismissed as futile war-mongering. Perhaps, it is time Pakistan takes us seriously and not gets away with cocking a snook at our ‘no aggression ever’ policy. Alternatively, we need to prepare for another strike by so-called non-State players!

Published on January 11, 2009 in Sunday Pioneer http://www.dailypioneer.com/149092/Who-says-Pakistan-is-a-weak-State.html