Modi's Pakistan visit and what it means for Hindutva fringe groups
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lahore has been truly dramatic and "audacious", as a friend and senior journalist, known as a staunch critic of Modi, described the visit to me in a personal conversation. I probed further but he remained steadfast in his positive assessment of the trip.
Another phrase that is being used frequently in the press is "out of the box", to describe the unMEDIAted visit. The media understandably looked clueless and thus hurt in some sense. After all, this punctured the "we know all" ego of the media, especially of those in visual media, who believed to have the sole prerogative of breaking news. Modi had his cake and ate it too on this Christmas for sure.
To know whether the trip was out of the box or not, it is only germane to know what there has been in the box. The relationship between Indian and Pakistan has been too much of a straitjacketed affair historically. It has been too bogged down under protocol, bureaucratism and a control-freak attitude of defence analysts and strategists.
Playing to the jingoist gallery sentiments by both sides have been the guiding principle behind the politics governing the India-Pakistan relationship. It is precisely because of this that former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, despite his declared dream of visiting his birthplace, now in Pakistan, could not realise his wish.
With geopolitical urgencies concerning terrorism, economy and climate change making the world truly global, South Asia simply cannot afford to be frozen in time. There are issues which have been too daunting and rigid, such as Kashmir, but if we wait for these to be resolved as a prerequisite for playing cricket or organising a Ghulam Ali concert, or even to do business, then we are being preposterous and simply fake in our intentions to settle the issue.
Since former prime minister AB Vajpayee's visit to Pakistan and the subsequent Kargil War between the two countries, Pakistan has gone through hell. It saw the most macabre and cold-blooded mass killing in recent history, when militants gunned down more than 100 school children in Peshawar last year.
Faced with a serious image dent and increased isolation by the world community since former top al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden was tracked to its territory by the US forces and subsequently killed, Pakistan was left with no option but to opt for a course correction, and revise its politics.
Unlike India, Pakistan and its fragile democracy have a bigger battle to fight - to fight the substantially influential obscurantist segment from within who carry and nurture a medievalist mindset. The Pakistani state also has to negotiate with another important player, again from within, the Pakistani army, which has had a history of spoiling any semblance of bonhomie with India and derailing peace processes through hawkish war adventurism.
Back in India, ironically, this visit by Modi to Pakistan has more messages for his own party - the BJP, and especially for those have been running amok since the party came to power in 2014. Unlike Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Modi has his task cut out.
While Sharif has to fight the entrenched and powerful anti-India forces within his country, Modi has to fight the anti-India forces within his party. And for that, he has to utter an unambiguous "shut up" to the likes of Sakshi Maharaj and the others of his ilk.
The BJP will have to consider reaffirming their faith, not just theoretically, but also in demonstrative action, in the idea of India that is inclusive, heterodox and constitutionally bound. Even as a political strategy, this is a win-win situation. The BJP should know it better after the debacle in the Bihar polls.
It is by now fairly established that fundamentalism inherently has a twin existence. It cannot exist independently. It requires a match. Fundamentalism from both sides of the border complements each other. When some crackpot demanded that Shah Rukh Khan be sent to Pakistan, quick came the reply from across the border, from none other than Jama'at-ud-Da'wah chief Hafiz Saeed, welcoming the mega star to Pakistan.
The tragedy, however, is that while Saeed is a terrorist, the Indian in question here is a distinguished member of the ruling party. This is where Modi has to show his mettle, stick his neck out, lead from the front, like the way he did by visiting Lahore, and send a clear message to the fringe elements and their misplaced Pakistan obsession and bashing.
It is possible that nothing will change; in fact it might get worse from here, post the Lahore bonhomie. But that is not the point. There is no taking away from Modi that this has been his most significant foreign visit as the prime minister of India.
He behaved like a statesman, as the leader of the largest democracy in the world - large-hearted, generous and willing to take the first step on an unchartered territory. He now has to, if there was a method in what the Opposition is crying as madness, recalibrate his politics, get out of the Bollywoodishness frivolity of his diaspora-centric foreign visits, keep the stray and loose cannons of the party strongly reined in, focus on governance and development and most importantly, start leading the country (instead of the party).
The list is long but workable. But if this proves difficult for you, Mr Prime Minister, my sympathies entirely will go to Mian Nawaz Sharif, for his tasks, unlike yours, are Himalayan and infested with real dangers.
May peace prevail in the subcontinent and may the candles, lit by eternal dreamers like Kuldip Nayar and others, keep burning at the Wagah border, reminding warmongers that their approach was flawed, for despite all their nuanced jargon and strategies, no solution could be achieved and we remained baying for each other's blood for all these years. Thank you Prime Minister Modi, for this out of the box gesture, a grand and decisive departure, I assume, from your own stated political position.
It needs guts and a conviction of an astronomical order for an Indian prime minister to fly in a Pakistan airforce helicopter within Pakistani territory with the prime minister of Pakistan. So even if you are doing politics, as your political opponents are saying, I, as an ordinary citizen of South Asia who wants nothing but peace, prosperity and freedom from fear, will hail it as great politics. I sincerely pray your "misadventure" succeed. Amen!