India’s dreams are crashing

Asif Haroon Raja

Pakistan and Afghanistan are natural allies due to geographic contiguity, common religion, historical and cultural ties, ethnic and blood relations. Both are inter-dependent upon each other. Afghanistan being landlocked had remained almost wholly dependent upon Pakistan. Although recent construction of a road by India linking Afghanistan with Iran at Port Chahbahar has given Afghanistan an additional outlet to Indian Ocean, Afghanistan’s preferred trade route is through Pakistan. At no stage Pakistan took advantage of this vulnerability in spite of the fact that on several occasions Afghan regimes took hostile steps against Pakistan. Likewise, Kabul also didn’t activate western border during any war with India. Pakistan had the unique privilege of hosting 5 million Afghan refugees since 1980 and has continued to accommodate them even when international aid ceased to flow in and Pakistan itself came under severe economic crunch. It also had to contend with security and social problems due to anti-social elements within Afghan refugees. Owing to boundless hospitality and affections of Pakistanis, about three million refugees are still residing in Pakistan and refuse to return to their country since they consider Pakistan as their second home.    

India does not fit into any of the linkages with Afghanistan which Pakistan enjoys except for diplomatic, economic and political ties. It has no love for Afghanistan except for its commercial interests and grandiose plans to reduce Afghanistan and other South Asian states into its satellites.  Afghan soil provides an excellent base to India to pose a threat to Pakistan from the west. Military presence in Afghanistan enables Indian military to achieve superior strategic orientation since it gets better poised to pose a twin threat. Apart from overt threat, it allows RAW an opportunity to conduct covert operations against FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan since these regions are contiguous to Afghanistan and not to India. Instead of assisting Pakistan in fighting war on terror, India has been indulging in clandestine operations and propaganda war against Pakistan at a massive scale since 2002 to destabilize it.

RAW is deeply involved in Balochistan and FATA where militant groups are being funded, trained and equipped to carryout acts of sabotage and subversion. Its agents are active in other regions as well. Profits earned from illegal drug trade and other rackets organized by CIA and Afghan warlords are being shared by RAW and Mossad as well.  CIA and drug mafia in Afghanistan are rolling in money and are least bothered about the bloodshed and outcome of war. American and British defence merchants also wish that the war should get prolonged since it keeps their defence industries running.

While Afghanistan and Pakistan are bleeding and suffering immensely because of US imposed war on terror, India and its partner in crime Israel are busy stoking flames of terrorism and extracting political, economic and military benefits without shedding a drop of blood. Both keep hatching conspiracies to keep the pot boiling so that coalition troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s security forces in Pakistan remain perpetually embroiled in insurrectional war. The duo is currently suffering from bout of depression since Obama announced that coalition troops would start withdrawing from July 2011 onwards. India, Israel, CIA and defence merchants of USA and UK are against peace and are war mongers. These forces are principally responsible for heightening radicalism, extremism and terrorism. Pro-war forces are now burning midnight oil how to delay the exit till at least 2015 so as to further enrich their coffers and to also achieve their objectives against Pakistan and Muslim world as a whole. These forces finally prevailed upon decision makers in Washington and withdrawal dates have now been shifted to 2014.      

The US is helping India to become a counterweight to China and to encircle Pakistan. While China is taking care of itself and is also busy encircling India, the US is preventing Pakistan from breaking the stranglehold being woven around it through its double dealing policy. India after consolidating its position in Afghanistan with the assistance of USA, wherefrom it is in a advantageous position to threaten Pakistan’s western border both overtly and covertly, it is desperately trying to drive a wedge in Iran-Pakistan relations so that Pakistan gets wholly encircled from three directions. It intends to sever Pakistan’s link with southwest Asia by making its navy part of the NATO flotilla mandated to inspect or interdict any vessel in Indian Ocean.

India’s dreams are however crashing one by one since Afghanistan is fast slipping out of the hands of USA. Once the coalition troops quit and Taliban regain power, Indian influence in that country will again wane and get marginalized. Pak-US relations which had dipped low have started to improve and the US is now seeing Pakistan as a key player in solving Afghan imbroglio. Third round of strategic dialogue is taking place in last week of this month to tie up loose ends. Hamid Karzai too is leaning upon Pakistan to help find a solution to Afghan tangle. Iran-Pakistan relations are cordial and have been further augmented after finalization of gas pipeline project. European Union has at last agreed to provide greater access to its markets which will help in improving Pakistan’s economy. Union of Friends of Pakistan has committed to provide assistance for rehabilitation of flood affectees.

China continues to remain trusted and time-tested friend of Pakistan. Besides supplementing Pakistan’s nuclear program, and upgrading KKH, China is likely to take over the responsibility of running Gwadar Port. Once the port picks up full steam, it will not only energize Pakistan’s economic capacity but would also help in breaking the intended Indo-US military and economic monopoly in Indian Ocean region. Turkey is another all-weather friend of Pakistan which is working upon a well meaning scheme to make Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan-Turkey a close knit team for the collective economic progress of the four brotherly countries. Pakistan’s armed forces are upbeat, missile and nuclear programs are progressing steadily and are in safe hands. Judiciary is asserting its independence and is a source of great strength. Whatever the flaws in democracy, the system is inching forward rather than retrogressing. Series of man-made and natural calamities have not dampened the spirits of the people. They continue to live in sunlight and are mentally and physically fit to beat back internal and external conspiracies.