IRAQ: Foes India and Pakistan ‘United’ against War

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Mar 21 2003 (IPS) - If there is one issue on which South Asia’s bitter rivals India and Pakistan can see eye-to-eye on, it is their opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

áPakistan has long been Washington’s ‘most allied ally’ in the region, but this is a status that India has been vying for ever since the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ofááPrime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to national power five years ago.

áááBut for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001, where Pakistan had an overwhelming strategic advantage, Washington may well have jettisoned a country with a history of army rule for a new alliance with the ‘world’s biggest democracy’, India.

áááSince Sep. 11, Washington has been carrying on a balancing act between the two countries, anxious not to be seen as taking sides on the Kashmir dispute between the South Asian neighbours and steadily removing all sanctions that were imposed on them for carrying out a rival series of nuclear tests in 1998.

áááBut now, when the United States needs friends most, both countries have balked at the idea of extending support for a war which has all the hallmarks of the kind of colonialism that Pakistan and India, as a single political entity, fought so hard to shake off not so long ago.

áááPakistan, created as a homeland for the sub-continent’s Muslims after the de-colonisation of British India in 1947, was narrowly spared the ordeal of having to vote in the U.N. Security Council after Washington decided to not risk embarrassment from a second resolution on Mar.18 and opted for war with Iraq.

áááThings have not been easier for Vajpayee, who staved off an anti-war resolution in Parliament that the powerful Congress party and its allies in the opposition were insisting on, only through a speech condemning ”unilateralism” and ”regime change in Iraq by a foreign power”.

áááAt the moment, there is not a single political party either in India or in Pakistan that has not criticised U.S-led military action in Iraq, though some may offset this by saying that Saddam Hussein could have done more to comply with U.N. resolutions or some token to show they do not wish to offend Washington.

áááIn India, for example, the Congress party, which was loudest in demanding a parliamentary resolution to condemn unilateralism desisted from joining a team of politicians that toured Iraq last month to make a first-hand, independent appraisal of conditions there.

áááSimilarly in Pakistan, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that in many ways approximates the Congress party in India has been careful to steer away from a clear-cut position on Iraq, focusing on humanitarian issue rather than openly condemning Washington. áááOutside their Parliaments and on the streets, the two countries look even more close to each other with similar-sounding slogans and banners calling for ‘Death to America’ carried by people ready to battle grim-looking police to get at U.S. installations and institutions.

áááPredictably, pro-Islamic groups and political parties are at the forefront of such rallies in both countries – but this time around they are sharing a platform with intellectual groups, secularists and leftists..

áááOn Friday, Pakistan was crippled by a shutdown called by the Muttaheda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious parties that represents a third of Parliament. It is powerful in such sensitive provinces as Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province and influential in Punjab and Sindh.

áááFriday was a sensitive day in India too which, though officially secular, houses theááworld’s second largest Muslim population of 120 million people, most of them concentrated in important urban centres such as Bhopal, where people burned U.S. flags soon after prayers were over.

áááThe loudest demonstrations have been in Kashmir, India’s sole Muslim majority state whose possession is being disputed by Pakistan.

áááBangladesh, currently ruled by a coalition supported by the Jamaat-I-Islami, has also had its share of anti-U.S. demonstrations and mass rallies over the past weeks – in contrast to quieter opposition to U.S.-led action in Afghanistan.

áááOn Saturday, New Delhi will witness a march to the U.S. Embassy organised by the Committee Against War on Iraq in which political leaders, intellectuals and artists, including the well-known author Arundhati Roy, parliamentarian and journalist Kuldip Nayyar and the painter Manjeet Bawa, will be among high-profile participants.

áááThe People’s Health Movement (PHM), which is led by doctors and health professionals has taken a page out of anti-colonial history by calling for a Gandhian-style boycott of goods made in the United States and in Britain.

áááThe targets of this boycott call are items of food, beverages, petroleum products and cigarettes. ”Make it a point to tell the shopkeeper why you are boycotting these brands,” urged Ravi Narayan, international coordinator for PHM, which was born out of a 92-country summit held in Bangladesh in 2000.

áááThe PHM charter declares that wars and violence devastate communities, destroy human dignity and have severe impacts on the physical and mental health of women and children.

áááIt condemns the ”increased arms procurements and aggressive and corrupt international arms trade” thatáá”undermines social, political and economic stability,” which is the result of wars.

áááApart form sentiment, both India and Pakistan have genuine fears that a prolonged war in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region could result in millions of their workers employed there having to be repatriated home – with serious consequences for the local economy and for employment.

áááIndia has already begun an airlift of its nationals out of the region and on Friday, Defence Minister George Fernandes announced that transport aircraft from the air force stands ready to help with any emergency evacuation that might become necessary