Bullet in Butt
by
Prakash Katoch.
What a terrible pity that
Abdul Rehman Malik still believes weather fires bullets. He probably received
one as a young kid relieving himself behind the bush and the neighbor absolved
himself of possible charge by psyching Abdul it was the Pakistani weather being
naughty. After all in a country radicalized to the extreme, does the weather
not have the right to bear firearms too? Who is this fellow anyway? Wikipedia
describes him as a onetime Chief Security Officer of Benazir Bhutto. He must
have been chosen because he could deflect bullets fired by mischievous weather
of Pakistan onto his own behind; a quality difficult to equal.
Wikipedia further describes
him as a ‘former’ Interior Minister of Pakistan since his membership of
Pakistan’s Senate, and so his position as Interior Minister of Pakistan was
‘suspended’ on 4th June 2012 for holding dual nationality. Earlier,
on 30th May 2012, Pakistan's Supreme Court gave Rehman Malik a one-day deadline
to prove that he had given up his British citizenship, in absence of which he
would lose his membership of the Senate. On 30th May 2012,a three
member Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhamamd Chaudhry,
was hearing the dual nationality case, and observed that the documents
presented by Malik’s counsel did not have the declaration of the Interior
Minister renouncing his British citizenship. However, at a later date Malik
produced a declaration renouncing his British citizenship and hence continues
as interior Minister. 
What Malik forgot while
describing what happened with Captain Saurabh Kalia is that Saurabh was not
martyred in Pakistani territory where ‘weather’ fires bullets? He was very much
in Indian Territory when taken prisoner of war and was killed with a bullet to
the temple after the most heinous unimaginable torture. Referring to the patrol
led by Captain Saurabh Kalia, Wikipedia says, “The postmortem revealed that
the Pakistan army had indulged in the most heinous acts; of burning their
bodies with cigarettes, piercing ear-drums with hot rods, puncturing eyes
before removing them, breaking most of the teeth and bones, chopping off
various limbs and private organs of these soldiers besides inflicting all sorts
of physical and mental tortures before shooting them dead, as evidenced by the
bullet wound to the temple.” Similarly,
Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, whose MiG was shot down over Indian soil on May 27,
1999, was used for target practice by Pakistani soldiers after he bailed out
and opened his parachute.
Abdul Rehman Malik can hardly
retract his statement when saying this on TV with an equally idiotic array of
his countrymen grinning in the background. There is absolutely no scope of
volte face by saying the media misquoted him. If our government was left with
even a wee bit of shame, Malik should have been given the marching orders there
and then – booted out of the country forthwith. But lo and behold the national
TV shows a beaming Shinde grasping this fellow’s hand.
Malik’s later comment that if
Pakistanis had tortured Surabh, why they would return his body doesn’t stand
water either. The simple explanation is that Pervez Musharraf as Pakistani Army
Chief (who still views himself as the slimy version of 21st Century
Genghis Khan) wanted to signal his barbarianism to India.
But that is not where
the brazen idiocy of Rehman Malik ended. He then has the gumption of equating Babri
Masjid demolition with the 26/11 terror attacks, asking Indians to forget 26/11
and move on - this again in company of Shinde who can’t muster the courage to
rebut him. Malik’s calls for working together for peace in the region are so
hollow with ground indicators the exact opposite. After all this, and absolving
Hafiz Saeed from complicity in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,
Manmohan
Singh should have refused to meet Malik and asked his counterpart in Pakistan
to apologize. But like perfect neighbours we had to hold Malik’s hand and avoid
public anger – so very important with upcoming elections. Hence, the remarkable
breakthrough in the Samjhauta Express blast. What perfect timing; absolute
clockwork precision. Manmohan’s James Bonds fully deserve it. After all how
many citizens would have read B Raman’s article of 7th
August 2010 (Paper number 3971 of South Asia Analysis Group) saying, “According to American
investigators the LET and Al Qaeda were responsible for the Samjauta Express
blast and the HUJI for the Mecca Masjid blast. If the American investigators,
who have better sources in Pakistan, are correct, how can our investigators claim
that some arrested Hindus were responsible for these incidents? Justice and
fairplay demand a thorough investigation into the two different versions that
have emerged from Indian and American investigators. While the American
investigators have blamed the LET, Al Qaeda and the HUJI, Indian investigators
have blamed the Abhinav Bharat. Both cannot be correct”. But why bother? After
all B Raman is only an Additional
Secretary (Retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India. Intelligence officials
can always be wrong – especially the retired ones.
What a
terrible shame to witness TV debates these days; political parties throwing
muck at each other’s tenures in power, absolving themselves of any charge and
ducking real issues. Some government spokespersons excel in verbal diarrhoea,
shouting their way out of context right till the end, ensuring others don’t get
a chance to speak. Everything is politicized. Take for example the Sir Creek
issue. The Government says they do not need any sermons on nationalism. That is
so very right. It will be so very difficult to understand nationalism in the
first place. If the polity understood nationalism, we would have pushed the
Pakistanis out of POK in 1948 rather than declaring a ceasefire and knocking on
the doors of the UN, not suffered the ignominy of 1962, not lost Aksai Chin and
Shaksgam, hit the terrorists camps inside Pakistan including during the Kargil
Conflict, exposed Chinese meddling in India’s internal affairs. Isn’t it
amazing that post the exposure of attempt to withdraw from Siachen, there has
not been one single statement by the government on the issue.
Looking
dispassionately at Rehman Malik’s blabbering, you cannot actually blame him and
we should pity the fellow. He is merely reading out the script approved by the
Pakistani Military-ISI. No politician or bureaucrat can hope to survive in
Pakistan without the blessings of the Military-ISI. Democracy in that country
is and will continue to remain a sham. Any promises this fellow makes, their
implementation will be subject to vetting by the Military-ISI. Malik has to parrot Aman ki Asha and announce his arrival with a message of Peace and Love, followed by spewing
venom to hurt Indian sensibilities as much as he can.
But,
hey what about our ruling polity? They should be smart enough to surmise that
if military veterans can return their medals and gallantry awards, accompanied
by letters written in their own blood, veterans can certainly be relied upon to
lend them some spine. Perhaps the Supreme Commander can find time to advise the
government on such issues. So what if he was installed by the very same
government.
_______________________________________________________________
The
author is a veteran Lieutenant General who hails from the same town (Palampur
in Himachal Pradesh)as martyr Captain Saurabh Kalia.
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