Girish Nikam
Is this the best way to have ended a year? Or rather is this the best way to begin a new year? With all these anxious questions being asked. Is there going to be a war? Or is it a lot of hot air being blown all over? These last couple of weeks has seen people from all over the world who have any interest in the sub continent constantly asking these questions. This is even as the politicians in both India and Pakistan, ably supported by the media on both sides, create this war hysteria with ambivalent statements and declarations. The result is the ordinary citizens of this country and across the border are ending this extra ordinary year on a rather alarming note.

For all those indulging in this disgusting game of war mongering, it is well known that a war between the two countries would mean a mega disaster. But it has become a game for all of them. All this began after the Bombay terror attacks and the hysteria refuses to die down. “Is India really going to war with Pakistan?”, a friend in Dubai asked apprehensively, worried obviously. Worried because, Indians in the gulf city are over-shadowed by the Pakistanis and their sympathizers. “You know if there is a war, we will really have a problem here”, says the Indian friend. The anxiety is palpable.

And then there are a couple of friends in America, who have cancelled their trip to India, unable to resist the pressure of their friends and family, who feel it is too dangerous to be travelling here. But all this anxiety which is spreading across the world over the heightening tensions between us two south Asian neighbours, seem to be just a game of one-upmanship for politicians on both sides of the border.

It has been quite a revealation during these past few weeks to read almost everyday, the kind of statements emanating from the normally cautious, careful and calibrated External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. If there was one Minister in this cabinet who could always be trusted to make the right statements on all occasions, it was him. But he seems to have turned a new leaf (not a welcome one) ever since the Bombay terror. His sabre-rattling statements have contributed to no less an extent to the gathering war clouds across the two countries.

To add to the already disturbed atmosphere are the statements of UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who also has talked about “all options” being open. And we now hear about Pakistan pulling out troops from the Afghan border and lining them up on the western frontier and India also reciprocating. Both counties of course, deny any such movements on the border. But that does not stop the speculations in the media on both sides of an impending war.Coming to the media, there is almost a palpable sense of expectation about a war. One newspaper even headlined its disappointment, when it said “Pakistan let off the hook”. So what does these newspapers, supposed to be responsible national dailies, or the TV channels whose anchors almost seem to be spoiling for a war, want?

What is equally disturbing is the way in which the UPA government is responding to the hysteria created in the media, by adding fuel to the fire, with hawkish statements.

One gets the feeling that this Government has decided to adopt this stance, with the intention of stealing a march from the BJP. Even as the Bombay terror attack was fresh, one saw two of the senior leaders of the BJP, Arun Shourie and Yeshwant Sinha, virtually goading the Indian government to go to war. One of the most soft spoken leaders of the BJP, a former Minister, Arun Shourie uses a language which betrays the venom which is embedded in that diabolical mind of his. “If they take an eye take two eyes and for a tooth take the whole jaw”, is his philosophy when it comes to dealing with Pakistan and terrorists coming from the across the border.

To be fair to the economist- turned-journalist-turned-politician, this philosophy of his is not new. He has been mouthing it ever since the Parliament attack in 2001, when he was a Minister in the NDA Government and his own government obviously disappointed his morbid instincts and wishes. That has not stopped him from espousing his dangerous philosophy.

And then there is the former External Affairs Minister Yeshwant Sinha, who refuses to believe anything that the Pakistan Government top brass or anyone there says or promises and on the other hand just wants India to take Pakistan by the scruff of the neck and shake them into action against the terrorists coming from across the border and their masters.

Is this the way we need to tackle the terror network? We all know that Pakistan establishment is facing its toughest challenge within its own territory from the fundamentalists. For a newly elected democratic government, not savvy still with handling this problem, what it least needs is the kind of sabre rattling from across the border. If we have to expect them to act against the fundamentalists with evil designs against India, we need to be more understanding.

Obviously this is not the remedy the hawks in the Indian establishment as well as in the media are comfortable with. So we have this competitive jingoism and war mongering, which is dangerous because it can just tip the scales in favour of those fundamentalists and terror-merchants in Pakistan.

As the new year begins one can only hope that we will see sanity prevail on both sides of the border, and both countries get down to cooperate with each other, instead of carping at each other. For there are far more serious problems facing both countries, with the economy on the downslide and thousands of people losing their jobs. If the UPA Government thinks that by competing with the BJP in the hate Pakistan game, it is going to mop up more votes in the next election it is misunderstood. It just has to go back to 2002 and the war games played by the NDA Government, and how it proved counter-productive. It would be better off saving jobs and infusing new life into the economy. As far as tackling terrorism is concerned, it is high time the two countries see it as a joint effort, than to indulge in the completely avoidable tu tu main main, which we have been witness to in the last few weeks. Lets hope better sense prevails as a new year dawns.