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| Former JU VC wants Delhi to clap with one hand and appease Pak | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 31: Former Jammu University Vice-Chancellor, Amitabh Mattoo, whose name is, along with Islamic University Vice Chancellor Sidiq Wahid, according to media reports, being considered for the Vice-Chancellor-ship of the Jammu Central University and which has created widespread resentment among the student and teaching fraternity in Jammu, has been acting as the Pakistani mouthpiece in India. What he wrote on September 3, 2009, in a leading national daily ("Pakistan policy: Sharm-el-Sheikh and after") clearly indicates that he has scant or no regard for the India's paramount interest and that he wants New Delhi to give more and more concessions unilaterally.
That it is so could seen from his following nine main observations: (1) "It has been clear for some years now that India is unable to fully comprehend or address the complexities of a changing Pakistan. Not surprisingly, New Delhi's policies have floundered, if not failed.
Strident debates in the Indian media - frightening in their Manichaean simplicity - reflect a lack of appreciation of the intricacies of the Gordian knot of bilateral relations".
(2) "Unlike much of the (Indian) establishment, however, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - by pinning Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to a joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh and then by warning the Chief Ministers of Indian states of the dangers of a terrorist attack from Pakistan-based groups - may have addressed part of the core problem: there are multiple Pakistans all of which demand Indian attention.
Robust if differentiated, focused but flexible, multi-track responses must now define India's policy towards Pakistan's fragile and fragmented political and social structure".
(3) "Not only the deep cleavages within Pakistan's society but also - surprisingly - the overwhelming popular desire now for better relations with India are revealed in two recent surveys of public opinion in that country, conducted by Gallup Pakistan and by the Pew Research Centre's Global Attitudes Project which included 24 countries (including Pakistan) and the Palestinian territories. The findings should also serve as a warning to New Delhi of the dangers of "outsourcing" its Pakistan policy to Washington".
(4) "These findings need to be studied carefully but if they are indeed reflective of real trends, they suggest what has always been intuitively obvious: India's Pakistan policy has not succeeded because, while remaining a prisoner of past dogmas, it has been unable to respond to the multiple political and social forces in Pakistan that need to be understood and addressed".
(5) "The strategic community in India has traditionally been overwhelmingly in support of a policy of aggressively countering Pakistan. These are the Subedars. Only a minority, the Saudagars, has wanted to ignore and benignly neglect Islamabad or integrate it economically. A microscopic few, however, want New Delhi to be proactive in promoting peace, even to the extent of making unilateral concessions…
(6) "But these strands cannot afford today to remain in opposition to one another. The need of the hour is for the Subedars, the Saudagars and the Sufis to come together and shape a new Pakistan policy. At a time when it has become risky to invoke Mohammad Ali Jinnah, it is still important to recall his original design for the state: Muslim, Moderate and Modern. It is this Pakistan that an Indian strategy must systematically work towards constructing. In the present scenario, Indian policy must have at least the following strands."
Where is that Pakistan? Pakistan was a theocratic, dictatorial, irrational and aggressive state and it continues to remain so even now. Rather, it has become a danger to world peace as it has become the epicenter of global terrorism.
(7) "India must reach out and strengthen all those who have a stake in better India-Pakistan relations and an interest in regional stability through unilateral gestures that do not demand reciprocity.
These would include specific initiatives for civil society actors, as well as many others within the business and political community. For instance, New Delhi should consider constructing a preferential trading regime that offers Pakistan's handicrafts and other local products almost unfettered access to the Indian market. Such a gesture… could have far-reaching long-term benefits for India and the region. Similarly, New Delhi could begin by offering a thousand scholarships to young men and women in Pakistan willing to study the humanities or social sciences in India at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels".
(8) "India must systematically seek to weaken, de-legitimize and isolate those who are enemies of a moderate Pakistan and, by implication, of a stable subcontinent. This can be done unilaterally or in conjunction with allies".
(9) "Ultimately, we need to understand that India-Pakistan relationship, over the last 62 years, has been about almost everything that matters: history, memory, prejudice, identity, religion, sovereignty, ideology, insecurity, betrayal and much, much more. Ironically, a troubled Pakistan, confused about its identity and its place in the world, may offer a real chance to move beyond conflict and towards real reconciliation. It is an opportunity to finally cut the Gordian knot; a chance India cannot afford to miss".
All of his observations are unambiguous and all of them indicates that he stands for the Pakistani interests, as opposed to the Indian interests. It would be suicidal if persons like Mattoo and Wahid are considered for the coveted position of Vice-Chancellor of Jammu Central University. They have already caused enough damage to the national polity. To export them to Jammu would mean the hastening of the process of Indian disintegration.
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