Ref: –
(i)- Democracy will not come in charity.
(ii)- Need to be on guard against Indian example & media propaganda.
(iii)- UN / USA & its democratic allies can’t be relied upon.
Dear Sir
If Karachi mid-night blast of last week (in which about 140 persons lost their lives and about 500 were injured) was merely in a party rally where people gathered (despite warning, by every one, of such blast) in thousands around Benazir Bhutto to greet their 8 years self exiled leader and to show their allegiance to Benazir and solidarity with political party (PPP) which Benazir presides, then it is a different matter.
But if these lives have been lost & injuries suffered for the cause of restoration of democracy in Pakistan then the people of Pakistan ought to keep the following in mind before offering further martyrdom for democracy: –
(1)- Monarchies / autocracies (in any form, supported by armed forces) has been the mode of rule during entire recorded history of mankind. Democracy can usher only when people’s civilian political power has capacity to overwhelm the armed forces of any country.
(2)- Democracy cannot come as charity. In India, democracy came & survived precisely due to independence struggle fought mainly under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi where large numbers of Indians were mobilized to become a civilian political force to reckon with. (Though it may be a debatable point whether Indians, who never raised their guns for freedom and where their martial element was happily drawing salaries from their British masters during entire independence struggle, could have achieved independence in 1947 had Britishers not got debilitated after world war II to the extent where they lost every political will to hold its colonies).
(3)- Pakistan has been experiencing military rules now and then since its independence because in Pakistan there has not been any such mass mobilization of civilian political forces. Rather on the contrary leaders of its two major political parties, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, left and abandoned Pakistan in the face of pressure & threat from Military rulers.
(4)- But notwithstanding contemporary fashion of eulogizing it, the democracy in India also is skin deep only, as is evident from the following: –
(i)- Had Indira Gandhi not called elections (for the reasons best known to her only, but not the least, due to any democratic pressure) , not a single feather would have fluttered in India and democracy would have been buried deeply under the weight of emergency imposed in 1975 by Indira Gandhi.
(ii)- The hullabaloo raised by Indian leaders & journalists in its print & electronic media about death of democracy in Pakistan is due to simple reason that nothing is more relishing to constitutionally secular India than any news of political trouble in Pakistan as it tantamount proving that Pakistan (responsible in popular Indian perception, for 1947 partition and for terrorism in & from J&K) is a failed State (and all the more matter for glee if it is due to Muslim fundamentalism, allegedly responsible for said partition & terrorism).
(iii)- Here it is quite educative to note that nothing disturbs India when democracy dies in Bangladesh. Also in Myanmar India merely keeps government of Aung San Suu Kyi in exile on Indian soil and does not provide any worthwhile help, in the interest of democracy, to this government in exile contrary to what it provided (least for democratic reasons) to government of Bangladesh (another breakaway Muslim country) in exile led by Sheikh Mujib Rehman.
(5)- The commitment of USA and its democratic allies can hardly be relied upon. USA, which made an offer this year to India to form an alliance of democratic countries, is still a non-starter. It is absurd for any country to preach democracy to any other country (in the face of resistance to democracy from military rule) without giving any preferential treatment to it on account of democracy
(6)- Moreover UN (which is situated on the soil of USA) has yet not developed a mechanism for the citizens of its member States for securing their human rights against its violation by the governments of their countries (by taking a lame excuse by UN that the counties have not signed optional protocol authorizing UN’s intervention, as if it ought to be a discretion with member States). UN / USA & its democratic allies do not realize that democracy is not worth any thing if the people can not enforce their guaranteed human / fundamental rights against the arbitrariness of their governments & judiciary.
(7)- By merely laying down the lives (without intelligently pursuing the mission in a focused manner) it does not lead anywhere. This should be evident from the case of Kashmiris also, who have already lost, as per media report, the lives of about 1,00,000 (even as per EU’s report about 80,000) of their people for the cause of “Unified Kashmir”. But so far Kashmiris have reached nowhere near it (rather now a days these so called freedom fighters are engaged in fratricidal war as is evident also from their last week scuffle in Eidgah at Shrinagar between two factions of Hurriyat).
(8)- This does not mean that the people of Pakistan cannot or should not struggle for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. The only refrain is simple that if people of Pakistan (in their wisdom) decides to take their struggle further and are prepared to further offer martyrdom for democracy, then they should single mindedly focus on “Democratic Republic of Pakistan” without expecting much help & real support from outside.
(9)- Also people of Pakistan should be further wary of and on guard against any tacit or manifest understanding (independently or under the aegis of some foreign country / countries) between military ruler (Musharraf or any other future military ruler) and politicians (Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif etc.) in order to keep military ruler in constitutional position in one or the other form. Because this will render “Republic” as nothing more than a political fraud & constitutional farce especially in view of martyrdom of these 140 persons and of other more persons who are likely to lay down their lives for the thus chosen mission of “Democratic Republic of Pakistan”.
Yours truly
Hem Raj Jain
208, Supriya, Plot # 20, Sector – 10, Dwarka,
New Delhi -110075, INDIA.
Ph: – +91 11 32940177, Mob: 09871194983, 0971365288