Regional Affairs

Defeating Indian design in South Asia? By Pushpa Raj Pradhan A dramatic twist has been witnessed in the South Asian regional affairs after Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa made an unannounced visit to Kabul to discuss on the Afghan peace process with the Afghan leaders last week. The Pakistan Embassy in Kabul on its official Twitter account released a picture of General Bajwa meeting with President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace. The army chief was accompanied by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Pakistan's newly appointed special envoy on Afghanistan, Muhammad Sadiq. No details were provided by the army's media wing of the meeting, which took place two days after US special Afghan envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with General Bajwa and the ISI chief in Islamabad. The top Generals' visit to Afghanistan was apparently an effort to provide help in resolving the Afghan problem by arranging intra-Afghan talks involving the Taliban and Afghan government officials, sources said. It was the first visit to Kabul by a high-ranking Pakistani official since Ghani began his second term in office. This is an indication that Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the process of developing cooperation and confidence on bilateral relations as well as in resolving decades old terrorism related violation in both the countries having porous borders. If the two countries will be able to develop confidence and cooperation, the scenario in the South Asia could be changed along with isolation of India. Modi in India: India is facing a host of domestic problems since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office for the second term with sweeping majority in general elections there in May last year. Clearly, the first term of Modi in office in India was not successful in resolving domestic issues as committed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its election manifesto. Therefore, it was assumed in 2019 general elections that BJP could bag simple majority, though, election result empowered Modi as a strongman, in the meantime, he started to perform as an authoritarian ruler. The party’s election commitments are still impending, the unemployed population has increased, the Indian economy is continuously going down, farmers are in agitation against the government, moreover, India has totally failed in handling Covid-19 pandemic bringing India down to the fourth worst hit country in the globe. The prolonged unsuccessful lockdown – as it was unable to control spread of Covid pandemic -- in India has badly hit the economy as well. Accordingly, the pandemic has created humanitarian crisis there. This is the domestic picture of India and none other than the Indian population and the opposition leaders are condemning the BJP’s authoritarian rule in India. Prime Minister Modi demonstrated authoritarian attitude by abducting the autonomy granted by the Indian constitution to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. By revoking Article 370 and 35a of the Indian Constitution — provisions that provide Kashmir and its residents certain privileges — Modi has made public his expansionist attitude alike late Indira Gandhi, who had annexed Sikkim, an independent Himalayan Kingdom. To note, India occupied independent nation Jammu and Kashmir after her independence from the British rulers in 1947. Since then, people in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding for plebiscite to decide on the fate of the people there. As majority of people were in favour of Kashmir as an independent nation, India never accepted such a demand of the people there, instead, demonstrated extreme brutality by killing hundreds of thousand people, intentionally making them physically disable and raping women folk by using her security personnel. As per an estimate, the Indian security force’s presence in Jammu and Kashmir is larger than the population there. Modi has introduced a draconian law related to the citizenship targeting the Muslims and other minority communities in India, which has demonstrated his hidden intention. Expansionist India: Indian expansionism is not limited within annexation of Hyderabad or Manipur and Tripura or Goa or Sikkim. After a humiliating defeat in war with China in 1962, India has occupied Nepali territory in Kalapani-Limpiyuadhara in the West Nepal. Besides, Indians have been continuously encroaching Nepali territory in different districts including Susta in Nawalparashi district. Nepali border experts have stated that India has encroached Nepali territory in 71 places. In total, 606 square kilometers Nepali territory has been encroached by the Indians. Moreover, Indians had planned to split and grab Nepal’s Tarai districts. Former functionary of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) RK Yadav in his book “Mission RAW” has affirmed that after annexation of Sikkim on 26 April 1975, the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had passed orders to the intelligence agents to devise strategies to gobble Nepal’s Tarai region into the Indian union. The immediate command of this “Split Nepal Operation” was assigned to the then founder and RAW chief Rameshwar Nath Kao. “However, merger of Tarai of Nepal was deferred in view of political turmoil in India when Indira Gandhi declared emergency in the country in June 1975 just after the merger of Sikkim with Indian Union…Unfortunately, when elections were held in 1977, Indira Gandhi was defeated as her party did not come to power and Kao’s operation of merging Tarai and other assignments did not materialize,” the book further reveals. Although, described “special relations” between Nepal and India, in practice, relations are abstract and hostile which are based on Indian hegemonies. Not only particular Nepal, all South Asian countries have been suffering from India and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has become hostage of the Indian hegemony. Perhaps, this is Modi’s neighbourhood first policy! Will scenario be changed?: In the beginning the SAARC concept was floated with the vision of sharing Nepal’s water and hydropower by the countries in the region. Late King Birendra had floated the idea. The hidden concept was developing cooperation among the small nations within the reason. Moreover, Americans had covertly supported the SAARC idea as a move to isolate India, the then USSR ally. The regional cooperation idea was exchanged between the Nepali monarch and Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman and agreed upon the idea of regional cooperation in harnessing natural resources. King Birendra was of the view of including China as origin of many of the Himalayan rivers were from Tibet, China. Amidst the Indian suspect of small countries forming opposition grouping against India and the Pakistani suspect that it could be an Indian strategy to organize the other South Asian countries against Pakistan, the organization for regional cooperation was founded in 1985. The 19th SAARC summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan in November 2016 but India cancelled the summit following an allegation on Pakistan for launching an attack on the Indian army camp in Kashmir. Since then, the regional forum has remained inactive, in the meantime, India has tried to promote BIMSTEC by excluding Pakistan and Afghanistan, SAARC member countries. Conclusion: Afghanistan and Pakistan are immediate neighbours sharing long porous borders and both the countries are the victims of terrorism for decades. As like in other South Indian countries, India has hatched different missions aiming destabilization in these countries followed by Indian supremacy. Americans as well as the Indians contributed a lot for intensifying hostility in relations between the two nations. Nevertheless, leaderships in both the countries might have been aware that foreign sponsored terrorism can rarely be defeated without joint efforts. Therefore, it is assumed, the Pakistani general’s trip to Afghanistan could be a goodwill mission in establishing confidential relations, although, except from release of the photographs of the meeting between the Afghanistan President and Pakistani Army chief, details about the meeting have not been disclosed by both the sides. Not to forget, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and even Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are visibly alienated from interventionist Indian policy.