Pulwama incident: Indian general urges caution

LAHORE: Following his pro-dialogue and anti-war comment over the recent incident in Held Kashmir, Navjot Singh Sidhu, famous Indian Cricketer and a driving force behind the opening of the Kartarpur border with Pakistan, has been asked by his employers “Sony TV” to step down from the widely watched “Kapil Sharma Show.”

Sidhu said he had no comments to offer on reports that he had been dropped from ‘The Kapil Sharma Show,’ adding: “I will not be cowed down by trolls and media houses controlled by the BJP. Everyone knows who is behind all this (Sidhu bashing).”

It goes without saying that no one from the Congress has batted for Sidhu this time around.

Punjab Congress chief, Sunil Jakhar, who had supported Sidhu after his hug to Pakistani Army Chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, during Imran Khan’s swearing in ceremony in August 2018, said he would not like to comment on Sidhu’s remarks.

“Whether Sidhu has been removed from ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ has nothing to do with the party,” he said.

It is imperative to note that after an explosive-laden vehicle had rammed into one of the buses out of a 70-truck Indian Army convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district a couple of days ago, Sidhu had said, "For a handful of people, can you blame the entire nation and can you blame an individual? It (the attack) is a cowardly act and I condemn it firmly. Violence is always condemnable and those who did it must be punished.”

However, according to the “India Today,” his comments did not go down well with the extremist Hindus and the former cricketer had to receive a massive backlash on social media and in the streets.

Meanwhile, according to the “Hindustan Times,” Navjot Sidhu said that he would not be cowed down by trolls for his comments on the Pulwama attack, but the Akali Dal and the BJP have demanded of the Congress Party to expel him from their ranks.

Talking to media, a former Indian minister, Bikram Singh Majithia, asserted: “It seems Sony TV and ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ organizers are more patriotic than the Congress, which is sitting mutely while its senior minister bats for Pakistan and its terror machine. I want to ask Rahul if he will sit quietly and bear the insult meted out to the country and its soldiers by Sidhu. Sidhu should be sacked promptly or Indians will surmise that his statement was made at the directions of Rahul.”

According to the “Hindustan Times,” the BJP’s Punjab chief and Rajya Sabha member, Shwait Malik, called Sidhu a “traitor” and urged all Indians to boycott him socially.

“Sidhu has been living in India but continually praising Pakistan and its Prime Minister. The whole country is mourning the death of soldiers but Sidhu has been favouring Pakistan. Why doesn’t he shift there permanently?” said Malik.

Another retired Indian Army Major General, GD Bakshi, was among those who had attacked Sidhu for what he deemed was an "inappropriate comment.”

Some sane voices can also be heard across India at the same time.

For example, a retired Indian military commander, Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, has urged caution in the wake of the incident.

Talking to the “Associated Press,” the former Indian general viewed that while "some kind of limited military strike against Pakistan was more than likely," he hoped for "rethinking and reconciliation" from all sides in the conflict.

The “New York Times” has written: “The former general, who commanded the Indian army's northern command in charge of the frontier with Pakistan in Kashmir and counterinsurgency operations, oversaw India's "surgical strikes" in September 2016 after militants attacked a military base in the frontier town of Uri near the highly militarized Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir.”

Another widely-subscribed Indian media outlet “The Economic Times” has revealed: “India on Saturday hiked the customs duty on all goods imported from Pakistan to 200% with immediate effect, a day after it revoked the most favoured nation (MFN) status that it had given its neighbour in 1996.”

The frustration of Indian government can be gauged even more from an “NDTV” report that the country's top intelligence officers along with Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, have held a closed-door meeting in Delhi on Saturday to prepare a dossier on Pakistan's involvement in the Pulwama car bomb attack.The “Indian Express” confirms the development: “A dossier, nailing the culpability of Pakistan in the terror attack in Pulwama, will be given to the FATF, an international terror financing watchdog, to expose the neighbouring country's links with terrorism and seeking its blacklisting, officials said Saturday. Security agencies are preparing the dossier with the evidence gathered so far related to the attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and the help being provided to the outfit by the country, they said. This will be a dossier on Pakistani agencies' links with the JeM and how the terror group is being aided by them, a security official said.”

The leading Indian media house adds: “If the FATF blacklists Pakistan, it may lead to downgrading of the country by multilateral lenders like IMF, World Bank, ADB, EU and also a reduction in risk rating by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch. Pakistan has been put on the grey list of the anti-terror finance watchdog in July 2018. The FATF currently has 35 members and two regional organizations European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. North Korea and Iran are in the FATF blacklist.”

So tense is the situation in India that veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar and his wife actress Shabana Azmi have decided not to attend an event in Pakistan, the “Khaleej Times” states.

Javed Akhtar took to Twitter on Friday to share that they would not be joining the event, being organized by the Karachi Art Council.

"Karachi Art Council had invited Shabana and me for a two-day literature conference about Kaifi Azmi and his poetry. We have cancelled that," he had tweeted.

Shabana said that she was "filled with pain and grief,” adding, “for the first time in all these years, I feel weakened in my belief that people to people contact can force the establishment to do the right thing. We will need to call halt to cultural exchange. There is no way we can carry on with cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan even as our martyrs are laying down their lives for us. I stand in solidarity with the grieving families.”

Research further shows that India has become a lot more intolerant to the 'voices' of dissent under BJP rule and the dissenting voices are consistently under attack in the world’s “largest democracy” for the last many years.

As the climate for free expression has severely deteriorated in India during the last few years, unless the cycle of impunity is broken, those who want to use violence to silence will feel encouraged for sure.

Remember, in Nov 2015, after the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs had cancelled an NGO Greenpeace's permit to operate in India, human rights activists and environment campaigners had criticized the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi--saying their efforts had led to harassment and other reprisals since it took power.

The “Al-Jazeera Television” had aired a report in November 2015 stating: “Teesta Setalvad is a rights activist working with survivors of the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat state, in which nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. At the time, Modi was Gujarat's chief minister. After the riots, Setalvad set up Citizens for Justice and Peace - a legal rights initiative to ensure victims' stories were heard in Indian courts.”

The Doha-based channel had added: “Setalvad's organisation's legal aid to riot victims has led to the conviction of 126 perpetrators, including a minister of the former state government and some Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party members. But her work has come at a price. Since 2004, she has been detained seven times, accused by Indian police of embezzlement, kidnapping, and tutoring witnesses - allegations she denies.”

Priya Pillai, a worker of Greenpeace India, which focuses on climate change and coal mining in the country, was removed just before takeoff from a flight to London, where she was scheduled to apprise British lawmakers about controversial coal-mining projects overseen by UK-based firms. Indian authorities said her name was on a list of people not allowed to leave the country.

The Modi government had alleged that Greenpeace India's work was aimed at derailing

According to Greenpeace India, since June 2014, the government has blocked its foreign funding that accounted for about 30 percent of its budget.

Similarly, Christine Mehta, a researcher at Amnesty International India, was deported from the country after she had finished a report about human rights violations committed by the Indian army in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the Indian social media has seen an exponential rise in bloodlust post-Pulwama attack, with everyone pointing a finger at Pakistan, but what is fascinating is that unlike the general public, the veterans have a very different attitude towards the incident.

One member of the armed forces wrote on the Twitter, “Been there, done that. Assembled body parts of my buddy & took him home, there were six, I don’t know which mother got which part head/heart of which cast/religion, part of my soul went with them. Stop talking revenge/war sitting on easy chairs. Fight terror in any way if you can.”

Colonel (Retired) DK Pillay wrote, “Not illegal to go to war, it is immoral and inhuman to think of it as a solution. Be calm, wise men will find a way to resolve the conflict. The price is paid by children, widows and parents. Mahabharata teaches us the futility of a victory at the cost of a generation! India can and will!”

Major (R) DP Singh took to Facebook to write about how news channels behave in times like these. He wrote, “We stand by you, we stand by martyrs and their families. We must avenge the dastardly act. But the question is for how long? The question is, are we making some efforts which will improve the overall system?”