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The Agra 2001 Summit - Shades of Munich 1938
Many Indians (and Americans) would call us spoilsports. They would say that we are jumping the gun (no pun here) while implying that the Agra Summit will fail miserably like the one at Munich did in 1938 with the outbreak of World War - II in 1939.
Many Indian peaceniks would ask us "Hey what do you mean?? Is the Agra Summit between our beloved Prime Minister Vajpayee ji and "His Excellency" Pervez Musharraf lead to another Kargil or another and most devastating Indo-Pakistani War??"
Our answer is YES.
This is precisely where we are heading towards. With the Pakistanis making no bones that they are coming to Agra seeking Kashmir. Seeking to make the new India-Pakistan border at the Banihal Pass (where the Jawahar Tunnel goes through the Himalayan ranges to divide the Jammu region from the Kashmir Valley.
Please do not appear shocked. Yes the Pakistanis want the new India-Pakistan border to be pushed back to the Jammu region. Have they not said that Kashmir is the "Core" issue. And how do they want this core issue to be settled. By incorporation of Kashmir into Pakistan. And effectively a further south-eastward movement of the LOC.
Pakistan is today carrying forward a One Thousand year legacy of the eastward movement of the LOC
The LOC (Line of Control) has been moving south-eastwards for the last one thousand years since the Muslims first invaded Gandhara (Kandahar in today's Afghanistan) that was ruled by the Hindu Shahiya kings up to the 10th century. Since then the Line of Muslim Control (or LOMC for short) has been moving south-eastwards. In fact in 1326, it had touched the southernmost point at Kanya Kumari when Malik Kafur trampled all the Hindu kingdoms in Peninsular India.
This south-eastward movement of the LOMC had been reversed by the Kingdom of Vijaynagar who push the LOMC north upto the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers (the Raichur Doab) in 1350 and the LOMC was further pushed northwards from Pune up to Delhi (from 1630 up to 1720) and up to Attock (in 1756) by the Marathas.
All this may sound weird to an average reader today. They may say; "What the heck are you talking about. And where does the Agra Summit figure in all this crap of yours."
It does my dear friends, it does. It was the valiant struggle of the repressed Indian population that ultimately freed India from Muslim rule in the 18th century, just before the country was again overrun by the British.
The LOMC was finally fixed at Wagah and Dera Baba Nanak in 1947. But the defeated erstwhile Muslim rulers of India, never accepted this rolling back of the LOMC from Kanya Kumari (where they had reached in 1326) to Wagah in 1947.
In 1947, the theologians at Dar-ul-ullum Deoband, the leading Madrassah, were even opposed to the partition of India, since they wanted the whole of India to be Dar-ul-Islam (Islamic Country).
The rulers of Pakistan want exactly the same thing, the only difference is that they are being diplomatic in saying that they are interested in Kashmir. Kashmir is the core issue is what they say; but in their minds the fact remains that the occupation and Islamization of India is the Real issue!
And given a chance they will get it. "Lad key Liya Pakistan, Has Key Leyngey Hindustan", "We acquired Pakistan through a fight, and we will acquire India with a smile", is what Pakistanis and many Indian Muslims say.
The Prithviraj Syndrome
But most Indians are still caught up in the Prithviraj Syndrome. A syndrome that led many Indian kings to pardon and set free the invaders of their country, only to be set upon once again by these fiendish invaders and second time unlucky they paid with their lives, and their country's sovereignty But we have not yet learnt the lesson of history. We still want to talk peace with Pakistan which wants to further move the LOMC to the Banihal Pass and then on to New Delhi and then on to the Vindhyas and then to Kanya Kumari if that is at all possible.
We do not want to sound alarmist here. We are just stating what is their in the mindset of an average Pakistani ranger upwards in the Pakistani Army to its CEO-cum-President-cum-CIC.
We can ignore this reality only at our peril.
If we have learnt anything from our one thousand year encounter with the theology-inspired hoodlums, then while we extend one hand to greet the representative of Pakistan, we should keep our mind on rapid weaponization that would include the Neutron device, Nuclear subs, ICBMs, and above all Indian version of the NMD. The only advice we can give to the Government of India is to consider every Pakistani to be an enemy till he proves that he is a friend, that is in the unlikely possibility of his proving himself so.
Or else we would be making the same mistake today that Neville Chamberlain did while meeting Hitler at Munich in 1938 with the devastating Second World War that unfortunately but inevitably followed. It remains to be seen what will follow the Agra Summit!!
The CORE Issue
Going beyond the national frame of reference one needs to realize that between India and Pakistan the core issue is not Kashmir. It is the challenge of theology-inspired terrorism to global peace. This is the CORE issue between India and Pakistan as also between Israel and the Palestinians, between Albanian Muslims and the Slavs in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Bosnia, between the Philippines and Abu Sayyaf, between the street gangs at Bradford, Leeds, Burnley, Oldham in UK and finally between the rest of the civilized world and the clutch of theology-inspired criminal gangs sponsored by Osama Bin Laden.
Needless to add here that all forms of religious and non-religious fanaticism are a danger to progress and global peace. The fanaticism represented by those who washed the memorial of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi with water from the river Ganga (which is assumed to be holy by the devout among the Hindus), to purify it after it was visited by the visiting Pakistani ruler, is as condemnable as any other. In addition, their antics give a bad name to India. But in the current global context the fanaticism of the theology-inspired terrorists is the most dangerous, since is most widespread and most organised, hence it is gets more attention than other forms of fanaticism which are as retrograde but practically more easy to overcome.
In this context, the India-Pakistan chapter is but one part of the global civilizational struggle between the forces representing human civilization, progress, global peace against those of theology-inspired terrorism lead by criminal gangs like the Al Quieda, Lahkar-e-Toiba, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc and the theocratic dictatorships of Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Islamic world.
But not everyone today would see the connection between the various regional conflicts and realise that all these conflicts have one origin - the expansionist terrorist philosophy of the Islamic Jihad. That is also the root and invisible cause of the India-Pakistan conflict.
Hence the solution to this malady has to be global and not regional, it has to be permanent and not transitory.
So Vajpayee and Musharraf may as well talk across the table, but what each of them can best plan and be prepared for is another India-Pakistan encounter that would keep up the tradition of 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999. The only difference this time would be the presence of nuclear tipped ICBMs landing on both sides!
To predict such an outcome for the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit is unkind and unoptimistic; but there is no other option.
The Day-by-day story of the Agra Summit:
Last Day of Summit - Failure and now What Next - War??
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