Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry a.k.a Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, has confused bhakts and war mongers on both sides of the border. Just 24 hours ago his bravado filled statement in the Pakistan National Assembly had launched a massive outcry, on both sides of the border. He was clearly heard and seen in the video clip boasting that Pakistan attacked Indian soldiers, deep in Indian territory in Pulwama in February 2019.

‘Ghar me ghuskar’ he said emphasizing on the intrusion deep into indian soil. “Humne Hindustan ko ghar mein ghus ke maara (We hit India in their home). Our success in Pulwama, is a success of the people under the leadership of Imran Khan. You and we are all part of that success,” Fawad Chaudhury had said in the national assembly.

Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry, in his moment of bluster did not even raise an original slogan. Instead he borrowed the ‘ghar me ghuskar’ line from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had in March 2019 slammed those who called the Indian Airforce strikes on terror camps in Pakistan as an electoral gimmick. “Humara siddhant hai, hum ghar me ghus ke marenge (It is our principle… we enter their hearth and attack)’ he had said. The PM’s followers had echoed those words for months after that.

Unlike PM Modi whose followers are steady in their devotion, Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry, faced attack from his fellow parliamentarians, and must have faced major heat from his own boss. He has had to eat his words, and retreat after being attacked for his statement which has put Pakistan’s position on terror under the scanner. The minister quickly changed his statement, appeared on Indian news channels and claimed that his remarks were misconstrued.

He told NDTV that “Pakistan doesn’t allow any terrorism, I was misinterpreted.” He told NDTV that his statement was about “Operation Swift Resort that we undertook after India dared to enter Pakistan territory on Balakot. I was talking about the post-Pulwama operation that Pakistan undertook.”

However, that has had little effect on the Indian side of the border as he is still believed to have suggested that Pakistan was responsible for the 2019 terrorist attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir where 40 Indian paramilitary personnel were killed. Even then he has been making all attempts to take a smooth u-turn on the issue. Most actively reaching out to Indian audiences with social media posts such as these:

Meri jaan hear full speech so you will know unlike #Endian definition of #GhussKMarna by using terrorism n Kalbhoshans our #GhussKMarna is when our planes target combat installations,unlike Your security doctrine we do not show Bravery by killing innocents n we condemn terrorism https://t.co/bcAcJUP5DD

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) October 29, 2020

You are quoting @fawadchaudhry out of context

He was mentioning the events after Pulwama Attack.
The misadventure of Hindustan and the way Pakistan gave you the bloody nose, which is still hurting! ??

Watch the full clip. #NeverForget https://t.co/fErAXBrmnf pic.twitter.com/nggYiBNm6U

— Fawad Chaudhry (Updates) (@FawadPTIUpdates) October 29, 2020

The February 14, 2019, deadly attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama had set off a massive chain reaction, India retaliated with air strikes on a terrorist camp in Pakistan’s Balakot. Pakistan then sent fighter jets to target Indian military installations, this was thwarted by the Indian Air Force. However, Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by Pakistani forces after his plane went down across the Line of Control. His release two days later had earned much praise for the country and all credit was given to Pakistan Prime Minister Imaran Khan’s diplomatic approach to the sensitive situation.

Over a year later, the issue was dusted and displayed as Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhury’s extempore statement after opposition leader Ayaz Sadiq’s dramatic ‘disclosure’ that Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa met after the aerial encounter and the decision to release Wing Commander Varthaman, was taken fearing that ‘India would attack Pakistan that night by 9 PM’. Multiple news reports quoted Ayaz Sadiq’s saying: “I remember Shah Mahmood Qureshi was in the meeting in which (Prime Minister) Imran Khan had refused to attend and Chief of Army Staff General Bajwa came into the room, his legs were shaking and he was perspiring. Foreign Minister said for God’s sake let Abhinandan go, India’s about to attack Pakistan at 9 PM.” 

In August 2019, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had filed a chargesheet in the case reported by The Scroll, it named 19 people, including Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Asghar. According to the report, NIA’s investigation also revealed that Pakistan used Adil Ahmad Dar, the suicide bomber who rammed the CRPF convoy on February 14, because it wanted to project the attack as a result of a home-grown militancy against “India’s occupation of Kashmir”.

Meanwhile the Indian side took Pakistan’s internal war of words as a golden opportunity to attack the Opposition. Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda on Thursday criticised Rahul Gandhi for mocking the Indian Army and the Narendra Modi government, reported The scroll. He he hoped the “Congress princeling found some light” after hearing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ayaz Sadiq’s statements about India. 

Veteran activist and CPI (M) politburo member Brinda Karat had written a powerful opinion in Feb 2019, exposing the Centre’s Double Standards in the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack. She had stated that a unanimous resolution of the all-party meeting reflected the resolve of people across India to rebuff terrorist violence, and, as the resolution stated, “the support being given to it from across the border.” She lashed out at the way the then BJP’s president Amit Shah speech in Assam, saying “The sacrifices of our jawans will not go in vain since it is not a Congress government at the Centre but that of the BJP,” and saying it was “to make electoral gains from the killing of jawans” and that it gave “India’s opponents a handle to promote the theory that all this is part of the electoral strategy of the BJP.”  Reports of Kashmiris being targeted had emerged from different parts of the country. 

The war of words continues to fuel heated debates in 2020, as elections are now underway in Bihar, and in some other constituencies. And trolls have been busy for hours now attacking senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai who conducted an interview with Fawad Chowdry yesterday where he backtracked on his own statement. The least Pak Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry could do was use an original slogan.

 

Related: 

Going against EC advisory, PM Modi asks people to dedicate their votes to Balakot soldiers

Anantnag’s BJP candidate says Kashmiri students ‘deserved’ to be attacked after Pulwama attacks

Pulwama Aftermath: The Love for Sikh Community

Pulwama Response: Choose Peace over Political Posturing and Propaganda

Opinion: Centre’s Double Standards Exposed In Aftermath Of Pulwama Terror

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Image Courtesy: AFP
 
As the reports of Indian Air Force’s pre-emptive strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps inside Pakistan territory came, there was a sense of gratitude among ordinary Indians who felt that the terror camps must be destroyed at all costs. But the media and those who want to use these bombings to take advantage of the political climate are using all their energy in chest thumping as if it was they who did it.
 
Political reactions were mature and in line with their policies. All complimented our forces for their bravery but the prime minister and BJP leaders claimed it as their victory. It is the same people who, during the Uttarakhand tragedy or attack on Taj, did not give credit to the government but made every effort to suggest that the government was different than the army and forces.
 
Today, all the political parties across the spectrum have supported the strike which is a good sign and BJP and its leaders must desist from taking credit for these claims. Secondly, these issues are of utmost importance and therefore it is important to leave the army and the Indian diplomacy to deal with the issue and not convert it into another hate propaganda back home. India must face this together and in unison, as many attempts to divide us will be created.
 
The biggest casualty during the ‘wartime’ is the truth, particularly when media become part of the propaganda machinery of the governing. India and Pakistan media are competing with each other when it comes to who can stoop to the lowest level of ridiculousness. We are not even allowing the army and the requisite Ministry to handle it.
 
After Pulwama, we felt proud of the way CRPF officers sent their categorical message to the country that their Jawans did not die to create religious polarisation and hatred in the country. I can say that the Ministry of External Affairs Press briefing was also mature and balanced. Of course, the claims and figures mentioned are only as per the ‘information’ received. The best part was when the Foreign Secretary Mr Vijay Gokhale spoke in a fairly measured way about ‘India’s ‘non-military pre-emptive strike’ which clearly mean that for India it was not a war against Pakistan but the specific target of ‘eliminating’ the terrorists’ camps and outfits.
 
Now, it is another matter whether those camps, terrorists, hatemongers or Jihadis have been killed and whether the threat to common Indians from these terror outfits is now finished. Frankly, it was not a press-conference but a statement of India’s position after crossing the LoC or International Border.
 
Now the ‘entertainment’ channels are reporting from ‘sources’ that over 300 terrorists were killed including Yousuf Azhar, brother in law of Masood Azhar, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad. The point is how do our news reporters come to the conclusion about the deaths and the individual when the entire operation was carried out in the night and just confined to the bombing of a particular target without any ground operations? Why can’t the media keep quiet when the military establishment has not spoken about these things.
 
The problem is that war or military can be used for short term process to control situations to a certain degree but ultimately, we all have to resort to using the political process. India and Pakistan cannot absolve themselves from the political process as there is no other option. There are however, people on both the sides who think of eliminating or deleting communities and countries from the world map. Added with idiotic fulmination and hateful jingoism being played by the corporate sponsored TV channels who celebrate these stories of war when people want peace.
 
During a war, the level of rhetoric grows and all this is highly patriarchal, talking of machoism and creating a false narrative of your ‘strength’. An example of this is Pakistan and what it is facing today because of fanatic Islamic groups who are extra-state actors and think they are the law unto themselves, with the army actively backing them. It is these fanatics whose shout is more audible than the common person in the street who wants friendly relations with India.
 
The danger of extra-state actors destroying democratic and constitutional values in India is equally powerful. We should be more worried because whatever form of democracy was here, it is better than any military or dictatorial regime. We all know who are the forces taking law in their hand and abusing people at their will. Democracy there was always fragile and under control of the military but we can’t have the same in India. Our forces have shown an extremely professional approach on the issue of being non-political but for the last few years, we are witnessing the political leadership trying to reap the political benefit of a military action. The soldiers die for the country and the politicians want to benefit politically.
 
Geopolitical war games are difficult to understand. It is surprising that India did not speak anything about the suicide attack on Iranian Revolutionary Guards in which 27 of these guards were killed and the Iranian Defence Minister blamed Pakistan based militant groups.
 
Why was India silent about this and did not attempt to find a common thread of Pakistani support for these extra state actors. It is also strange that we were more than eager to blame the Saudis who did not even bother to condemn the Pulwama killing through an official statement. Was India’s decision of ignoring Iran because of the fear of Americans who want to isolate Iran? Where is the independent foreign policy? Even Afghanistan has blamed Pakistan based Jehadi groups trying to destabilise their government but it is surprising we do not have any common strategy with these countries.
 
President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un are meeting in Vietnam, which gives a new hope to the world that ultimately the nations will have to speak to each other and take a clear stand against forces that have state patronage to destabilise their neighbours. Each country today has problem points and they need to resolve them by creating better circumstances and building confidence among people.
 
India has said that it carried out the ‘non-military pre-emptive strike’ on Pakistan because there were specific intelligence inputs that Jaish had planned to carry out more suicide attacks in India. Should we think that now, we will not have any further escalation? Will Pakistan keep quiet or respond? Will they act against the terror groups? Saying that it does not exist, when they raise open threats, is basically a blatant lie and will justify Indian action given the situation world over when nation states have to take care of their people and protect them. The only thing is whether the threat to people at large will be reduced or end.
 
It is time for all of us to stop with this jingoism and let the forces and the diplomats handle the issue. We are not afraid of the government taking a decision to protect people but our problem is the fanatics back home trying to wage a war against our own people simply because we may not follow their political ideologies. Armed forces will protect us and may win us a war but our biggest threat is from the jingoism and hatred being spread on the silver screen by the corrupted media which divides people and is creating war hysteria.
 
We have trust in the maturity of our forces but zero trust on these loudspeakers who have no sense of accountability and responsibility towards the people. We hope good sense will prevail and diplomatic efforts will isolate the terror outfits and hatemongers not only nationally, but also internationally, so that we can wage a decisive war against poverty, superstition, discrimination and illiteracy as defeating them will make us a great nation and a big power.

The views expressed here are the author’s personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sabrangindia.
 

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Image: PTI
 
I went to participate in a candlelight event paying homage to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s statue on February 16, two days after the dastardly terrorist act in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, in which about 44 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed.
 
The event was organised by about 200 Dalit students on Hazratganj main crossing in Lucknow. The condolence meeting by Dalits students was sombre and no slogans were raised. At the neighbouring Mahatma Gandhi statue, a smaller number of nationalist groups of different shades were crying hoarse and shouting anti-Pakistan slogans, a sight that may have made Gandhi cringe.
 
The crucial question that arises is that why do such terrorist attacks continue to take place, if the Indian government, as claimed by the Prime Minister, has already given a fitting reply to Pakistan after the Uri terrorist attack in the form of a surgical strike? There is a clamour among the Hindutva hardliners for a stronger surgical strike. If the 2016 surgical strike has not deterred Pakistan based terror groups or the Pakistani Army, what is the guarantee that a fresh one will? And how many surgical strikes are issued before it triggers a full-fledged war? And who knows when the war will degenerate into a nuclear one? In fact, the Government of India’s hard-line position against Pakistan and refusal for dialogue has made the situation worse.
 
While in Afghanistan the United States prepares to pull out its troops, India has been left in the cold. Donald Trump, who till now had adopted a reprimanding attitude towards Pakistan for giving shelter to terrorist organisations, has now realised their importance in brokering a peace deal with the Taliban. Now he ridicules Narendra Modi as someone who tells him that India has built a library, undermining the Parliament building made by previous Indian governments in Kabul. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi, who did not spare any international forums to demand isolation of Pakistan for its role in promoting terror, failed to convince even one important nation. China blocked the Indian attempt at United Nations to declare Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, the man behind the 2001 Parliament attack and also behind the recent Pulwama incident, to be named a global terrorist. Russia, which was considered close to India, is now building a military partnership with Pakistan.
 
The Indian government, like in past terrorist attacks, continues to blame Pakistan for the Pulwama terrorist attack. Can the Pakistani government be held responsible for JeM’s act? India thinks so, but the rest of the world doesn’t agree with this point of view. Will Pakistani government risk supporting such an attack on India when it is just about to host US-Taliban talks in Islamabad and is happy to be back in the good books of US? It desperately needs the US financial help to sustain its security apparatus.
 
India must realise that the victim card it plays is not isolating Pakistan but is increasingly making India helpless. In no position to launch a full-fledged war because of the impending danger of the use of nuclear weapons, it is in India’s interest to buy peace with Pakistan and restore normalcy in Kashmir.
 
Facing marginalisation in Afghanistan peace talks, Indian government through its Army chief Bipin Rawat has signalled that it is willing to talk to the Taliban. This same government refuses to engage with the elected government of Pakistan, has failed to work out a coalition in J&K with People’s Democratic Party and does not acknowledge the presence of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which possibly has more hold on people than any political party there.
 
In fact, it questioned Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for having had telephonic talks with Hurriyat leaders recently. It doesn’t believe in dialogue and doesn’t want anybody else to dialogue with anybody else. This holier than thou attitude has played havoc with people of J&K.
 
If the Indian government has no qualm about talking to the Taliban then it should reconsider its position on avoiding dialogue with Pakistan and Kashmiri political actors. Imran Khan has pre-empted India by taking the Kartarpur Corridor initiative forcing it to cooperate as the Indian government cannot afford to hurt religious sentiments of the Sikh community. It should initiate a full-fledged dialogue process at the highest level. It cannot hope to have a better combination than Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the helm of affairs in Pakistan. It is a pity that there are attempts to cow down Navjot Singh Sidhu for advocating dialogue with Pakistan, who seems to be the only Indian politician who is trying to inject some sanity in the otherwise virulent atmosphere created in the country in the name of nationalist politics.
 
To restore peace in J&K, the Indian government must engage Hurriyat leaders, pave the way for State elections, possibly along with General elections, and help in the formation of the next elected government. But most importantly, the army and para-military forces have to be pulled out from inside Kashmir. The Indian government has to trust the J&K government to run its own affairs with the help of local police to control law and order situations like in other states. Army’s role should be limited to protecting borders only. Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) must be given a silent burial, vocal demand for which was made by Omar Abdullah when he was serving as Chief Minister.
 
In essence, until the Indian government stops treating Kashmir like its colony, peace is unlikely to return to the valley. No government can use pellet guns on its own people.
 
We have moved away from the Gandhian values, especially in the current regime headed by Narendra Modi who doesn’t visualise Gandhi’s role beyond the sanitation campaign. And we have to rely on our Constitution to bring back normalcy to Kashmir. Narendra Modi has to expand his 56 inches chest to allow a larger heart to extend a hand of friendship and peace to people of Kashmir, its political actors, even those of separatist hues, and Pakistan. It must reach a written or an unwritten arrangement, just like the one with China, to not let soldiers from either side use any firepower.
 
Both governments will have to jointly deal with terrorists because terror organisations based in Pakistan are hurting the Pakistani population probably more than the Indian population, something which very few people in India realise.
 

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A Panchayat meeting in the Mewat district of Haryana, India, in 2004. wikipedia, CC BY

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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