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Friday March 29, 2024

The Naltar tragedy and our image

Tragedies have a way of moving attention towards horizons that we generally ignore when life’s flow seems normal. The helicopter-crash in Naltar is no exception. The sad incident that took the lives of honourable diplomats, spouses of diplomats and the flight crew, has thrown into limelight again the issue of

By Syed Talat Hussain
May 11, 2015
Tragedies have a way of moving attention towards horizons that we generally ignore when life’s flow seems normal. The helicopter-crash in Naltar is no exception. The sad incident that took the lives of honourable diplomats, spouses of diplomats and the flight crew, has thrown into limelight again the issue of Pakistan’s image and how our adversaries want to make use of opportunities created either by our own incompetence or by quirk of fate.
Crashes are unavoidable. This is how all flyers see the hazards that define their duty. This is also what all stepping aboard a flying machine have in the back of their minds. Whether they express it or not, everyone – except daredevils and stunt-persons – wants to avoid a contest with gravity, knowing full well that what goes up can come down.
Yet errors can be avoided, procedures can be tightened and risks brought to near-zero. The probe into the crash has to focus fully on this side of the tragedy and, without any fear or favour, bring to the fore what led to the collapse and fall of the big bird. Any assessment that tries to be smart with its findings and general in its recommendations will be useless and pointless, besides compounding the negative mark the incident has left on our national name.
We must not forget that this is not an ordinary event. Almost one-sixth of the world’s nations had their representatives on a trip that ended in death and grief. The deaths of diplomats and diplomat’s spouses and injuries to any number of others are deep scars. National mourning, ministers accompanying the remains, or the prime minister calling up heads of the bereaved or affected countries are all gestures that have temporary value. The questions that these countries would have in their minds relate to ‘what caused the crash’. And these need to be answered in considerable detail.
We cannot treat this probe in the manner that we have treated all such probes throughout our history. Not a single incident – aviation tragedies or other events – has ever led to an investigation whose findings are known and shared with the public, much less debated openly. Everything remains classified. This investigation cannot be so. Officialdom has to depart from the usual tradition of sweeping everything under the carpet and then insist that doing so is required by ‘national interest’. If the nation’s flag is flying half-mast then this nation and those whose representatives have come in harm’s way on our soil must be taken into confidence and told the truth, unequivocally.
The tragedy has also highlighted two other important facets of the struggle to change the negative narrative about Pakistan as a country that only produces bad news. Just when everyone from every corner of the country’s decision-making machinery was pointing towards a technical fault being the possible cause of the crash, a certain militant group claimed responsibility for an imagined attack. The story was immediately picked up international websites from where it landed in the propaganda mills of the Indian media that loves to grind them hard when it comes to Pakistan. Then onwards the nature and slant of coverage of the events of Naltar on Indian channels and postulations of ready-to-hand analysts started to border on madness.
We heard the strangest possible constructions of what might have caused the helicopter to come down – from internal sabotage to extraneous attack to rigged engines to suicide missions, but none, not a single take in Indian media on this event, was willing to entertain the possibility of this being a pure accident. The sickness that parades on Indian screens in the name of analysis of news from Pakistan is nothing new. Nor should it be shocking to anyone. The sustained effort of this coverage always is to prove that Pakistan is a crumbling, collapsing state.
What made this depiction somewhat unique was how the Indian media gurus felt it was ok to gloat over an incident that had taken the lives of diplomats and therefore involved the emotions of other nations as well. It seemed as if nothing mattered to them except what looked like an opening to establish that, regardless of how much the world invests in Pakistan, its core institutions are incapable of measuring up to global standards of performance.
Such conduct is as pathetic as it is tragic in its own right. It serves as another reminder to the Indo-philes in our midst that those who sit across the border will never tire of running this country down. They would lap up half chances in this regard and even invent where none exist to keep on reinforcing negativity about Pakistan.
This should also jolt the Sharif government back into reality that its desire to create bonhomie with Delhi through trains of good-will messages and gifts is meaningless. There is no reciprocity on the other side. There is just poison. They rejoice at our sorrows. They mourn our moments of relief. There was a time when such duplicity was couched in colourful casing and, therefore, looked less scandalous. But now with Narendra Modi in charge of India, this thin veneer of formalities has been taken off. Mortars or media, Delhi openly uses all kinds of malevolence at its command to cause hurt and harm to Pakistan.
This brings us to the main point that the Naltar tragedy has italicised for our collective consideration; and it is not about giving India a punch back in the face – that would be too reactive and short-sighted, even if hugely tempting and totally just. The point concerns our own collective performance, our internal divides and constant dissipation of energies on trivial pursuits that have made the country totally vulnerable to external moves and manoeuvres.
Such is the baggage of our own failings that even an accident becomes a challenge for our national image, forcing us to suffer extra agonies trying to avoid global ridicule and thrashing. While we have lost thousands of lives and have practically put our heads on the chopper for others, yet we are seen as the villain of the piece rather than a nation of valour and grit.
Clearly, the world is not going to give us a break or give us an extra mark for our effort. And when the slimmest chance of this happening arrives, our ill-wishers will be there to scuttle it. Our salvation lies only in one way: We have to up our game in every respect. We cannot be managing the flow of negative news from our land all the time. We have to ensure that the volume of negative news drops considerably through improved performance in every sector.
National images are built through collective, conscious effort on all fronts – from culture to nuclear capability, from supersonic jets to schools and sports, from eradication of terrorism to eradication of disease, helplessness and absence of justice. Nations that try to fly on the wings of singular achievements against heavy odds don’t go very far. The Naltar tragedy’s aftermath tells us pointedly that the road to building a positive picture about our country is tricky, treacherous and long.
Email: syedtalathussain@gmail.com
Twitter: @TalatHussain12