An eye for an eye

by Justice Markandey Katju
former Judge
Supreme Court

The Prime Minister’s reference to Balochistan and POK in his Independence Day Speech has come not a moment too soon. In fact it should have come in some speech much earlier, and also by earlier Prime Ministers.. How long must we tolerate the Pakistani leaders castigating  and condemning us over Kashmir, and how long must we tolerate their incitement, encouragement and support of the Kashmiri agitations and militancy ? It is time now to pay them back in the same coin. Just as Pakistan is giving training, weapons and supplies to militants in Kashmir, we too must start organizing, training and supplying weapons etc to Sindhis, Balochis, and the NWFP people who have been suppressed by Punjabis in the Pakistan security services for long, and want independence. Pakistanis must be told frankly : if you want to support azadi, it cannot be limited to Kashmiris alone.

When I said that Pakistan was a fake, artificial entity ( I refuse to call it a country ), and that Partition of 1947 was on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, and that India and Pakistan ( and Bangladesh ) will one day definitely reunite ( see my article ‘ The Truth about Pakistan ‘ online. It was published in the Pakistan newspaper ‘The Nation ‘ ), many people called me a maverick and a dreamer. I replied that Mazzini who spoke of Italian Unification,  was also called a dreamer by many at one time, but later his dream became a reality due to Garibaldi and Cavour.

What is Pakistan ? It is Punjab, Sind, Balochistan and NWFP. These were all part of India since Mughal times..

When I meet a Pakistani, I feel no different from him. We look like each other, speak the same language Hindustani, have the same culture, the same love for Urdu poetry and Hindustani music, biryani and other dishes, etc. We were befooled by the Britishers into thinking we are enemies and different nations, but how much longer must we remain befooled.? How much longer must blood flow ? How much longer must we spend a huge amount of money buying foreign arms, money which could have been spent on the welfare of our poor people ? We must reunite under a secular government which does not tolerate religious extremism or bigotry of any kind, whether Hindu or Muslim..

But to reunite will not be easy. The first step in this direction will be to dismember Pakistan ( which, as I said, was no country at all in the first place ). In fact the first step of dismemberment was taken in 1971 when Bangladesh was created. Now the next step must be to help Sind, Baluchistan, and NWFP to become independent ( later, they will voluntarily unite with us ). There are already organizations in these provinces which want independence, and we must start sending them arms and other supplies. This would not be difficult since we have a long border with Sindh.

Those who talk of ‘improving’ relations between India and Pakistan are living in a fool’s paradise. There can never be good relations between us, because Pakistan was created by the British as a theocratic state so that tension, enmity and hostility remain. This serves two objectives ( 1 ) India ( of which Pakistan is really a part ) does not emerge as a modern industrial giant ( of which it now has all the potential ), and thereby does not become a big rival to Western industry (2 ) India and Pakistan remain a huge market for the Western arms industries ( India is the biggest foreign arms purchaser in the world ).

So it will not be easy for us to reunite, as those who divided us will not let us easily reunite. But we are bound to reunite one day by the effort of our patriotic modern minded people, as the Partition of 1947 was on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, and we are really one nation.

When we reunite we will have a huge market for growth of a highly developed modern industry, which alone can generate the wealth we require for converting India into a highly prosperous, highly industrialized country with its people enjoying a high standard of living and decent lives. There will be freedom of religion in this reunited India, but no freedom of religious bigotry or extremism…

लेखक जस्टिस मार्कंडेय काटजू भारत के जाने माने न्यायाधीश रहे हैं. उनसे संपर्क [email protected] के जरिए किया जा सकता है.

इसे भी पढ़ सकते हैं…

मोदी ने भक्तों को नया एजेंडा दिया- ‘अब बलूचिस्तान-गिलगित खेलो!’

xxx

लाल किले से मोदी ने झूठ बोला! सच्चाई सुनिए पत्रकार विनय ओसवाल से