No Cricket For You
For someone living within American culture, India’s response to the Mumbai attacks looks either suicidally passive or diabolically clever. Despite daily statements that make vague threats (”all options are still open”) the most direct action India has taken so far is to cancel a cricket match with Pakistan. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister even sent the President of Pakistan a New Year’s greeting card.
The card carries the picture of a white dove with flowers in its beak
Zardari must have said ” Dammit! Why didn’t I think of that card thing?”.
What is going on here? Why coddle people who are still denying that one of the most vicious attacks on innocent civilians was launched from Pakistan?
It must be that India has very few military options. Despite all the baring of teeth, the Indian military just is not equipped to fight an outright war against Pakistan. Surgical strikes at the terrorist camps sound very much justified, but such attacks have a way of going awry. Innocent people get killed; and then you have just created another few hundred more young men ready to commit acts of terrorism. The terrorist camps are also the only schools in those parts of Pakistan, and you can be sure that only teenagers who have nothing to do with the attacks remain there by now: the bad guys have melted away.
Besides, the best outcome for India is to have Pakistan take action against its own extremists. That way the inevitable reprisals will also happen there. It is an old tactic of the Indian state to use the relative moderates of any movement to stomp out the extremists on their own flank. Thus, it is the Communist Governments of Kerala and Bengal which brutally stamped out the Naxalites, a violent Maoist fringe group. It was in their own interest to do so, as they were competing for support from the same people. The Akali Dal was key to destroying the Punjabi separatists who wanted Khalistan. Even in Kashmir, the elected Governments of Farook Abdullah and his son Omar are the key to defeating the insurgency. The attack on Mumbai can be read as a sign of frustration at the failure of the Kashmir insurgency. An election was just held there with about 60% participation, despite calls for a boycott and threats of violence. The last election had a 3% turnout.
The extremists in Pakistan are being treated as a virulent extension of the sort of movements India has already dealt with successfully internally. You deal with them by alternately slapping them over the head and teaching them to play Cricket. Direct actions, such as the attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, or sending troops into Sri Lanka, backfire: two Prime Ministers were assassinated for stepping into the fray directly. Pakistani Politicians are being groomed to be an extension of the Indian political scene. While words fly back and forth, there is a wink and a nod : ” We know what you need to say, but do what you can. It is in your own interests to do so.”
What India lacks in military power over Pakistan, it makes up in soft power. Nowhere is this more clear than with movies and television. The Pakistani Senate Committee on Broadcasting is demanding a ban on Indian TV Channels on its Cable systems. They are very popular because PTV is much like Doordashan: the News is driven by whoever is in power and the cultural programs are high-minded but mind-numbingly boring. The Committee is most threatened not by Indian News channels, but by the entertainment. They see-correctly-that the pulpy movies and song videos are much more threatening to the purity of Pakistani culture than the News, which can be dismissed as propaganda. Their other concerns are more parochial:
Haji Adeel complained that the PTV was paying nothing to senators who attended its talk shows or current affair programmes.
Hmm. Also,
He [Sen. Bangulzai] criticized the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for never acting on the committee’s recommendations.
Gee, I wonder why.
The chilling transcripts of the phone conversations between the terrorists and their handlers back in Pakistan were published recently :
“There are three ministers and one secretary of the cabinet in your hotel. We don’t know in which room,” a Pakistan-based caller tells a terrorist at the Taj at 3:10 a.m. on Nov. 27.
“Oh! That is good news” It is the icing on the cake!,” he replies.
“Find those three-four persons and then get whatever you want from India,” he is instructed.
“Pray that we find them,” he answers.
At the Oberoi at 3:53 a.m., a handler phones and says: “Brother Abdul [Bada Abdul Rehman], the media is comparing your action to 9/11. One senior police official has been killed.”
Abdul Rehman: “We are on the 10th/11th floor. We have five hostages.”
Caller 2 (Kafa): “Everything is being recorded by the media. Inflict the maximum damage. Keep fighting. Don’t be taken alive.”
Caller: “Kill all hostages, except the two Muslims. Keep your phone switched on so that we can hear the gunfire.”
Fahad Ullah: “We have three foreigners, including women from Singapore and China.”
Caller: “Kill them.”
The dossier then notes the telephone intercept records the “voices of Fahad Ullah and Bada Abdul Rehman directing hostages to stand in a line, and telling two Muslims to stand aside. Sound of gunfire. Cheering voices in background. Kafa hands telephone to another handler, Wasi Zarar, who says, “Fahad, find the way to go downstairs.”
At Nariman House at 7:45 p.m., Wasi Zarar tells a terrorist: “Keep in mind that hostages are of use only as long as you do not come under fire because of their safety. If you are still threatened, then don’t saddle yourself with the burden of the hostages. Immediately kill them.”
He adds, “The Army claims to have done the work without any hostage being harmed. Another thing: Israel has made a request through diplomatic channels to save the hostages. If the hostages are killed, it will spoil relations between India and Israel.”
“So be it, God willing,” the terrorist replies.
It makes your blood boil. But if you act on that emotion you make the situation worse. At least that seems to be the calculation of the Indian authorities.
Or may be it is not calculation at all. May be it is just suicidal passivity. Time will tell.
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