Indian Defence Review

The protesters at Shaheen Bagh very well comprehend the import and imperative of the CAA. They know it is about ‘coming’ and not ‘going’. For Hindus and Sikhs of the subcontinent partition was also about ‘coming’ into truncated India from Pakistan, and for Muslims it was about ‘going’ into Pakistan.

86 percent Muslims, which includes the forebears of Shaheen Bagh protesters, voted for the Muslim League in 1946 elections. There was direct contest between Congress and Muslim League. The elections were not fought over free electricity or free bus rides, it was over the issue of creation of Pakistan. The Muslim League won 429 of the 494 Muslim seats. The geographical spread of the support for Pakistan in terms of seats is revealing: UP-54/66, Bihar-34/40, MP-13/14, Mumbai Province-30/30, Madras-28/28, Assam-31/34, Punjab-74/86, Bengal-113/119, and Odisha-4/4.

The Congress lost deposits on 90 percent of the seats contested. Therefore, the protesters belong to ‘going’ category but could not go because of West Pakistan and East Pakistan’s inability and unwillingness to accommodate them. Nothing drastic ever happened, or ever can, that has the potential to dilute their emotional bonding and support for Pakistan. We are talking of collective psyche!

The power-brokers partitioned the country and uprooted the Hindus and Sikhs from their motherlands. Economically they were devastated, psychologically they were battered, but most important of all, they retained their identity. The much bolstered identity in their new motherland engendered their economic well-being in less than two decades.

Those Hindus and Sikhs who remained in Pakistan not only lost their identity, but the jihadi mazhab (faith) was unleashed on their dharam (religion) with vengeance. As entities they withered. The rump few looked upto India, just as families of Manmohan Singh and I K Gujral once did. They went on to become prime ministers even though they commanded negligible electoral base. Had they remained in Pakistan, one dreads to imagine their disposal.

The above facts were not lost out on the protesters. Their majhabi education system is very current on Ummah, i.e. from Pakistan to Turkey, from Bangladesh to Malaysia, from Syria to Libya, and from Arabia to China. Curiously, they never castigate China for treatment of Uighur Muslims, because they perceive that country as anti-India force, which can assist jihadi Pakistan in destruction of India, more specifically the Hindus. Hate-Hindu far outweighs their love for Ummah. Their silence on Chinese Muslims is testimony of their tactical awareness levels and agendas, set by the maulvis. So to say they do not comprehend CAA is deceit.

The Jihadi psyche was buffeted by abrogation of Article 370, Surgical Strike, and Balakot Strike, strike on Triple Talaq, the Ram Mandir judgement and the CAA. Thus both i.e. Jihadi agenda of sponsor Pakistan and proxies in India grievously suffered. In fact abrogation of Article 370 has existential consequences for Pakistan. Abrogation of the article has also consequences for China in terms CPEC and boundary resolution with India. Indeed and as envisaged, the Modi and Trump joint statement alluded to concept ‘Blue Dot Network’ . It is a countervailing concept to CPEC. The said network envisages state of art global infrastructure development through various governments, private sector and civil society. The only hope for jihadis on both sides of the divide was the international community and jihadi violence across India.

Unfortunately, going by Trump’s push for Israel, disregarding all opposing theocratic considerations, they saw little chance in salvaging 370 through any American intervention. Also, the visit took place under the shadow of American military withdrawal from Afghanistan which will create strategic vacuum which Pakistan fears India may exploit.

The military thinning from Middle East by US and its prodding to India to assume larger role in the Gulf is bound to disconcert Pakistan and China, particularly the latter, as it undermines its Gwadar thrust into the region. The visit they thought had to be sabotaged at all costs, before or during.

This first ever stand- alone visit by an American, more than trade and transactions, had too many long-term geopolitical strategic consequences for Pakistan and China. Arms sales from US to India which includes C-130, C-17, in the past, and now 22 Apache helicopters, and 24 Romeo helicopters equipped with torpedoes, Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and precision kill rockets, are of strategic variety which bolsters our role in Indo-Pacific region or enhances our strategic airlift capability to address land and maritime based threat from China or even two front situation.

China views the US emphasis on India –Japan-Australia- US quad as threat to its influence in Indo-Pacific region. India’s oil imports from US, which grew by 500 percent in last two years, and now worth approximately $7 billion and growing, has more strategic and geopolitical portends than all recent Indo-US facets put together.

The stakes were critical, hence Pakistan, China and Indian Jihadis were desperate to sabotage Trump’s visit. The jihadi effort began by setting up Shaheen Bagh as epicenter with help of Maoists, Khalistanis and known anti-national elements. To ensure longevity of this jihadi enterprise women and children were put in the forefront and compelled to wield the national flag. The tricolor however did not deter anti-India and pro-Pak slogans.

They demanded ‘Jinnah Wali Azadi’, wish for bharat ki barbadi (destruction), called for halal (severance) for India’s chicken neck (northeast) and unabashedly declared Islamic brotherhood with Pakistan at the expense of India. Children were made to shout “Jo Hitler ki chal chalega, who Hitler ki maut marega’’ meaning — whoever follows Hitler will be made to die his death. This slogan alluded to the PM. Hitler is less of an abuse for Indians. Mohd Bin Quasim, Timur, Ghazni, Ghori, Lodhi, Khilji, Babar, Nadir Shah and Abdali are far worse abuses, because their only passion was loot of wealth and women. Unfortunately the jihadis in India treat them as their ancestors.

Having failed to prevent Trump’s visit, jihadi fires were fanned from Shaheen Bagh to rest of the country. In Bengaluru, from a jihadi platform, there were threats to 100 crores population by a self styled jihadi protagonist of 15 crores. Another Maoist raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans from the same platform. In effect it was call to a countrywide jihad.

In a way, the Supreme Court, by sending interlocutors to Shaheen Bagh, it acknowledged it as epicenter of jihadi protests, otherwise it would have sent such teams to other Shaheen Baghs in the country as well. ‘’Interlocutors’’ got embedded in our system in the Article 370 period, wherein the biggest crooks and manipulators were sent to Kashmir as interlocutors, but no such article operated in Shaheen Bagh. In Shaheen Bagh the crooks came in advance to prepare the crop to be harvested by interlocutors, both with great history of bonhomie.

One architect of Shaheen Bagh stage is ISI backed politician, who propagated state conspiracy behind Batla House encounter. The ISI funded him with 1400 crores to electorally capture border state of Punjab in which he failed because antagonist but nationalists decided to come together to defeat this anti-national. Khalistanis from Canada were pressed into service in his electoral campaign. He was the man who questioned Surgical Strike and consequently became lover boy of Pakistan. He had once threatened to disrupt the Republic Day parade by holding dharna at the site. He is the one who set up the Shaheen Bagh stage and is now demanding army deployment.

These plans to vitiate and derail Trump’s visit were predictable. The mindset to circumscribe and embarrass Modi and Trump was clear. Pakistan’s HQ in Shaheen Bagh was handled by Popular Front of India for the purpose. If the Indian state had cracked down earlier, which the protestors were striving for, may be the visit would have been derailed. It is impossible that Indian and US Intelligence agencies did not understand the threat in detail, but choosing between alternatives becomes a difficult proposition under such circumstances.

Standalone visit by a US President to India is a momentous occasion which cannot yield to jihadi threat. The jihadis can be crushed subsequently. Trump’s mention of Islamic Terrorism, not once but twice, was not inadvertent. Nothing is inadvertent at that high level diplomacy. Trump’s Islamic Terrorism did not exempt jihadis within India.