No Friendship With Barbarians

There’s an old joke about legendary bowler B.S. Chandrashekhar. On a tour in New Zealand he had the batsman plumb in front of the wicket and appealed for LBW and jumped in delight, only to hear the umpire say “not out”. A little later he had the batsman caught in the slips off a thick edge and gently appealed. To his horror the umpire again said “not out”. After a few more deliveries he clean-bowled the batsman. As he walked back past the umpire Chandrashekhar gently said to him: “Almost got him, didn’t I”? So all these years our media was quiet about the Owaisis and suddenly they realised they were “clean-bowled” and had to be outed. There are non-bailable warrants on Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi since 2005. The “friendly” police under the Congress govt in Andhra never arrested them. They don’t have the guts and they are in alliance with the MIM, the party of Owaisis. So when the media finds Akbar’s speech is the equivalent of being “clean-bowled” they couldn’t cheat the nation anymore. Even the likes of Javed Akhtar couldn’t help condemning him. Same goes for issues with Pakistan. All the farce wasn’t condemned by the media till two of our soldiers were killed on January 7. They were beheaded and bodies mutilated. Some report that one head was taken away by the killers.

DNA aptly called it “Return of the barbarians”. Our PM, Manmohan Singh, seemed desperate to somehow seek the impossible peace with Pakistan. It wasn’t long after the 26/11 disaster that he severely bungled at Sharm-El Sheikh with a stupid joint statement. It was truly “Sharm-nak”! Our media and Bollywood types don’t tire from calling Pak a “good neighbour” and offering employment to their third rate artists when we have more talented artists in this country. Media celebs like Barkha Dutt and the Unholy Trinity of NDTV-CNN-IBN-HindustanTimes don’t spare any effort to celebrate Parvez Musharraf. This guy should have been rightly treated as the “war-criminal” of Kargil. Barkha Dutt even runs to London to interview the guy. Such is the passionate love for him. In 2001 when he was invited to a summit by PM ABVajpayee (which was a terrible mistake and failure) who organised an impromptu presser? You guessed it right! Prannoy Roy of NDTV. Their next favourite is politician Imran Khan, who is not even in any official position.

The most criminal among the lot when it comes to Pakistan is, of course, TOI. The blood from 26/11 had not even dried and they launched their farce called “Aman Ki Asha”. I can say this with absolute confidence: Peace with Pakistan is NOT possible. All the people to people nonsense has to stop. We need not treat them as enemies but they certainly don’t deserve our friendship or any MFN status. The latest nonsense from TOI is TV ads that state Pak and India are “competitors and not enemies” in their AKA campaign for the recent Indo-Pak ODI series. Competitors? How and what exactly is Pakistan even a worthy competitor? And we have our activists with their own nonsense of "don’t mix politics and sports". Our GOI is no different. Palestinian terrorists attacked and killed at least 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Olympics have been boycotted by USA and Russia. South Africa was banned from sports because of apartheid. Who are these people fooling? Pakistan itself is a ‘Cricketing-Pariah’ after the terrorist attack on Sri Lankan players.

Arun Jaitley, BJP top leader and also the leader of Opposition in RajyaSabha, now says (in an interview with Barkha): “This government needs to understand that the spirit of Sharm El Sheikh can never define approach with Pakistan.. Review engagement with Pakistan now; the mutilations break all rules of war”. Elsewhere, he goes on to say “name and shame Pakistan internationally”. Hypocrisy and third rate nonsense from a man who neither has hindsight nor prudence. Why didn’t he oppose the recent Indo-Pak cricket series? Forget opposing, he was blissfully in attendance at the Delhi ODI on January 6 in a Nawabi cap. For all his pathetic sound-bites neither he nor the BJP seem to have learnt anything from the past. They should be hanging their heads in shame and saying sorry to the nation for not taking a strong opposing line against engaging Pakistan in any which way. Two days after the match in Delhi Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh were killed by Paki Army soldiers who had intruded across the LoC. Their mutilated bodies sent back to their devastated families and the nation. In return for Vajpayee’s Bus to Lahore they gave us Kargil in return. When will these people learn? (Do read “Twenty yards of dead bodies”)

As for the GOI the less said the better. This is the most corrupt and shameless govt we have ever had in our history. All the balderdash that now flows from govt spokesmen like Salman Khurshid, AK Antony and Manish Tiwari is the same that has been heard over and over again. What hasn’t been said is that the PM didn’t say that the killers “had the advantage of surprise” like he said after a terrorist attack in Mumbai in July 2011. They can’t get anything right but never forget to make stupid moves like easier visas for Pakistanis. Now a terrorist can land in Delhi or Mumbai and have a visa stamped I suppose. Fabulous! The worst of the lot in this situation has to be the tainted Salman Khurshid: “Mutilation of jawans unacceptable, but attack should not be escalated” and “Pak high commissioner spoken to in very strong terms”. I am unable to fathom how this guy is even holding any ministerial office. This response by Tarek Fateh to a tweet by Barkha Dutt says it all (although we aren’t signatories to that court the sentiment is to show courage and act). The GOI has yet to take any strong stance or action on the issue of Saurabh Kalia killed during Kargil. Even the Italian Defence Minister rushed to India to negotiate release of the Italian marines arrested for killing fishermen off Kerala. But Indians getting killed anywhere, taken hostages on high seas doesn’t bother this govt.

Whenever such a barbaric incident happens our media never fails to call some Paki stooges on their channels for a panel discussion. What are they expecting? That these guys will accept responsibility when they aren’t even official govt spokesmen? Predictably, every Pakistani, from panellists to their High Commissioner Salman Bashir and their EAM Hina Rabbani Khar has denied their army was involved. So why is it that Arnab Goswami keeps bringing these useless voices on TimesNow? There is some strange arousal that Arnab gets from bashing these Paki panellists when he should be bashing our reckless govt and its ministers. Even TimesNow’s defence expert Mahroof Raza asked Arnab “Why do you give them so much airtime on Indian channels”? 

The hypocrisy of the TOI group deserves condemnation. They run the AKA campaign and then behave as if they care. They have once even admitted peace with Pakistan is not possible under “Times View”. Raza also said on January 9 on Timesnow that Obama takes two days off every year to understand the nuclear chain of command again. He also asked “when was the last time a PM took time understand the difference between Northern Command and Western Command”? He makes a very pertinent point.

I have stated before and say it again; peace with Pakistan is NOT possible. We need not wage war but there is no way a nation from which many have promised a 1000-year Jihad against India can ever be true friends. This is like expecting Iran to become a friend of Israel. Not happening! This sucking up to and molly-coddling Pakistan is just another feature of ‘Muslim vote-bank’ politics by our govt and nothing more. As far as our national interest is concerned Pak has nothing to offer; not even a small safety pin. For all our genuine gestures of goodwill we have only got barbaric acts in return. It’s time to dump this charade. Instead of uttering more useless statements the GOI should recall our High Commissioner from Pakistan and expelled theirs from Delhi. The one article that has honestly acknowledged peace with Pak is not possible for many reasons is by TheJaggi in Firstpost. He aptly titles it “We are fools: 6 things we need to realise about Pakistan”. I would have to say not all but our govt and appeaser-politicians have been fools all along. There is no way friendship with barbarians will be possible.