Keep your cool

Somewhere, I had read about Buddhism’s three evils, or call them sins: greed, anger and ignorance. To be sure, all religions and creeds would concur with this formulation. But in South Asia, a region particularly immersed in religiosity, leaders and their people proudly brandish their anger as well as their ignorance to affirm their patriotism.

While tensions between India and Pakistan have been simmering since the September 18 attack on the Indian military facility in Uri, there was a sudden and disturbing surge in sabre-rattling on Thursday when India announced that it had carried out ‘surgical strikes’ against ‘terrorist launch pads’ on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control.

This claim, though, was promptly rejected by Pakistan. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) described the encounter as a ceasefire violation by India and said that Pakistan lost two of its soldiers and there were also reports of Indian casualties after Pakistan responded to Indian firing.

Irrespective of what really did happen, the temperature has risen considerably. From both sides, the rhetoric has become more belligerent. Anger and ignorance are invested in almost all pronouncements, as war hysteria gains momentum.

In this environment, more dodgy developments are very possible. For instance, it was revealed on Friday that an Indian soldier was captured by Pakistan. The Indians maintained that the soldier “inadvertently crossed into Pakistan and should be returned as per existing mechanism”. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations Dr Maheela Lodhi announced in New York that he was captured “while trying to enter into Pakistani territory”.

There were bound to be other consequences. The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan refused to attend a global conference being held in India in October. The Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) banned all Pakistani artists from working in film projects in India and in Pakistan, the exhibitors suspended the screening of Indian films for the time being.

But it is good to know that Rahul Aggarwal, a member of the executive body of IMPPA, has posted a letter of resignation on Facebook and has said that “art is above politics and as the custodians of this art, it is our responsibility to bring people together rather than divide them”. It makes sense, although the message is unlikely to make a large impact. Such is the mood that prevails at the popular level.

For that matter, it is the electronic media in both countries that has polluted the mind of its mass audience with its virulent fulmination. Indian news channel Times Now’s Arnab Goswami has set the bar so high that no other anchor in either country can defeat him in a shouting match. Luckily, Indian news channels are not provided by cable operators in Pakistan. Still, our own anchors, except a few, are doing quite well with their projection of anger and ignorance.

In this setting, how does one counter the idiom of hate and counsel caution and sober reflection on how these passions could affect the future relationship between the two countries and their citizens? The most obvious observation is that India and Pakistan have been at it since the beginning. It is cyclical in some ways. There is a time for confrontation and there is a time for peace and amity. In Agra many years ago, the season changed within hours.

But we did not have the dominance of the private news channels when the Agra summit was held in July 2001. At least in Pakistan, there were no private channels. Now the scene is totally different. Little space is left for liberal opinion to underline the logic for peace. The quality of debate has drastically gone down. More thoughtful and rational observers have gradually disappeared. Perhaps Gresham’s law applies here, too – that bad money drives out good.

Anyhow, it is becoming more and more difficult for the ordinary consumers of our media to make sense of what is happening. They get easily convinced that the obligatory position to take is to join the chorus. This is the impression you get in both countries, though it can be assumed that there is a large number of people out there who aspire to reap the dividends of peace. The likelihood of war between the nuclear armed countries is beyond their comprehension.

We, the citizens of both countries, need to retain our poise and not submit to the excitement of jingoism. We claim to be inheritors of old civilisations and disciples of Sufis and saints. We should be aware of the pain and suffering that wars and armed conflicts necessarily inflict. It is peace that will make all miracles possible. The only way out for India and Pakistan is for them to learn to resolve their disputes through honest and credible negotiations.

Naturally, the world is getting anxious about the rising tempo of rhetoric in South Asia. So much so that the US had to remind India and Pakistan that nuclear capable states do not threaten to use atomic weapons in any conflict. There are other countries that have advised restraint. That both countries have the capacity to totally destroy the other may itself be seen as deterrence – unless their leaders strike a suicide pact and decide to take their people along.

Does this mean that eventually the threat of war will recede and an uneasy equilibrium will be restored in their relations? We cannot be sure because there can be unintended consequences of the kind of escalation that was reported on Thursday – marked by ‘surgical strikes’. Besides, there is an obvious and an unusual surge in patriotic fervour in both countries. That is how passions are aroused to foster national unity.

There is also the compulsion on the part of the rulers to raise the morale of the people and express the resolve to meet any challenges posed by the adversary. So, Pakistan’s federal cabinet met on Friday and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan would take all necessary steps to protect its people and territorial integrity in case of any aggression or violation of the Line of Control. More deliberations are in the offing.

Finally, it is the future of South Asia that is at stake. And if the leaders are able to keep their cool, they would realise that nothing – nothing at all – is to be gained by going to war.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com