Saturday, December 19, 2020
A Covid-19 Surge and Conspiracy Theories Roil Pakistan
By Zia ur-Rehman and Emily SchmallPublic apathy and suspicion, and the government’s inability to enforce health restrictions, are feeding a second wave in a country with a limited social safety net.Iqbal Shaheen, a taxi driver, drove his sick father to this city’s three main hospitals. All of their intensive care beds and ventilators were occupied. Mr. Shaheen was told there might be room at a private hospital, for $625 a day, far above what his earnings of $10 a day could cover. He took his father home to die. “The poor cannot afford to be sick,” Mr. Shaheen said. “Without political connections, a coronavirus patient cannot get admitted at a public hospital, while paying a private hospital’s bills is unthinkable.” As winter sets in, cold weather, pollution and public apathy to the coronavirus are weighing heavily on Pakistan’s limited health care system. Pakistan’s Covid-19 positivity rate has rocketed up to about 7.7 percent of tests administered in recent weeks from only 2 percent in October, prompting a plea from health experts and doctors in Karachi for the government to impose a strict nationwide lockdown. Prime Minister Imran Khan has closed schools but has ruled out a second lockdown, saying it would decimate the economy. “We don’t want to lead people to death due to hunger, while saving them from coronavirus,” Mr. Khan told journalists in November. By official figures, Pakistan is weathering the coronavirus better than the United States, Europe and neighboring India. Total infections have reached 448,522, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University using official figures, and more than 9,000 people have died. Still, cases are surging, and limited testing compared with other countries suggests the virus could be racing through the country at an even higher rate. Health experts cite ineffective government limits on personal contact and widespread doubts, often fueled by conspiracy theories, that Covid-19 poses a threat. Pakistan was also lulled into a false sense of security. A widely predicted rise in infections over the summer failed to show up in official numbers. Government restrictions on travel or the overall youth and resilience of Pakistan’s population may have contributed. “Pakistanis remained safe during the first wave and didn’t face a serious situation like seen in other countries, mainly because of God’s special blessings,” said Dr. Qaiser Sajjad, a leader of the Pakistan Medical Association. The second wave is proving more lethal. Some hospitals are turning away patients. In Dr. Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital in Karachi, managers are scrambling for beds. “The government seems to have failed to enforce health guidelines,” Dr. Sajjad said. At the Holy Family Hospital in the city of Rawalpindi, virus wards that had been nearly empty are beginning to fill. Now, about a quarter of the 120-bed facility has been taken up, said Dr. Akhtar Mehmood, the hospital’s coronavirus coordinator, though patients are in worse condition than during the first wave. “This is a major difference,” he said, adding that the hospital can take more patients as needed. Despite the rise, people in Karachi show few signs of concern. Even as the positive testing rate topped 18 percent in the city of 20 million, markets were packed with shoppers without masks. Buses were full. Overflow passengers rode on the roofs. Winter is wedding season. At night, people embrace and shake hands at crowded indoor ceremonies.
Over the summer, when official figures showed infections falling, Mr. Khan’s government credited its strategy of limited lockdowns. It had called in the Pakistan military, which plays an outsize role in the democratic country’s politics and is relatively well-organized and disciplined compared with the civil government. It also cited knowledge it had gained through a polio eradication effort.
“One clear consistent hallmark has been a coordinated, professional, data-driven, epidemiological response,” said Dr. Faisal Sultan, an adviser to Mr. Khan and Pakistan’s de facto health minister. “That’s the one thing that differentiates Pakistan from other countries.”
Dr. Sultan faulted the rising caseload on lax compliance with health guidelines on mask wearing and strangers mingling at weddings and protests. Still, he said, data showed that state interventions were working.
Other evidence cast doubt on the effectiveness of the government’s response. Under pressure from religious groups in the deeply conservative country, the government weakened many social distancing efforts almost immediately after enacting them.
When police tried to prevent worshipers from gathering at mosques for prayers during the peak of coronavirus cases in April, they found themselves under attack. In Karachi, some worshipers chased the police through narrow alleyways, pelting them with rocks and sending several officers to the hospital.
The government has proved equally ineffective at imposing restrictions as it battles a second wave.
Thousands of people have attended anti-government rallies in recent weeks. Religious congregations have ignored the official ban on assemblies.
“People are not following safety precautions and therefore the situation at the health facilities is getting more serious day by day,” said Dr. Ismail Memon, a senior official at Dr. Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital.
As the rate of infection grows, anxiety is also rising among the ranks of small merchants, who were badly injured by Pakistan’s monthslong lockdown.Haji Dilbar, who sells secondhand shoes out of a cart in a lower-income Karachi neighborhood, said anyone who wears a mask is treated like a pariah.He believes, as surveys show many Pakistanis do, that the government has exaggerated the Covid-19 threat to “earn dollars” from western countries in the form of foreign aid.A survey conducted in October by Gallup Pakistan showed that 55 percent of respondents in Pakistan doubted that the virus was real and 46 percent believed it was a conspiracy. Those attitudes make it tougher to enforce mask-wearing and other preventive measures and could complicate the distribution of vaccines when they become widely available.“You do have the challenge of some vaccine resistance,” said Dr. Sultan, Mr. Khan’s adviser, “and I expect that there will be some anti-vaxxers.”
Places like the village of Manga in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on the border with Afghanistan, will present particular challenges. Fear broke out in March in Manga after one person died and more than 50 people tested positive. As the virus ebbed, some wondered whether the government exaggerated the danger.
Some people are conjuring up conspiracy theories similar to those that have haunted a national campaign to eradicate polio, which includes allegations that politicians are pocketing aid money.“First the government made money in the name of polio,” said Syed Nawab, a Manga resident, “and now they are selling coronavirus to earn dollars from western countries.”
Politicians and clerics have sown doubts.
A recent video of Faisal Raza Abidi, a former senator, claiming that Covid-19 is “a massacre ultimately aimed at Iran and Pakistan as they don’t accept Greater Israel” has circulated widely.In April, Tariq Jamil, a popular Islamic preacher, used a televised sermon that was attended by Mr. Khan to assert that the virus was God’s wrath over women dancing and dressing immodestly. In another video spread on social media, Kaukab Okarvi, a cleric, accused doctors of killing patients.Rather than take on powerful political and religious figures, the government has aimed new health restrictions at small businesses. It is levying fines for staying open late or failing to make customers wear masks, leaving some merchants grumbling.“Instead of stopping them from holding rallies, government personnel harass small traders, restaurant and marriage hall owners, and mint money in the name of Covid-19 health regulations,” said Hakeem Shah, a merchant who organized a protest against restrictions earlier this month.
The government has also closed schools. About one quarter of the country’s 220 million people are school-age children. Private schools for Pakistan’s tiny elite have resumed online classes, but most schoolchildren lack computers, internet connections or even electricity.
“Low-cost private schools and thousands of public schools and colleges are in no position to provide the facility of online education,” said Ikramullah, an education activist in Karachi who uses one name.
Some parents are sending their children to madrasas, or Islamic schools, that have refused to close their doors.
“We follow the directions of our top religious scholars,” said Mufti Shabbir Farooqi, a teacher at a Karachi madrasa whose enrollment has swelled to 1,400 students from 900, “not the government ministers or law enforcement officers for whether to open or close the madrasas.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/world/asia/pakistan-coronavirus.html
بے نظیر بھٹو کی پکار۔۔۔ الوداع پاپا
تحریر: ملک سراج احمد
ایک تیز رفتار جیب میں ہمیں جیل پہنچا دیا گیا۔حفاظتی افواج کے پیچھے خوف زدہ لوگوں کا ہجوم تھا جنہیں اپنے وزیراعظم کی قسمت کے متعلق کوئی خبر نہیں ، جیل کی میٹرن نے میری والدہ اور میری تلاشی لی ، ایک مرتبہ جب ہم سہالہ کے قید خانہ سے روانہ ہوئیں اور دوسری مرتبہ سنٹرل جیل پہنچیں
آج تم دونوں اکٹھی یہاں کیوں آئی ہو؟میرے والد نے اپنی کال کوٹھڑی کی دوزخ سے آواز دی
میری والدہ نے کوئی جواب نہ دیا
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو :کیا یہ آخری ملاقات ہے؟
میری والدہ جواب دینے کا یارا نہیں رکھتیں
بے نظیر بھٹو :میرا خیال ہے ایسا ہی ہے
وہ جیل سپرنٹنڈنٹ سے پوچھتے ہیں
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو :کیا یہ آخری ملاقات ہے ؟
ہاں
جواب میں جیلر کہتا ہے جیل سپرنٹنڈنٹ حکومت کا یہ پیغام دیتے ہوئے شرمسار محسوس ہوتا ہے
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو: کیا تاریخ کا تعین ہوگیا ہے ؟
جیل سپرنٹنڈنٹ : کل صبح
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو: کتنے بجے؟
جیل سپرنٹنڈنٹ : جیل قواعد کے مطابق صبح پانچ بجے
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو: یہ اطلاع تمہیں کب ملی؟
جیل سپرٹنڈنٹ : کل رات۔۔۔۔۔ اس نے رکتے رکتے جواب دیا
میرے والد اسے نظر بھر کے دیکھتے ہیں
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو :اپنے اہل وعیال سے ملاقات کا کتنا وقت دیا گیا ہے
جیل سپرٹنڈنٹ : نصف گھنٹہ
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو : جیل قواعد کے مطابق ہمیں ایک گھنٹہ ملاقات کا حق ہے ۔
جیل سپرنٹنڈنٹ : صرف نصف گھنٹہ ۔۔ سپرنٹنڈنٹ دہراتا ہے ۔ یہ میرے احکامات ہیں
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو : غسل اور شیو کرنے کے لیے انتظامات کرو۔ دنیا خوبصورت ہے اسے میں اسی حالت میں الوداع کہنا چاہتا ہوں
صرف نصف گھنٹہ اس شخص سے ملاقات کے لیے ۔۔۔۔ صرف نصف گھنٹہ جو مجھے زندگی کی ہرشے سے زیادہ عزیز ہے سینے میں درد سے گھٹن محسوس ہوتی ہے مجھے رونا نہیں چاہیے مجھے اپنے ہوش بھی نہیں کھونے چاہیں کیونکہ اس طرح میرے والد کی ازیت بڑھ جائے گی۔
وہ فرش پر پڑے گدے پر بیٹھے ہوے ہیں ان کی کوٹھڑی میں اب صرف یہ فرنیچر باقی رہ گیا ہے جیل حکام کرسی اور میز لے جاچکے ہیں چارپائی بھی وہاں سے اٹھائی جاچکی ہے۔میگزین اور کتابیں جو میں پاپا کے لیے لاتی رہی تھی وہ میرے حوالے کرتے ہوئے کہتے ہیں
ذوالفقر علی بھٹو پنکی سے : انہیں لے جاو میں نہیں چاہتا یہ لوگ میری کسی چیز کو ہاتھ لگائیں
وہ چند سگار جو ان کے وکلا وہاں چھوڑ گئے تھے میرے حوالے کرتے ہیں
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو ؒ میں آج شب کے لیے صرف ایک رکھ لیتا ہوں ۔شالیمار کولون کی شیشی بھی رکھ لیتے ہیں ۔وہ اپنی انگوٹھی بھی مجھے دینا چاہتے ہیں لیکن میری والدہ نہیں کہتی ہیں اسے پہنے رکھیں وہ کہتے ہیں اچھا ابھی میں رکھ لیتا ہوں لیکن بعد میں بے نظیر کے حوالے کردی جائے۔
موت کی کوٹھڑی میں روشنی مدھم سی ہے میں انہیں صاف طورپر نہیں دیکھ سکتی۔ اس سے قبل ہر ملاقات کوٹھڑی میں ان کے پاس بیٹھ کر ہوتی رہی لیکن آج ایسا نہیں ہے ۔کوٹھڑی کے باہر دروازے کی سلاخوں کے ساتھ میں اور میری والدہ سکڑ کر بیٹھی ہوئی ہیں۔باتیں کھسر پھسر کے انداز میں کرتے ہیں۔دوسرے بچوں کو میرا پیار دینا وہ میری ممی سے کہتے ہیں۔
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو : میر، سنی ، اور شاہ کو بتانا میں نے ہمیشہ ایک اچھا باپ بننے کی کوشش کی اور میری خواہش ہے کہ کاش انہیں بھی الوداع کہہ سکتا ۔۔ میری والدہ سرہلاتی ہیں منہ سے کچھ نہیں بول سکتیں
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو : تم دونوں نے بہت تکالیف اٹھائی ہیں ۔۔ وہ کہتے ہیں ۔۔۔وہ آج مجھے قتل کرنے جارہے ہیں۔میں تمہیں تمہاری مرضی پر چھوڑتا ہوں اگر چاہو تو پاکستان سے اس وقت تک باہر چلے جاو جب تک آئین معطل ہے اور مارشل لا نافذ ہے اگر تمہیں ذہنی سکون چاہئے اور زندگی نئے سرے سے گذارنا چاہتی ہو تو یورپ چلی جاو میری طرف سے اجازت ہے ۔
نہی نہیں ممی کہتی ہیں ہم نہیں جاسکتے ہم کبھی نہیں جائیں گے جرنیلوں کو کبھی یہ تاثر نہیں دیں گے کہ وہ جیت چکے ہیں
اور تم پنکی ۔۔۔ میرے والد پوچھتے ہیں
میں بھی کبھی نہیں جاسکتی میرا جواب ہے
وہ مسکراتے ہیں ۔۔ میں بہت خوش ہوں ۔۔ تم نہیں جانتی مجھے تم سے کتنا پیار ہے
تم میری لعل ہو اور ہمیشہ رہی ہو
وقت ختم ہوچکا ہے
سپرنٹنڈنٹ پکارتا ہے وقت ختم ہوچکا ہے
میں سلاخوں کو پکڑ لیتی ہوں
براے مہربانی کوٹھڑی کا دروازہ کھول دو میں اپنے پاپا کو الوداع کہنا چاہتی ہوں
سپرٹنڈنٹ انکار کردیتا ہے میں دوبارہ التجا کرتی ہوں میرے والد پاکستان کے منتخب وزیراعظم ہیں میں ان کی بیٹی ہوں یہ ہماری آخری ملاقات ہے مجھے ان سے مل لینے دو۔۔ سپرٹنڈنٹ انکار کردیتا ہے
سلاخوں کے درمیان سے میں اپنے والد کے جسم کو چھونے کی کوشش کرتی ہوں وہ اس قدر نحیف و ناتواں ہوچکے ہیں۔ملیریا ، پیچس اور ناکافی خوراک کھانے کی وجوہ سے جسم بالکل نحیف اور باریک ہوچکا ہے لیکن وہ سیدھا اٹھ بیٹھتے ہیں اور میرے ہاتھ کو چھولیتے ہیں۔
ذوالفقارعلی بھٹو کے آخری الفاظ
آج شب علائم دنیا سے آزاد ہوجاوں گا۔ چہرے پر ایک چمکتی روشنی لئے کہتے ہیں
میں اپنی والدہ اوراپنے والد کے پاس چلا جاوں گا۔ میں لاڑکانہ میں اپنے اجداد کی زمینوں کی طرف واپس جارہا ہوں تاکہ اس سرزمین کا ، اس کی خوشبو اور اس کی فضا کا حصہ بن جاوں
خلق خدا میرے بارے میں گیت گاے گی میں اس کی کہانیوں کا جاوداں حصہ بن جاوں گا
وہ مسکراتے ہوئے کہتے ہیں لیکن لاڑکانہ میں آج کل بہت گرمی ہے
میں وہاں ایک سائبان تعمیر کردوں گی۔میں بمشکل کہہ سکی۔۔۔ جیل حکام آگے بڑھتے
الوداع پاپا
میں والد کی طرف دیکھ کر پکار اٹھتی ہوں اور میری ممی سلاخوں میں سے ان کو چھو لیتی ہیں۔ہم گرد آلود صحن میں سے گزرتے ہیں ۔ میں مڑ کر پیچھے دیکھا چاہتی ہوں لیکن حوصلہ نہیں پڑتا ۔مجھے معلوم ہے میں ضبط نہیں کرسکوں گی۔
ہم جب پھر ملیں گے اس وقت تک خدا حافظ ۔ مجھے ان کی آواز سنائی دیتی ہے
محترمہ بے نظیر بھٹو کی خودنوشت مشرق کی بیٹی سے اقتباس۔
https://samachar.pk/
‘Soft diplomacy’ #Pakistan style — Qatar royals get special permission to hunt endangered bird
By BISMEE TASKIN
Islamabad’s only zoo shuts down
Weeks after Kaavan, the world’s loneliest elephant, was rescued from the Islamabad Zoo, two Himalayan brown bears named Babloo and Suzie were also airlifted Wednesday to a sanctuary in Jordan. They were the last inhabitants of the zoo, which has now shut down. It was the only zoo in the city.
The Islamabad Zoo had drawn international criticism for its treatment of the lonely elephant and severe living conditions in the premises.
US singer Cher, who had campaigned vociferously for Kaavan’s rehabilitation, had said that the Islamabad High Court’s decision to shift the elephant to a sanctuary in Cambodia was “one of the greatest moments of her life”.
https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/soft-diplomacy-pakistan-style-qatar-royals-get-special-permission-to-hunt-endangered-bird/569167/
#Pakistan #PPP - Holding the fort: Aseefa Bhutto Zardari
By Sharmila Faruqui
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s (SMBB) assassination had left the whole nation in tears and the whole world in unfathomable shock. Her legacy indeed left a deep footprint in the landscape of Pakistani politics as countless miss SMBB in times of political chaos, national disunity and also in dire pursuit of a true leader. She continues to enthuse and motivate women, especially the marginalised both in the country and abroad. Today, with the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who brought in 13 different political parties together through the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) another mesmerising development has taken root, giving us all renewed hope. The sight of a young woman who looks much like the late SMBB, entered in the political landscape of Pakistan, bringing in refreshed and progressive vibes. That young woman leader is no other than SMBB’s youngest daughter Aseefa Bhutto Zardari. She has a striking resemblance with her mother’s persona and poise. During her maiden speech at the PDM Multan Jalsa, many had to rub their eyes in order to differentiate between Aseefa and her later mother. Pakistan still remembers the historical address of SMBB in Lahore, 1986 and the same Pakistan witnessed the zeal and charisma in her daughter’s speech. Aseefa indeed triggered the reminiscences of her mother and Bhutto family, in a very powerful and galvanising way. She was not only fearless and brave to slam the PTI government’s ineptitude which has left the nation in doldrums, but also spoke in grace—just like SMBB. SMBB has entered the Pakistani political landscape by playing a crucial role in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), in times of political crises. Today, with illiberal values rampant throughout the country, young Aseefa officially started her career by participating in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) platform. Aseefa formally joining the PPP platform is not a surprising development at all. Her maternal grandfather—Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had also groomed SMBB, to come into politics at a very grim time for politics and as well as for the Bhutto family. There is no doubt that difficult times have always leaned the members of the Bhutto family into the mainstream political landscape of Pakistan. Let’s not forget that it was the life of politics that chose SMBB and Bilawal to join it from a very young age. It is also important to point out that Aseefa had already been involved in numerous progressive and constructive programmes in Pakistan. She is not only Pakistan’s Ambassador for Polio Eradication but was also the first Pakistani child to receive the polio vaccine in the country. With polio cases on the rise today, we need leaders like Aseefa to come forward and advocate for its eradication. Moreover, she has been vocal about promoting animal rights, in a country where little emphasis is given to this neglected topic. In 2016, she had strongly condemned the culling of stray dogs in Karachi. In Pakistan, there is an urgent need for women to become policymakers and come into the spotlight through the political platform. A new United Nations (UN) Women study shows that around 60 percent of women do not participate in politics due to fear of violence. Women must break the glass ceiling in order to join the public and political sphere. Aseefa joining the mainstream politics is a clear and vibrant example for every young girl—that they too can come forward and make a huge difference. In 1980s’ Pakistan, even when hyper-masculinity was rampant, SMBB took on politics on her own terms. She even brought the famous phrase in action, that ‘women can have it all’ by giving birth while also being the prime minister. She was the first female Prime Minister to give birth while being in office. Let’s not forget that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, himself has been quite vocal about empowering women in the political realm of Pakistan. During the Gilgit Baltistan elections of 2020, when PPP’s Sadia Danish was oppressed and denied basic electoral rights by the PTI government, Bilawal was quick to respond and assist her. PPP is the only political party which has been crystal clear about empowering women from every walk of life. Aseefa has the same skills set of mass mobilisation and connecting with the local masses as SMBB. With her exhilarating style, she certainly has the ability to play a significant role in Pakistani politics. At a time when the country is facing predicaments of unprecedented scale and nature, the youngest member of the Bhutto family is a ray of hope. Aseefa’s rise will be one to watch with close attention.
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s (SMBB) assassination had left the whole nation in tears and the whole world in unfathomable shock. Her legacy indeed left a deep footprint in the landscape of Pakistani politics as countless miss SMBB in times of political chaos, national disunity and also in dire pursuit of a true leader. She continues to enthuse and motivate women, especially the marginalised both in the country and abroad. Today, with the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who brought in 13 different political parties together through the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) another mesmerising development has taken root, giving us all renewed hope. The sight of a young woman who looks much like the late SMBB, entered in the political landscape of Pakistan, bringing in refreshed and progressive vibes. That young woman leader is no other than SMBB’s youngest daughter Aseefa Bhutto Zardari. She has a striking resemblance with her mother’s persona and poise. During her maiden speech at the PDM Multan Jalsa, many had to rub their eyes in order to differentiate between Aseefa and her later mother. Pakistan still remembers the historical address of SMBB in Lahore, 1986 and the same Pakistan witnessed the zeal and charisma in her daughter’s speech. Aseefa indeed triggered the reminiscences of her mother and Bhutto family, in a very powerful and galvanising way. She was not only fearless and brave to slam the PTI government’s ineptitude which has left the nation in doldrums, but also spoke in grace—just like SMBB. SMBB has entered the Pakistani political landscape by playing a crucial role in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), in times of political crises. Today, with illiberal values rampant throughout the country, young Aseefa officially started her career by participating in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) platform. Aseefa formally joining the PPP platform is not a surprising development at all. Her maternal grandfather—Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had also groomed SMBB, to come into politics at a very grim time for politics and as well as for the Bhutto family. There is no doubt that difficult times have always leaned the members of the Bhutto family into the mainstream political landscape of Pakistan. Let’s not forget that it was the life of politics that chose SMBB and Bilawal to join it from a very young age. It is also important to point out that Aseefa had already been involved in numerous progressive and constructive programmes in Pakistan. She is not only Pakistan’s Ambassador for Polio Eradication but was also the first Pakistani child to receive the polio vaccine in the country. With polio cases on the rise today, we need leaders like Aseefa to come forward and advocate for its eradication. Moreover, she has been vocal about promoting animal rights, in a country where little emphasis is given to this neglected topic. In 2016, she had strongly condemned the culling of stray dogs in Karachi. In Pakistan, there is an urgent need for women to become policymakers and come into the spotlight through the political platform. A new United Nations (UN) Women study shows that around 60 percent of women do not participate in politics due to fear of violence. Women must break the glass ceiling in order to join the public and political sphere. Aseefa joining the mainstream politics is a clear and vibrant example for every young girl—that they too can come forward and make a huge difference. In 1980s’ Pakistan, even when hyper-masculinity was rampant, SMBB took on politics on her own terms. She even brought the famous phrase in action, that ‘women can have it all’ by giving birth while also being the prime minister. She was the first female Prime Minister to give birth while being in office. Let’s not forget that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, himself has been quite vocal about empowering women in the political realm of Pakistan. During the Gilgit Baltistan elections of 2020, when PPP’s Sadia Danish was oppressed and denied basic electoral rights by the PTI government, Bilawal was quick to respond and assist her. PPP is the only political party which has been crystal clear about empowering women from every walk of life. Aseefa has the same skills set of mass mobilisation and connecting with the local masses as SMBB. With her exhilarating style, she certainly has the ability to play a significant role in Pakistani politics. At a time when the country is facing predicaments of unprecedented scale and nature, the youngest member of the Bhutto family is a ray of hope. Aseefa’s rise will be one to watch with close attention.
EDITORIAL: #Pakistan - External debt servicing
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government must come up with an explanation on the reports released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs that the country has received $23.6 billion foreign loan since the inception of the government back in 2018.
Why so much loans when one can hardly see any landmark project in the offing by utilizing these loans? If the government is taking loans only for the balance of payments, this will not benefit the country in the long run as it will eventually lead to economic collapse. Another noticeable thing is the almost 45 per cent ($ 4.5 billion) hike in the foreign loan inflows from July 2020 to November as compared to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.
These are not unusual numbers as given the pandemic onslaught and the world over economic slow growth, the government had to rely on foreign loans and assistance. There are reports that the country just returned a $1 billion loan to Saudi Arabia, which it had taken last year, after taking a loan from some Chinese commercial banks. According to the ministry, during July-October of 2020 total servicing of external public debt was $2.45 billion against the annual repayment estimates of $10.363 billion for the entire fiscal year.
The government could repay $2.035 billion as principal sum and $415 million as interest on the outstanding stock of external public debt. The government has been trying to diminish the impact of the circumstances by cutting down development funds and taking up several austerity measures. The government resumed economic activities after a lull of three months when the provincial government imposed lockdown while aviation and shipping services remained at a halt in the world.
The early resumption of the economic activities has changed the commerce outlook to some extent. A record increase in remittance and a gradual increase in exports are a welcome sign.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/703356/external-debt-servicing/
Friday, December 18, 2020
Jill Biden Reveals Why Right-Wing Attack On Her ‘Dr.’ Title Was ‘Such A Surprise’
By Lee Moran
“One of the things I am most proud of is my doctorate,” the incoming first lady told Stephen Colbert.Future first lady Jill Biden revealed her surprise at being criticized for using the title “Dr.” in a lengthy joint interview with her husband, President-elect Joe Biden, that aired on Thursday’s episode of “The Late Show.” Wall Street Journal columnist Joseph Epstein faced backlash over his op-ed last week in which he called Biden — who has a doctorate in education — “kiddo” and suggested she drop the title because it “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.” “That was such a surprise,” Biden told “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert. “It was really the tone of it. He called me ‘kiddo.’” “One of the things I am most proud of is my doctorate,” added Biden, who plans to continue working as a college professor after her husband enters the White House. “I worked so hard for it.” Biden said she was touched by how many people sprang to her defense — including former first lady Michelle Obama — in the wake of the controversy, which was amplified this week by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “I was just overwhelmed by how gracious people were to me,” said Biden. Colbert suggested the flap could be a compliment because it was the only thing that people could find about her to criticize. “OK, I’ll take it that way,” Biden replied, laughing. Colbert then asked the president-elect if “as the husband who loves this person, did you ever wanna get out a length of pool chain and go full corn pop on these people?” “The answer is it’s close,” he replied. Said Jill Biden: “The answer is no.” “I have been suppressing my Irishness for a long time,” he added. Elsewhere in the interview, the president-elect said he had “great confidence in our son,” Hunter Biden, who is under federal tax investigation and who has been used as a right-wing whipping boy by President Donald Trump and his allies. “I am not concerned about any accusations that have been made against him. It’s used to get to me,” Biden said, describing the attacks as “foul play.” Biden called Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who denounced Trump before the 2016 election and later became one of his staunchest backers, as “a personal disappointment because I was a personal friend of his.” But Biden nevertheless vowed to work with Republicans, predicting Trump’s impact “on the body politic” will fade once he leaves office and many Republicans will then feel “they have a lot more room” to work with Democrats. Colbert asked Biden if there was anything about Trump “that you could thank him for sincerely.” “What he’s done getting the vaccine moving has been positive,” replied Biden. “But by and large, he has been a president who’s decided that the way he succeeds is by dividing us.”
In other segments of the interview, the president-elect predicted the United States would be almost back to normal by Christmas 2021:And he explained the importance of empathy toward those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus pandemic:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jill-biden-doctor-title-surprised-stephen-colbert_n_5fdc7228c5b6aa861e5d6cf2
Opinion: The Republicans Who Embraced Nihilism
What is left to say about a political party that would throw out millions of votes?
#Pakistan #PPP - Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari slams Imran Khan over Pashtun leader Mohammad Ali Wazir's arrest
He said the arrest of Wazir was "against the democratic traditions". "It has been the modus operandi of the fascist governments to implicate the elected representatives in false cases to crush the public voice," Geo News quoted Bilawal as saying in a statement on Thursday.
Police arrested Ali Wazir in Islamabad on Wednesday in connection with a case registered against him and several leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Karachi after a recent public meeting by the country`s opposition parties.
Bilawal said that holding public meetings is "no crime" and did not warrant arresting an elected representative, Geo News said. He warned the Imran Khan-led government that if it "continues to muzzle freedom of expression", it will "not bring good results", Geo News reported.
He also said in the statement that the cases being registered against the elected representatives and political leaders are "baseless".The PTM leaders were accused of committing several offences, including hatching a criminal conspiracy and passing derogatory remarks against state institutions, reported Dawn.
Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Mohammad Ali Gandapur said that Wazir was arrested at the request of the Sindh police. According to Dawn, witnesses said Wazir was arrested after he attended a ceremony held at Shuhada APS Public Library in connection with the sixth anniversary of the Army Public School attack, where 147 people were killed.
Several leaders of the PTM, who have also been charged in the case, were also present but were not arrested. Apart from Wazir, others named in the FIR include PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen and MNA Mohsin Dawar among others.
The complainant in the case claimed that when he reached the venue of the public meeting he saw the suspects addressing around 2,000 participants and trying to create hatred towards different groups and to create law and order problems, Dawn reported.
This comes as the rattled Imran Khan`s government registered a case against a central leader of the opposition`s 11-party alliance -- Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) -- for causing irreparable damage to a national asset at the rally in Lahore.
https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/bilawal-bhutto-zardari-slams-imran-khan-over-pashtun-leader-mohammad-ali-wazirs-arrest-350768
#Pakistan - Government wants to rob the national assets
Secretary Information Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Dr. Nafisa Shah MNA has said that the friends of Imran Khan want to gulp the national assets and the PTI selected government is about to start the loot and plunder of national assets. Dr. Shah said that the selected government wants to start looting the national assets in the garb of privatisation like Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan International Airlines. In both these concerns the government has begun to sack employees.
No one should have any doubt that the PPP will never let this to happen. The PPP is standing with the employees of both these assets, Dr. Shah concluded.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24189/Thursday, December 17, 2020
It is time to talk about caste in Pakistan and Pakistani diaspora
On September 29, Manisha Valmiki, a 19-year-old Dalit girl succumbed to her injuries from a gang rape committed by four Thakur (upper-caste) men in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. News of the incident caused outrage across India and the rest of the world, including in Pakistan and the diaspora.
I and many fellow Pakistanis have actively participated in social media campaigns demanding justice for Valmiki. But few of us have said much about another horrendous death of a Dalit woman.On September 30, just a day after Valmiki’s death, 17-year-old Momal Meghwar took her own life in the village of Dalan-Jo-Tarr in Sindh province, Pakistan. A year earlier, she had been brutally raped and filmed by three men who have remained at large.Meghwar was the 58th woman to take her own life this year in Thar alone. There is a multitude of reasons for this macabre statistic and all are at the intersections of gender, religion, class, and caste.Yes, caste – a word which many of us Pakistani feminist scholars and organisers, especially those with sectarian, caste, and class privileges in the diaspora, remain unfamiliar with, whether willfully or out of ignorance.
Of course, due to the untiring work of mostly (but not exclusively) Indian-origin Dalit feminists and organisations such as Equality Labs, those of us Pakistanis who have not thought about caste before are learning about caste in India and its diaspora.
However, concerns raised by Dalit and anti-caste thinkers from Pakistan often remain ignored and outright dismissed, especially by caste and class privileged Pakistani Muslims who refuse to see caste, let alone the caste dominance and caste terror prevalent in Pakistan and its diaspora.
Pakistanis need to stop believing that Dalits live only in India. There are about 40 castes, 32 of which were listed as scheduled castes under the November 1957 Presidential ordinance of Pakistan. Meghwars are one of these listed castes, along with Bheels, Kolhis, Baghris and others.
While there are Dalit Muslims in Pakistan, because of the belief that there are no caste hierarchies among Muslims, the castes mentioned as scheduled are necessarily read as Hindu only. It is important to point out the infusion of upper-caste Brahmin supremacy that has coerced and contained lower-caste people into the category of Hindu. Many Dalit-Bahujan people see themselves as part of Indigenous cultures and traditions and reject Hinduism as their religious identification.
Moreover, the majority of Christians in the country are also Dalit – pejoratively labelled as Chuhra. As a recent New York Times article on Dalit Christians taking up scavenging jobs in Pakistan notes, according to the 1998 census, Christians made up only 1.6 percent of the population but filled 80 percent of the sweeper jobs. This caste apartheid is prevalent in Pakistan and yet there is no authentic caste census available.
Just like in India, Dalits face discrimination by society at large and by the state. In a 2007 report on the condition of scheduled castes in Pakistan, journalist Zulfiqar Shah points out that a 6-percent government job quota for scheduled castes from urban and rural areas put forward in 1948 was never ethically implemented and was simply scrapped in the 1990s.
In other words, no political or economic security measures are extended to scheduled caste people who continue to be seen simply as “religious minorities” in Pakistan and marked for violence with impunity.
That is why it is important to call Momal Meghwar’s rape and death by suicide what it is: caste-based sexual violence. While Pakistani mainstream media has mostly stayed silent, in some instances where the incident was discussed, it was made into a case of her being Hindu, a religious minority, effectively erasing caste which is also one of the main factors legitimising violence against lower-caste people by both upper-caste Muslims and Hindus.
The murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch in 2016, which was widely covered by the media, was also linked to caste, but journalists and scholars overwhelmingly ignored that aspect. One of the people who drew attention in public to the role caste played in the killing was anti-caste activist, Auwn Gurmani.
As he explained in a July 2020 tweet: “We remember Qandeel and we also remember she was killed because of her gender, class and most importantly caste background: Qandeel’s caste was Mehra (ماہڑا in Siraiki). Mahar, Mehra, Mehar, Mahara – all these castes have the same origin, scheduled caste in Madhya Pradesh.”
Caste dismissal in Pakistan often comes from the belief that because we are Muslim, caste does not exist in our communities and societies. Unlike Hindu scriptures, the Quran does not establish and condone a caste system. Moreover, unlike India, Pakistan does not have Brahminical cis-heteropatriarchy and Islamophobia governing the nation-state.
The ritualistic, religious, familial, social, economic, political and gendered aspects of caste have their own tones in Pakistan. It is not saffron-tinted, as Hindu nationalism is, but rather it takes a green, Islamic traditional, hue. This is not to say that the importation and translation of Hindutva ideology are not happening across the border and do not affect Pakistani Muslims’ conception of caste.
As Sindhi anti-caste scholar Ghulam Hussain, who has contributed ground-breaking work on caste relations in Sindh, notes, Sayedism and Brahminism are infused with each other. Sayed supremacy – which Hussain labels as Sayedism – comes from the (unproven) belief that Sayeds are genealogical descendants of Prophet Muhammad and therefore have a more authentic grasp on Islam and all social and political matters.
Another anti-caste researcher, Haris Gazdar, points out that “the public silencing on caste contrasts with an obsession with it in private dealings”. There is always violence attached to caste hierarchies of which Gazdar names several examples, such as having pejorative labels to strict taboos around eating and drinking together and sharing of utensils to stealing land to beatings and rapes of men and women of lowered caste people with impunity, all to “keep them in their place”.
Islam is often evoked by upper-caste Muslims as the reason for some of these practices. Pakistani Muslims would argue that lowered caste people from Hindu and Christian minorities eat “haram” (forbidden by Islamic law) food. However, eating with upper-caste Hindus and Christians is not frowned upon.
These Brahminical notions of ritual purity become aligned with concepts of “paak” (pure/clean) and “naapak” (impure/unclean) under Muslims’ casteist interpretations of Islam. Even when lowered caste people from religious minorities convert to Islam, they continue to meet with the same caste-based violence. Conversion to Islam in Pakistan does not de-casteise the lowered caste people who continue to be treated as “untouchables”.
There is also the commonly circulated argument that caste exists only in rural areas of provinces like Sindh and Punjab. But caste dangerously circulates as common sense in large cities as well.
A recent example of this, even among young people who are usually understood as more progressive than their parents’ generation, is a student-led survey at the University of Lahore in Punjab in which students were asked on camera questions about how caste informs choices they make about romantic relationships and friendships. Every single one of these students knew their caste from Sayeds to Arains (a predominantly agricultural caste) to Sheikhs (a lower caste stereotyped as having a business acumen). In the almost nine-minute-long video, it is quite clear that caste is an active and everyday experience for university students in an urban setting.
More survey work needs to be done in urban and rural areas, as well as in the diaspora to fully understand the forms which caste takes at our dinner tables, in our kinships, our attachments, workplaces, and every other aspect of our lives.
As many of us diasporic Pakistanis become invested in liberatory projects of Black Lives Matter and Indigenous sovereignties in the west and educated about caste politics in India, it appears that this is indeed the right time to turn inwards and explore our own experiences with caste. Sayedism – a prime example of upper-caste dominance and hegemony – is quite prominent among us and should be studied both in Pakistan and in the diaspora.
In our pursuit of understanding caste, however, we also need to be very careful, particularly us western-educated, class- and caste-privileged diasporic scholars. Some of us go to Pakistan to focus on caste violence in the menial jobs lower castes are relegated to, such as scavenging or sanitation work.
While I think these anthropological studies have their place and must be done, I am also reminded of scholar Joby Mathew’s remarks in the book Hatred in the Belly: “If any intellectual wants to emphasize the pathetic condition of Dalits through these derogatory images [of scavenging], that itself amounts to symbolic violence”.
Furthermore, when looking into caste-based, gender-based violence and trying to understand a figure such as Baloch in all her complexities, our analysis needs to move beyond the binaries of lower-caste women as either vulnerable victims or heroes. Therefore, it is urgent that we engage with Dalit feminist theory.
And finally, we also have to remain aware and mindful of how Islamophobia and anti-Pakistan violence can be disruptive in our critical work on complicity in various structures of domination. To talk about violence in Pakistan is difficult because of how quickly nationalist non-Muslim Indians – and even those Indian Muslims invested in the idea of Brahminical India – latch onto our critiques to further malign Pakistan as a terrorist Muslim state.
But the intense Islamophobia, casteism, and colonial violence – in relation to Kashmir, for example – in India should not be a reason not to have these important conversations and studies in Pakistan and the diaspora. After all, these violent paradigms are interconnected and know no borders.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/12/15/it-is-time-to-talk-about-caste-in-pakistan-and-pakistani-diaspora
Pakistani officials may have met with Israelis amid rumor of peace deal
Among those who have spoken out about this possibility is Noor Dahri the founder of the British think tank Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism.Pakistani officials may have met with Israelis officials amid rumors, including diplomatic circles, that Pakistan could be the next country to normalize ties with Israel.Among those who have spoken out about this possibility is Noor Dahri the founder of the British think tank Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism.
Pakistan has in the past rejected speculation of a deal with Israel.
But Dahri in his i24 interview said that in the past said that former Pakistani Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif set two delegations to Israel to explore normalization of ties and Benazir Bhutto met with a Israeli delegation in Washington and sent a delegation to Israel.
Pakistan has been publicly hostile to Israel over the Palestinian issue, but there is a long history of covert ties between the two countries, Dahri said in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post.
An opportunity has opened now as well in light of the shifting geo-political reality in which such relations with Israel are no longer taboo in the Arab and Muslim world, Dahri said.
This includes the US brokered Abraham Accords under whose rubric Israel has normalized this with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and is in the process of doing so with Sudan and Morocco.
"Openly they [Pakistan] are telling its people we are not going forward without the establishment of a Palestinian state," Dahri said.
But it is a hard position to hold onto in light of the Abraham Accords and the possibility of normalized deal with Saudi Arabia, he added.
"Now is the time, because Arab countries want Pakistan to openly establish ties with Israel, he said.
The Arab states want to break Pakistan away from Turkey and the Iranian alliance and bring it into their emerging diplomatic circle with Israel, Dahri said.
Saudi Arabia has the UAE generated pressure on Pakistan to normalize relations with Israel, as well as minimize relations with Turkey," he said.
Pakistan is hoping that a deal with Israel would help it improve its ties with Saudi Arabia, which has stopped financial assistance and oil exports to Pakistan, Dahri said. Similarly Pakistan ties with the UAE are at a low point, such that the UAE has halted visas for Pakistan citizens, he added.
Pakistanis who live and work in Saudi Arabia provide a $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion boost to Pakistan's economy, so the country's economy would shrink unless the visa ban is reversed, he said.
"Both Arab countries [Saudi Arabia and the UAE] have asked Pakistan to stop its alliance with Turkey and normalize relations with Israel.
"In return Saudi Arabia will reinstate financial assistance and start providing the oil to Pakistan" and the UAE would reissue visas, he said.
Pakistan is also in need of an ally in the region, to balance out India's growing ties with Middle East countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel, he added.
The Trump administration has continued to work in its last weeks toward creating normalization deals between Israel and Arab, Muslim and African states.
White House special advisor Jared Kushner is expected to travel with an Israeli delegation to Morocco next Tuesday.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen has speculated that other deals could include Oman and Indonesia, but has not mentioned Pakistan.
https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/pakistani-officials-may-have-met-with-israelis-amid-rumor-of-peace-deal-652408
He has been fairly active on twitter, with respect to the meeting, noting, "soon I am going to disclose a recent secret but successful meeting between the Pakistani politician and Israeli politicians in Tel Aviv."
Dahri provided more details of the trip in this i24 interview.
49 years later, lessons that remain to be learnt from 1971 India-Pakistan War
In episode 641 of #CutTheClutter, Shekhar Gupta unpacks the volatile 1960s that led to the short but bloody war in 1971. On 16 December 1971, India won a decisive victory over Pakistan after a 13-day war that led to the creation of Bangladesh. While it was a short and decisive war, 4,000 soldiers were killed and more than 8,000 were injured.
https://theprint.in/opinion/49-years-later-lessons-that-remain-to-be-learnt-from-1971-india-pakistan-war/568503/
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
EDITORIAL: #Pakistan - New social media laws
It is heartening to see our leadership has awoken to hybrid war after carrying the day in the years-long war on terror. The introduction of the ‘Removal and Blocking of Unlawful OnlineContent (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards), Rules 2020’ is the right step towards the right direction though there is always room for improvements in rules. Since the inception of the war on terror, Pakistan has been facing both destructive terror attacks and an unrelenting hybrid war through diplomatic and cyber propaganda attacks. Whereas terror attacks targeted civilians and security personnel besides physical infrastructure, hybrid war would aim at eroding the nation’s morale and damaging their military or political objectives. Earlier, diplomacy was the only most effective tool to hurt Pakistan’s legitimate strategic, economic and diplomatic assets.
Now cyberspace, especially social media, has been in full circle day and night to create perceptions and misperceptions regarding the government and leaders. Barring certain quarters that are more speaking for tech multinationals, the public has accepted revised social media rules, carefully vetted by a committee and in consultation with stakeholders – both the national and international. The discovery of Indian Chronicles, an organized propaganda campaign in the working for 15 years, shows how cyberspace, especially social media platforms, is being exploited by various quarters around the world to align Pakistan’s interests. Similarly, social media campaigns within Pakistan used to get free reigns to propagate fabricated narratives eroding our social,cultural and religious norms.
‘Removaland Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards),Rules 2020’ respects one’s free speech rights as enshrined in the constitution.It only draws lines between one’s free speech rights and the acts which also fall under criminal procedures code, such as spreading negativity in the form of blasphemy. The law bars social media users from discrediting state institutions and individuals, and inciting sectarian or ethnic hate and harassment etc. This is in spirit of the social media companies, which have also introduced measures, such as fake news alerts, in the larger interests of the masses.
A tweet by President Trump creating doubts on democracy and elections is flagged by the company. Even the mainstream US media openly refuses to carry Trump’s statements which they deem anti-democracy. No doubt social media has helped the democratization of Pakistan, it is time the platforms be used for more responsible usage for the public good. The government should,however, pay attention to the circles demanding broader definition or claritin rules, so that the law is not misused.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/702117/new-social-media-laws/
OP-ED: 1971: #BangladeshLiberationWar #BangladeshGenocide - Power did come from the barrel of a gun
Bengalis picked up the gun to fight for freedom in 1971? Why didn’t Indian leaders do the same 50 years earlier?
The case for using violence in 1971 is self-evident. The cruel negligence of the cyclone victims in the cold winter of 1970 revealed the true face of Pakistani indifference, indeed contempt, towards Bengalis. When their civil-military leaders prevaricated over the stunning election results in December, there were three paths open: Acquiesence and collaboration, a peaceful People-Power movement, and an armed struggle for freedom. Option three was chosen, as it had to be.
1971 righted the wrongs of 1947, which were themselves a consequence of missed opportunities in 1922 and 1930. The Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-22 and the Salt Marches in 1930 had been orchestrated by MK Gandhi. These historic challenges against the British Raj mobilized millions, gathering massive momentum. On both occasions, just as London began to panic, Gandhi backed down. Inexplicably, he called off the movements. The decisions made little strategic sense. It gave the colonialists a get-out-of-jail card. Evidently, Gandhi wasn’t planning liberation “by any means necessary.”
The Irish model
Ireland was under brutal English rule too. In 1916, Irish republicans launched the armed Easter Rising. Defeated, they began a guerilla campaign in 1919 and won independence for most of the island in 1922. Dublin is less than 500km from London. Delhi is almost 7,000km away. The British army and navy were literally next door to Ireland.
So why did the Irish rise up in armed revolt while the much more numerous Indians did not? Why did the Irish not rely solely on peaceful protests like the Congress and Gandhi? Turn that around. Why did the Indian freedom movement not take up weapons and wrest liberation like the Irish did (and Bengalis in 1971)?
Nehru v Bose
Viceroy Linlithgow once asked Nehru when he thought India would gain independence. Nehru replied: 1972. How wrong he was. Or, how right he was (unintentionally). Bangladesh’s first leader returned home to take power in 1972. Had it not been for another Bengali leader, then Nehru might well have been correct for the sub-continent.
A one-time leader of Congress, the charismatic Subhas Chandra Bose, represented the radical, rebellious wing of the Independence movement, and was bitterly opposed by the Gandhi-Nehru duopoly.
During World War Two, Subhas Chandra Bose raised an army from Indian POWs and accompanied the Japanese army up through Burma towards Assam and Bengal. The slogans were Cholo Delhi and Jai Hind. The British engineered the Bengal famine (and the death of 3 million) by deliberately interfering in grain movements -- a scorched earth policy to deter INA-Japanese forces.
Ultimately, the Indian National Army (INA) was unable to break through. In 1945, Bose subsequently died in a plane crash in Formosa. He apparently intended to start another front for India’s liberation.
When the British authorities soon put three INA officers on show-trial (a Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu), the official Indian Raj army’s soldiers started to rumble, some threatening mutiny. The Raj realized that without the loyalty of the Indian soldiers, they could not hold down India. They feared another 1857 uprising in 1946. Bose’s armed rebellion had shattered the confidence of the British. The game was up, as the saying goes. Nehru and Jinnah’s messy compromise led to Partition, hurriedly brought forward by the Labour Party from 1948. Jai Hind did not materialize as hoped. Joi Bangla did though, a generation later.
Bengal and Bangladesh
In the 1940s, there was talk about a United Bengal, independent and nothing to do with Pakistan. While Hindu leading lights in Calcutta had opposed the division on Bengal in 1905, they had changed their minds by now. MK Gandhi, partly funded by millionaire Birla, hindered the concept on one Bengal. After all, Marwari business interests saw profit in a divided Bengal. The rest was history.
In the winter of 1971, when Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, sent armoured columns over to surround the Pakistani Army in the Bengali delta, some older heads wondered whether they would return to barracks, across the border, as rapidly as they as they had come to help the Bengali Mukti Bahini freedom fighters.
The Indian military would receive deserved, unreserved gratitude. Their relatively prompt exit meant the sovereignty of Bangladesh would not be in doubt.
In 1974, Bangladesh’s paramount leader recognized the political and military significance of Subhas Chandra Bose’s armed struggle. As prime minister, he invited the Japanese liasion officer and close associate of Bose, Fujiwara Iwaichi, as a distinguished state guest. It was a way of “demostrating his admiration of Netaji and the profound achievement of the Indian National Army.”
Deep down, the inspiration for the Bangladeshi freedom struggle in 1971 was never Gujarat’s Gandhi. It was Bengal’s Bose.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/12/16/op-ed-1971-power-did-come-from-the-barrel-of-a-gun
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