Indian Defence Review

Lt Gen Anil Chauhan, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command said, “The current government is keen on taking hard decisions that have been pending for a long time. It also seems keen to conclude the Naga talks. The impact on the states of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh in now being assessed before a final decision is made. The Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed despite reservations from a couple of north-eastern states. It would not be hard to guess that some hard decisions on left-wing extremism may be on the anvil after this”.

Some professional government and Indian Army baiters, as usual, commented that the Army Commander had exceeded his brief, as if the brief is under their tutelage! Only anti-India forces can suffer from such thinking. When we talk of two and half front war; the half front relates to jihadi proxy war, jihadi terrorism, Maoism, and insurgency. Had illegal infiltration into India not been politically sponsored in Assam, Northeast of India and Bengal in the past, if population of minorities in East Pakistan and later Bangladesh had remained at the level of one-third of the total population, the insurgency and terrorist environment in the East would not have acquired such alarmingly threatening proportions. It is religious, historical, geographical and external factors that sustain insurgency and terrorism.

It is well known fact that whenever the Khalida Zia government came into power, Bangladesh became Pakistan ISI’s territory from which jihadi terrorism was orchestrated in the East. Governments exist to facilitate the legitimate duty of the Army to maintain territorial integrity and security of the country, they do not create obstacles.

There have seldom been wars in this history of the world, wherein ‘religious faith’ has not been a central factor. Consequent to World War-1, the Caliphate was dismantled and West Asia was parceled out between the victors. Eight lakhs Indian soldier were involved in busting the Caliphate even as Mr Gandhi supported the Khilafat movement. The word Khilafat was used to conceal the pan-Islam design of Indian Muslims, most of them converted. In World War-2, the Jewish factor was pronounced. No sooner the Jewish state of Israel was created in 1948 it was attacked by five Muslim countries of the region to eliminate that nation and that remains their fundamental posture.

The main vehicle for proxy war by Pakistan in Kashmir was jihad and jihadi ideology. All Pak sponsored Jihadi attacks in the hinterland of India i.e. Varanasi, Ayodhya, Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad was not motivated by desire to gain territory but impetus was anti-Hindu agenda. Again, the viciousness of this agenda within Pakistan can be extrapolated.

It is therefore bounden duty of an Army Commander to assess the threat to his operational theater in the backdrop of historical sub-continental and sociological realities, and most importantly ideological predilections of India’s adversaries. These sub-continental realities and predilections are discussed in the succeeding paras.

Junaid Hafeez, who teaches English in Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan in Pakistan, has been sentenced to death on charges of ‘blasphemy’ in a case that goes back to 2013. His lawyer Rashid Rehman was also shot dead a year later. Since then there is no counsel for the professor. This is an endemic occurrence in Pakistan.

It may be recalled that Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab province of Pakistan was also assassinated in 2011 by his guard MumtazQadir because the Governor, who is also the ex-husband of an Indian journalist, questioned the inhuman nature of the blasphemy laws that exists in Pakistan. No lawyer dared to defend the Governor, instead whenever Mumtaz Qadir appeared in the court, the lawyers showered him with rose petals.

A year before that Asiya Noreen (Asiya Bibi), a Christian, was also sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy. Later she was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for want of sufficient evidence. The fundamentalists, who are in majority in Pakistan were up in arms against the decision. The western world came to her rescue and ensured that she is not harmed and later spirited away from the country.

There are many like Asiya Bibi in Lahore, who are engaged as sweepers and toilet cleaners.. There is a whole colony for such Christians in Lahore by the name of ‘Youhanabad’ for them. They converted from Hinduism to Christianity in the hope of escaping the anti-Hindu murderous hatred that prevails in Pakistan’s Punjab. Nevertheless, their dalit brethren in Karachi too are victims of anti-Hindu hatred which relatively is less venomous then that in Punjab.

If someone were to question or disprove the Quranic revelation that the earth is flat like a carpet and the mountains lend their weight to prevent it from flying, he or she would incur blasphemy laws and eventually be killed by the state or otherwise.

India’s first High Commissioner to Pakistan and author of the book ‘Pakistan Birth And Early Days’, Sri Prakasa, has mentioned how the Pakistan dispensation got after the authorities in Sindh for not doing enough to ensure the exodus of the Hindu (dalits) from Pakistan into India. Following this stern warning, there began a massive exodus of Hindus (dalits). Soon Karachi, which was then a very clean and well administered city, was intimidated under mountains of garbage and human filth. The makers of Pakistan, who had clearly said that Muslims of the subcontinent cannot live with the Hindus, realised that they could not even keep themselves clean without Hindu support. Soon, there was another official missive, i.e. to prevent the exodus of Hindu (dalits) by every possible coercion. Even now, the situation in Karachi would be no different if the Hindus (dalits) were to stop work.

In Afghanistan, the Bamiyan Buddhas, were destroyed by the Taliban, protégé of Pakistan in 2001. These structures were cutouts of rocks. If this be the level of hatred for rocks, one can extrapolate the plight of the living Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists.

The Islamic states of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh treat their minorities as the most wretched creatures. The Western countries to an extent are able to bully Pakistan or Bangladesh to task for ill-treatment of Christians. The Pakistani authorities have no option but to fall in line because being out of line would cost them hugely in the international arena. It may be recalled that in the year 2011, an ex-American soldier – Raymond Allen Davis, employed by the CIA, killed two Pakistanis in Lahore. He got away by merely paying a sum of $2.4 million as ‘diyya’, a form of monetary compensation or blood money.

 Internationally, not everybody has the denominational leverage of Asiya Bibi or Raymond Davis to mock at the pseudo-jihadism of Pakistan.

This is nothing new. Most nation-states celebrate their birthdays in form of Independence Day etc. Pakistan does it on 14 August. Jinnah, a Shia, the creator of the first country based on Muslim faith (not religion) had said that the seed of Pakistan was sown by Mohammad bin Qasim’s conquest of Sindh in 712 AD. As per the book, ‘The History of Jihad from Muhammad to ISIS’ by Robert Spencer, following the conquest Qasim triumphantly wrote to the Governor Hajjaj: “The forts of Siwistan and Sisam have been already taken. The nephew of Dahir, his warriors and principal officers have been dispatched, and infidels converted to Islam or destroyed. Instead of idol temples, mosques and other places of worship have been built, pulpits have been erected, the Khutba (Islamic Friday sermon) is read, and the call to prayers is raised so that devotions are performed at the stated hours. The takbir (Allahuakbar) and praise to the Almighty God are offered every morning and evening”.

What Jinnah forgot to mention that Muhammad bin Qasim was ordered to death by the then Caliph ‘Walid’ because he had the temerity to send deflowered sex slaves to him. Mr Jinnah and his progeny must realize that it was a patriotic lie that the daughter of the slain King of Sindh – Raja Dahir, had told the Caliph. Amongst the two daughters of Raja Dahir sent as sex slaves to the Caliph, one was Janaki, for which Caliph had taken liking. As he took her to the bed, she pulled out a ruse that Qasim had already deflowered her. When on the orders of Caliph, Mir Qasim was killed, Janaki as per the historical book, ‘Chachnama’ told him that how could he kill a man just for two sex slaves, a person who had made thousands of sex slaves out of innocent women like her and who had broken thousands of temples and constructed thousands of mosques. It would not be wrong to credit Janaki for stopping the onslaught of Islam from next 500 years into India.

Spain passed through the same phase during that period. Only a year before, in 711 AD, Count Julian, who was a Governor of North-African Spain ruled pocket, conspired with Tariq al Jabar, a General of the Caliphate, to attack Spain, ruled by King Roderic. As an assurance against any deceptive designs, he gave his two daughters as sex slaves to Tariq al Jabar (word Gibraltar derived from this name). They were sex slaves in the real sense and they continued to be most vilified and despised character in Spanish history. Consequently nearly whole of Spain was converted to Islam for next 700 years till Christianity bounced back in the most brutal manner.

The question is, where do the Janakis of Indian subcontinent go? Where is their salvation from Mohammad bin Qasims? Akbar was labelled by the fundamentalists including his son Jahangir as an ‘apostate’ because in the later years of his life he had become a man of eclectic belief. Jahangir thought that the religious attitude of his father was influenced by Abul Fazal. Jahangir had his father’s favourite companion, Abul Fazal, killed. He inaugurated his rule in 1606 by having Guru Arjun Dev killed. As per the book, The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India by Sita Ram Goel, Jahangir wrote, “A Hindu named Arjun lived in Govindwal on the bank of river Beas in the garb of a saint and in ostentation. From all sides cowboys and idiots became his fast followers. The business had flourished for three or four generations. For a long time it had been in my mind to put a stop to this dukan-e-batil (market of falsehood) or to bring him into the fold of Islam.”

Again the question is where will the Sikhs escape from depredations of Jahangirs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh?

This is a problem peculiar to the Indian subcontinent created by historical calamitous events especially ‘partition’. It is also a fact that about 90 percent of Muslims of the Indian subcontinent voted for Muslim League during the 1946 elections. They never wanted to be the children of Bapu, but wanted to flirt with Jinnah and his jaundiced idea of Pakistan.

Partition did not satisfy a large constituency of Muslims in the subcontinent. They still hankered for Indian territory and Hindu subjects and believed their divine right to rule over the entire subcontinent. They considered the British as usurpers, but later collaborated for the creation of Pakistan. This attitude took forms of Kashmir proxy war and jihadi terrorism against India. This also took the form of demographic assault on India.

It may also be reiterated that it is not only the Pakistani based jihadi groups like JuM and LeT which are waging war against India, but increasingly the jihadi footprints of Bangladeshi Jamait-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) can be felt throughout the country, i.e. in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. As per some reports, between 2014 and 2018 – 22 JMB hideouts were discovered in Bangalore. There are also reports that JMB cadres received training on rocket launchers in Krishnagiri Hills in Karnataka. Buddhist temples are supposedly their targets. As per the NIA and ATS this is happening in the cover of Bangladeshi illegal emigrants. The same group carried out the terror attack in the Dhaka Café in July 2016, wherein 17 foreigners were killed. They are also responsible for bomb blasts in Bardhwan in 2014 and Bodh Gaya in 2018.

Why is it that India has to construct and maintain border fences against Pakistan and Bangladesh at such huge cost to the Indian exchequer? Why no fences by Pakistan and Bangladesh on their borders with India? The answer to these questions will reflect the reality. Nevertheless, and most certainly these countries, and their ideological proxies in India, whose numbers are anything but insignificant, do not want legal barriers as well, that explains the violent reaction to CAA and NRC.

India therefore has every right to secure its territory from the jihadi onslaught that began in 712 AD.

Full credit should be given to Indian diplomacy for exposing the Ummah, first on Kashmir and now on Citizen Amendment Act. When elements inimical to India generated the controversy and violence on CAA, Imran had to cancel his participation in the three day Kuala Lumpur Summit of Islamic countries like Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Malaysia and of course Pakistan. Riyadh had euphemistically spanked Pakistan for being the pioneer of this Summit along with Malaysia. Saudi Arabia and UAE summoned Imran and Gen Bajwa respectively. These two countries warned Pakistan that any move to create an alternative to OIC in which Saudi Arabia has the most influential role, will result in dire financial reprisal. It is also believed that Riyadh threatened Pakistan that it would expel four million Pakistani workers from the country and employ Bangladeshis in their place. Ironically, all the countries that were to participate in Kuala Lumpur Summit, were most forthcoming in their support to Pakistan on Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. Pakistan was actually taken for ride by Mahathir Mohammad, whose radical variety of Islam is becoming a threat to India. It is the same Mahathir Mohammad, who has given the radical space to Zakir Naik in Malaysia’s territory. He told the reporters at Kuala Lumpur Summit, “I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is taking action to deprive Muslims of their citizenship…”.

Pakistan and votaries of Pakistani jihadi ideology must realize from the Saudi and UAE ultimatum that jihad or Mahathir Mohammad will not feed the Pakistanis. It should also realize that in respect of Muslim countries, the demonstrated Islamic piety of rulers are driven by self-preservation and self-interest, and that is why Ummah will always be elusive. This trait was exposed by Raja Dahir’s daughter Princess Janaki in 712 AD.