If this is how Pakistan was going to gift away Kashmir to India, why did it prolong the agony for 70 years?
Just when you thought that things couldnʼt possibly get any worse, the strong men who rule us demonstrated their ability to surprise us with their diplomacy and concern for humanity.
As I watched our cricketing hero Imran Khan invite the big man in the White House to mediate on Kashmir, I knew the celebration would be short-lived and this will come back to haunt him.
In less than a month since then, India stripped Kashmir of its special status and won the war with a single flourish of the pen. Jammu and Kashmir’s geography changed overnight as it was demoted to a union territory and its autonomy was snatched away.
The Valley has largely remained cut-off from the world for over a fortnight now. There are rumours that many men with suspicious links have been picked up.
From a humanitarian point of view, this is a gross violation of civil liberties and freedoms. But as a strategy for building an empire, it has been very successful. We can cry as much as we want, but why are we surprised?
Modi delivered on his promise
Narendra Modi did what he said he would do. Love him or hate him, he delivered on his promise. His party’s manifesto had promised abrogation of Article 370 if voted back to power. He made his intentions clear in all his interviews.
So, when a leading news channel asks me if “Modi has bowled a googly to Imran”, my simple answer is No.
I have personally found these cricketing references tiresome and to compare the human catastrophe in Kashmir to a googly is particularly distasteful. But to use the same analogy, I would say the selectors knew they were bypassing merit when they chose a bowler as their opening batsmen.
Young Pakistanis are angry
What is shocking is that in the past 70 years, Pakistani children have been force-fed a dream of ‘Kashmir banega Pakistan’.
Overseas Kashmiris from Srinagar sussed it out a long time ago that no one was serious about listening to their demands. They told me how disillusioned they were and that they were just being used as human shields.
My email and WhatsApp have been flooded with angry, disappointed messages from young Pakistanis – If this is how they were going to gift away Kashmir to India, why were they prolonging the agony of women and children for 70 years?
I donʼt have the heart to remind them that I did warn them through my TV shows and during private conversations.
I had seen the competencies of those drawing hefty official salaries and informal benefits for championing the Kashmir cause in the US and the UK, and was far from being impressed.
Indeed, I had withdrawn from events organised for Kashmir over the past two years, knowing fully well that these were just opportunities for lavish dinner and empty sloganeering, not to mention free travel.
One Kashmiri crew member remembered my show from February 2016 wherein I had discussed Imran Khanʼs plan for a three-way split of Kashmir.
Some remembered my comment after the new PM gave interviews to Indian journalists on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for Kartarpur corridor last year. These young men called me up to say: “Maʼam every word you said is turning out to be true”. I replied, “Pray that my words don’t come true”.
Imran Khan says he knew it all
To add insult to injury, the Pakistan PM stood up in parliament during a joint session only to confess that he was aware of Modi’s plans in Kashmir. For the benefit of the public, he went in great detail to convince us that he was guilty as charged.
He admitted that from the minute he took office, he was repeatedly shunned by an arrogant Modi. Post-Pulwama, he was convinced that there was no hope of a friendship with Modi.
One wonders why then did the Kaptaan campaign for Modi before the general elections in India.
In April first week, the skipper assured the world that Modi would resolve the issue of Kashmir if re-elected. Since Imm the Dimm is a nickname Imran detests, one must assume that his prediction was based on a careful analysis of the information available to him as the great leader.
After all his party frequently brags about the wonderfully agreeable symbiotic relationship the government shares with the military leadership.
And he was right. Modi did resolve the issue once and for all. Closing the door on any future dialogue on Kashmir.
So unprepared and clueless were the news channels in Pakistan that they started a news campaign on the possible death of separatist leader Yasin Malik who has been in prison for months now.
But, of course, our PM knew it all, he claims.
Clean bowled or fixed match?
Now Imran Khan has taken to Twitter and parliament to educate us on the ideology of the RSS, which he says resembles that of Nazi Germany.
Keen followers of the Kaptaan know by now that Germany and the world wars are his area of expertise. It could be his subject of choice on the TV show ‘Mastermind’ once he hangs up his PM cloaks.
Of course judging by his first year in power, he seems to be planning for at least a decade of progress under his visionary leadership.
One is hesitant to raise a humble question in an environment where TV anchors like Najam Sethi find even their YouTube shows being taken down.
I will dare to regardless.
If the writing was on the wall, why did the skipper not change his placing in the field?
Why could he not find a gap to score a boundary?
Was he clean bowled by Modi or was it a fixed match?
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