Indian
efforts to bring Trump under its magic spell
Asif Haroon Raja
After the
outgoing British Raj partitioned India and Pakistan took birth out of the
reluctant womb of India, the latter sat in the lap of former Soviet Union to
draw maximum diplomatic, political, economic and military support. India also
drew benefits from the West by playing the levers of secularism, democracy and
non-alignment. Border clash with China in 1962 enabled India to amass weaponry
both from the Soviet Union as well as the West. India remained tied to USSR
till its fragmentation in 1991. Feeling orphaned, it hastened to snuggle into
the waiting arms of USA and soon became the darling of the West.
Pakistan
struggling to stay afloat under the weight of plethora of problems had to
contend with hostile India on its eastern front, and near hostile Afghanistan,
friendly to India on its western front and Communist Soviet Union in the north
which was not at ease with a country created on the basis of Islam. Pakistan
joined western pacts essentially to have a security umbrella against Indian
aggressive designs and belligerent posturing, but alliance with USA-NATO proved
worthless during its wars with India in 1965 and 1971 since SEATO and CENTO
were designed to contain southward expansionism of Communism. Moscow on the
other hand helped India in developing its armed forces, keeping Kashmir issue
on the back burner and in truncating Pakistan in 1971.
USA subjected
Pakistan to sanctions repeatedly. It was deprived of arms and spares as well as
economic assistance during the 1965 and 1971 wars, well knowing that Pakistan
military was entirely dependent upon US military technology. USSR on the other
hand fulfilled all the war needs of India. Sanctions were imposed on Pakistan
in 1975 after Gen ZiaulHaq took over power, and in 1979 when USA suspected that
Pakistan was pursuing nuclear program. These were lifted once Pakistan agreed
to the US demand in June 1983 to support proxy war against Soviet occupation
forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan was again put under sanctions in 1990 after the
US achieved all its strategic objectives in Afghanistan with the help of
Pakistan. To add insult to injury, Washington embraced India which had remained
the most ardent camp follower of Soviet Union.
Taking advantage
of its closeness with USA, India brought USA under its magic spell by posing to
be the champion of democracy and secularism, and offering its huge economic
market and IT expertise. Itstepped up efforts to widen the gap between USA and
Pakistan by singing the songs of Islamic bomb and cross border terrorism in
Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK).Another set of sanctions were imposed by USA in
the aftermath of nuclear tests in May 1998. Sanctions under Pressler Amendment
and nuclear sanctions remained enforced till Gen Musharraf submitted to all the
demands of USA under George W. Bush in September 2001 to help US-NATO forces in
invading and capturing Afghanistan. Pakistan provided Karachi seaport and
several airbases as well as two land routes for the Afghan venture and later
agreed to become the frontline state to fight the US initiated war on terror.
India which by
then had become a full-fledged strategic partner of USA as well as of Israel, fully
exploited the new rules framed by Washington on terrorism that were confined to
the Muslim world only. It painted freedom struggle in IOK as terrorism and
projected Pakistan as an abettor of terrorism. India undertook a false flag
operation in New Delhi on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001, just one
month after the capture of Afghanistan and at a time when 70,000 Pak troops had
been deployed along the western border at the request of USA to nab fleeing
al-Qaeda/Taliban operatives. It was engineered to blame Kashmiri Mujahedeen,
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish e Muhammad (JeM) and ISI. This was the first
deliberate move made to establish a linkage between LeT, JeM and ISI. The
narrative of ‘Pakistan sponsoring terrorism in India and IOK’ was constantly
played up between 2001 and 2008. All acts of terror taking place in India
during that period were put in the basket of the so-called nexus. Mumbai
attacks on November 26, 2008 were another preplanned false flag operation aimed
at getting LeT and JeM declared terrorists outfits and ISI a rogue outfit.
After a lull
period of seven years, the years 2015 and 2016 saw recurrence of false flag operations
in IOK aimed at maligning unarmed freedom movement in IOK seeking right of
self-determination, and to brand Pakistan as an exporter of terrorism. From
2004 onward, Afghan President Hamid Karzai joined the chorus and blamed
Pakistan on the charge of cross border terrorism. This two-sided invasive
propaganda duly backed by the US and the West helped the detractors of Pakistan
to portray Pakistan in poor light and frame sleazy tags like ‘Pakistan - most
dangerous country in the world’, ‘FATA - breeding ground of terrorism’,
‘Pakistan - a failing state’ and ‘Pak nuclear weapons are unsafe and may fall
in wrong hands’. Besides the malicious propaganda war, massive covert war was
unleashed from Afghanistan by five intelligence agencies to destabilize and denuclearize
Pakistan. Proxies were funded, armed and equipped to subvert FATA, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan and Karachi. All this was done under a well-conceived
strategy to build a strong case for the UN to force Islamabad to hand over its
nukes for safe custody.
Commonality of
interests of USA, Israel, India and Afghanistan under US installed puppet
regime integrated the four into strategic partnership. While India was
handsomely rewarded by Bush and Obama administrations for pioneering proxy war
against Pakistan and for agreeing to act as a bulwark against China, Kabul
regime was also compensated generously for its collaborative role. The theme of
terrorism promoted against Pakistan by India and Afghanistan was in sync with
the US design and it helped in widening trust deficit and in intensifying the
misgivings/enmity between Pak-US, Pak-Afghanistan and Pak-India relations and
in keeping Pakistan that had rendered maximum sacrifices and produced best
results against terrorism, in the dock. The other tool used by USA was to keep
pressing Pakistan to do more or to get deprived of economic assistance/military
funds. The reason behind rancor was
Pakistan’s nuclear capability and its intimacy with China. Another reason was
that Pakistan was a convenient scape goat to hide the failures of ISAF and
Afghan forces in Afghanistan. Once CPEC became a reality, it further peeved USA
and India.
Donald Trump took
over the reins of power on January 20, 2017 amidst noisy protests. During his
election campaign, he never minced his words in expressing his malice against
the Muslims. In his inaugural speech he stressed upon eliminating Islamic
radicalism from the face of the world. This assertion must be music to the ears
of Indian leaders and has made it easier for Indian psychological operators to
chalk out another false flag operation like in 2001 and 2008 to convince Trump
and his team that Pakistan is an abettor of terrorism. Possible venues are
Afghanistan, IOK and India. There will be no problem for RAW to stage-manage an
attack in any of the three places. In Afghanistan, it can be undertaken by a
selected team from Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based in Kunar and Nangarhar.
In IOK, fake Kashmiri Mujahedeen can perform as was the case of Uri attack in
September last year. 4-5 Kashmiris or members of TTP kidnapped from IOK/Afghanistancan
be used in India after imparting training. AjmalKasab was kidnapped from Nepal
to undertake Mumbai attacks.
A bigger and
sensitive target will be selected to create an uproar. Probably, one of the US
administrated military bases in Afghanistan will be attacked to antagonize the
Americans and impel impetuous Trump to jump the gun and target Pakistan as Bush
had done in 2001. Recent bomb attack inside the compound of Governor’s
guesthousein Qandahar on January 10, killing five visiting UAE diplomats was an
in-house act to spoil Pakistan-UAE relations and to reinforce the narrative of
terrorism built against Pakistan.
Former Afghan
President Hamid Karzai has let the cat out of the bag by blurting out that
Trump must keep his promise of ending terror camps in Pakistan that Obama
failed to do. He spoke India’s language by lamenting that “America should have
gone for Pakistan to defeat extremism and not Afghanistan; and that is where
Trump should go”.
To recapitulate,
when the US finalized its plan to invade Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, India
offered all its bases and resources and insisted that Pakistan must be destroyed
along with Afghanistan to root out terrorism. Bush ruled it out on the plea
that without Pakistan’s assistance, Afghan venture would prove costly and risky.
He assured India that Pakistan will be dealt with separately at an opportune
time after weakening it from within through covert war.
Vexed by
Pakistan’s silent but effective exterior maneuver to expose the ugly face of
India and to cultivate better understanding with the new US administration, the
Indian lobby helped by Jewish lobby in USA have redoubled
their efforts to bring the new US regime under Indian magic spell and to create
bad blood between Pakistan and USA.
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