Let’s use Cricket

Anil_Athale

Colonel Anil Athale, a Chhatrapati Shivaji fellow of the United Services Institute, is working on a project on internal security.He is also the coordinator of Pune based think tank Inpad, affiliated with the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

In Pakistan, the only institution that matters is the army.

Unless it changes its mindset, policies and strategies, peace in the subcontinent and survival of Pakistan will remain a question mark and a recurring nightmare.

This is not to say that there is no homegrown jihadism in India, or that a nascent Hindu reaction is to be taken lightly.

But it is the Pakistan army that acts as a fulcrum around which the axis of evil revolves. It is, in a sense, the repository of the ‘idea’ of Islamic triumphalism in the subcontinent.

The Pakistan army has become such a Frankenstein, thanks to Western, especially American, benevolence over the last 50 years. Non-military personnel may not know this, but the fact is all these years, and possibly even now, they have had far better weapons and war technology than India had.

By the same author: Next steps for Kashmir | More columns

For instance, we got the famous ‘Bofors’ 155 mm guns in 1985-86. The Pakistan army had guns of this caliber in 1965. The same goes for radars, helicopters, small arms, and night vision devices: you name it. Despite this, we managed a ‘draw’ with decisive gains in Kashmir in 1965 and routed them in the East in 1971.This happened thanks to the human spirit of Indian soldiers and better leadership of the officers. But we are yet to defeat the Pakistan army in Punjab - that is where it matters! One way to ensure that this rouge army is tamed is to maintain a constant technical and numerical superiority over it! Measures for this are:

• Spur our own research.
• Close the military tap to Pakistan through coercive diplomacy. It is time India told countries like France, Germany, the US and the UK that they could do business as usual with Pakistan at the cost of economic relations with India. Recession-hit US and Europe will be loath to sacrifice trading with India. We must exploit our economic clout to close the tap of advanced military technology for the Pakistan army.
• Citizens of Pakistan need to be educated through a constant barrage of propaganda that with its nuclear weapons, Pakistan is safe from Indian attack. That we gain nothing from conquering a liability. In any case, even with a much lower strength, the Pakistan army can defend Pakistan, they should know. But the army has constantly hoodwinked its own people by equating security with parity with India. This absurdity has to be exposed, and citizens of Pakistan told that the prime cause of their poverty is the bloated military.

End Confidence Building Measures (CBM)

I was part of the CBM exercise in 2006 and visited Pakistan in June that year. But within a month, the Mumbai train blasts took place. The argument given then and even now is that the terrorists are doing all this to stop the CBMs and people-to-people contacts. After that incident, I publicly disassociated myself from this effort. I would rather stop the CBMs if that were going to stop the terror attacks.

US asks Pak to ensure no more terror attacks | Sify Special: Mumbai 26/11

In short, the many decent Pakistanis who believe in peaceful relations with India must stand up and be counted. It is they who would have to mount pressure on the Pakistan army (of which the ISI is an integral part) to change its policy.

All economic, social, cultural and people-to-people contacts with Pakistan must be broken. Not only that, but we must also urge the rest of the world to follow suit. In short, we must put Pakistan in doghouse, the way South Africa was in the 1970s. Every country has been a victim of Pakistan-related terror incidents, and this should actually strike a sympathetic chord in the rest of the world.

In any case, without formal declaration, all countries (including even China) have put severe travel curbs on citizens of Pakistan.

Wield the cricket weapon

A couple of years ago, I had a very interesting discussion with Ms Susan Collin Marks, a white South African who fought against the Apartheid regime. During the discussion, it emerged that the sports boycott of South Africa by the rest of the world did much to finally bring down the racist regime.

Cricket is no less than a religion in Pakistan. I accept that many of the Pakistani cricketers are excellent human beings, and it is sad that they have to suffer. But a worldwide cricket ban on Pakistan will be far more effective in turning the heat on the jihadists and their sponsor, the Pakistan Army, than some stray military strikes.

By the same author: How India can resolve the Sri Lankan crisis

In any case, at present no cricketing nation is ready to tour Pakistan. With a little nudge from us (given our financial clout in the world of cricket) we should be able to ‘persuade’ the rest of the world to break cricketing contacts with Pakistan. We must make it clear that any player who breaks this ban and plays with Pakistan will be banned from international cricket, just like in the case of South Africa earlier.

The idea behind all these suggested measures is to spur the ordinary Pakistani to mount pressure on the army to reverse the policy of support to terrorism.

We must also state clearly that this is the last chance for Pakistan. If the Pakistan army refuses to change, then we must revise our old policy of a ‘stable, friendly and peaceful Pakistan being in Indian interest’, and actively work for the break up of Pakistan into several manageable parts.

The views expressed in the article are the author’s and not of Sify.com

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