Media war, not a solution | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Media war, not a solution

Pakistan Press Foundation

The media war waged by India in the wake of PM Nawaz Sharif’s speech at the UN General Assembly on September 21 highlighting Indian brutalities in Kashmir provoked the terms nuclear strikes, surgical strikes and Cold Start.

Cold Start doctrine is an offensive military doctrine developed by India in 2004 to conduct offensive operations by various branches of India’s military. Pakistan developed a defensive mechanism to counter the threat of this offensive doctrine. These terms started circulating in social media as well as electronic media by the people without them knowing its meaning. But what everybody could comprehend was that Indian forces were escalating at the border to attack Pakistan. Along with the PM’s speech, attack at Uri added fuel to the fire and India found an excuse to disrupt the option of dialogue blaming Pakistan the responsible of attack. The evidence essential to before assigning responsibility were absent, just like in the like Bombay attack and Pathankot incident.
On the other hand, Pakistan has all the evidence of Indian atrocities in Kashmir which were provided to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Sometimes Ibsen’s illusionary world appears charming in contrast to reality but only in the matters of individual’s happiness and satisfaction, but when it’s the matter of right of self-determination and freedom of a nation, illusions or hallucination cannot work. Its reason and reality that prevails. India has no other option than to realise the reality and act accordingly.

India cannot deny the right of self-determination to Kashmiris as it has been authorised in the partition plan of India and recognised by international organisations. Above all the UN Security Council vowed to resolve the issue as per the desires of Kashmiris, which has yet to be acted upon.

Seven decades have passed that Kashmiris are dreaming of freedom and in this dream encapsulating seventy years they have lost countless precious lives of innocent people. Burhan Wani the symbol of the ‘intifada’ as declared by PM has invigorated the whole freedom movement and people have now reached the point of no return. “Do or die”, There is no other option for the Kashmiri Muslims. Had it been desirable for them to live under the rule of Indians, there was no need for separation or for a new homeland Pakistan. Unfortunately, the Kashmiris got freedom from British but got caught in the clutches of the Indians. India due to its biasedness and jingoistic policies is ready to go for war rather than free them. Hats off to Muslim leaders and our dear Quaid who succeeded in getting freedom from both British and Hindu masters.

The 1965 and 1971 wars were inflicted on Pakistan considering it weak. Now Pakistan has maintained the balance of power and if India tries to disturb this balance, results will be equally destructive for both of the countries, besides threating the peace of whole region. In a TV program, an Indian journalist was talking of the options of surgical strikes. He should have realised that surgical strikes also means waging war against another country. Pakistan is not Nepal, Bhutan or Afghanistan that it will silently accept the military and moral dominance of India. Pakistan has the capability to strike back and then there will be no option than to wage complete war against each other annihilating the whole generation. Pakistan is a Muslim country and the beliefs of Muslims give them passion to fight. They are not cowards like Indians who did not cross the bridge in the 1965 war with a fear of being caught by the enemy. They are not believers of the philosophy “as flies to wanton boys, so are we to gods, they kill us for their sport.”

India should realise that the geo-strategic realities of the world have changed. The world has transformed into multipolar from bipolar. The world order defined after the Cold War period and then after 9/11 has given birth to bilateralism and multilateralism. Pakistan has thus been successful in establishing good relationship with its neighboruing countries like China, Iraq, Iran and Russia, and is stronger. The whole world has realised and understood the stand of Pakistan on Kashmir and has offered full support to Pakistan. The world now realises that Pakistan is not promoting terrorism, rather it is the victim of terrorism. Operation Zarb-e-Azb launched against terrorists has been successful and Pakistan is in a far better position to advocate its point of view on Kashmir and the issue of terrorism. India needs not to be defensive or offensive for it is not a victim of terrorism rather it is persecuting minorities and trying to subjugate Kashmiris with an illusion of joining Kashmir with India. Kashmiris are not fighting the war for capturing an area rather they are fighting for their right of living a free life provided to them by nature and whenever we go against nature it takes revenge.

In contrast to Indian media, Pakistani media is playing its role responsibly, realising the gravity of the situation. I was enthralled by two national dailies of Pakistan expressing their serious concern over the deteriorating condition of Indo-Pak relations while publishing their editorials on the front page. All print and electronic media took serious notice of India’s hyperbolism and jingoism. We need to act with maturity and responsibility and act as a nation, not as political or social groups. Its unity that can defeat the enemy. We lost East Pakistan when the sense of nationalism was fragile. We are passing through a very sensitive phase of history. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past but learn from the past with a vision to uphold the supremacy of the nation.

The Nation