Friday, October 9, 2020

In Pakistan, ‘Modi ka jo yaar hai, woh ghaddar hai’ mood is on

 

 

If Pakistan continues the onslaught of giving out ‘traitor' and 'Indian agent’ certificates, then the day is not far when Indian population will increase by about 22 crore.

Winter is coming, but in Pakistan, the season of ‘Modi ka jo yaar hai, woh ghaddar hai’ is setting the mood. Yes, whoever is Narendra Modi’s friend in Pakistan is a traitor. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is telling opposition leaders that when they criticise Prime Minister Imran Khan and his policies, they tend to make India happy. And when you make India happy, you make Indian Prime Minister Modi happy. That’s not all. According to this new doctrine, anyone happy on this side of the border is making Modi happy. Makes no sense, right?

However, in all this happiness, the ‘Prime Minister’ of Pakistan’s Kashmir has been made unhappy. Raja Farooq Haider just became the latest victim of the government’s hobby of declaring every opposition politician an agent of India and by virtue, a traitor. Haider was named in the mysterious sedition FIR against 40 leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). He was in the august company of two former Pakistani prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, three retired army officers, former Sindh governor, and former defence, interior and law ministers.

The FIR stated that Nawaz Sharif’s speech was aimed to indirectly “benefit his friend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.” The complainant believed Sharif supported the policies of India and his speeches were to divert world’s attention from Indian atrocities in Kashmir. Also, Sharif wanted to isolate Pakistan globally and defame Pakistan Army as “an anti-democratic institution”.

Kashmir cause with a bias

So, what did PM Haider do that made him ‘Raja Hindustani’? He heard Nawaz Sharif’s fiery speech on Zoom, then raised his hands in solidarity — and the rest, as they say, is history. So much for the ‘Kashmir cause’ that an elected prime minister is booked for raising hands while watching an online speech. A self-goal for a government that claims to be the loudest voice for the Kashmiris living in India but takes a U-turn when it comes to Kashmiris at home. But let’s focus on the bigger issue of making Modi happy.


Looking at this performance of PM Khan, the self-proclaimed ambassador of the Kashmiris, even Sharif took a dig at him saying that Iske sar mein bhoosa bhara hua hai (his head is full of hay).

After facing harsh criticism on the obnoxious sedition case and labelling others as traitors, the Imran Khan government first distanced itself from the complaint and then the complainant, a PTI labour wing office-bearer with a criminal record. While the sedition charge can’t be registered without the State’s compliance, it was said that PM Imran Khan was unhappy over such a case. Also, that the government doesn’t know who was behind the case. Now that is hardly surprising anymore since the PTI government also doesn’t know who runs it. As a great leader once said, “Doing a U-turn to reach one’s objective is the hallmark of great leadership.” The U-turn of social distancing from the sedition FIR was taken. After all, it is the hallmark of the PTI government.

It’s difficult to understand, though, why such a U-turn would be taken. PM Khan is what he calls ‘100 per cent convinced’ that Nawaz is working on India’s behest and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says India and its media are happy over Sharif’s revelations. What, then, stopped the government from pursuing the sedition case? Or is it difficult to measure Indian happiness?

PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz clapped back that India gets happy when a three-time elected former prime minister is booked for treason, and when the ‘Fall of Kashmir’ takes place. India becomes happy when you present Kashmir on a tray to them or when elections are rigged in Pakistan. As a result, a selected government weakens the country, then India gets happy.  

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