It is a matter of profound agony that repeatedly our Indian soldiers are being brutally murdered by terrorists at the behest of Pakistani Army, ISI and the ruling political establishment there yet India has done virtually nothing in retaliation. The massacre of 18 Indian soldiers while they were asleep by locking doors and making sure that they don’t escape points to the glaring fact that the terrorists were having full knowledge of the place and some insider was guiding them or had briefed them fully about the location. Since 1947 till now Indian soldiers have been regularly sacrificing their lives in Jammu and Kashmir but I am sorry to say our political leaders have never taken their invaluable sacrifice seriously!

Why is it that Indian unilaterally decided to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan way back in 1989 when insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir had started rearing its ugly head very strongly? Why even after nearly 30 years that MFN status has continued uninterrupted? Does Pakistan deserve MFN status?

MFN status should never have been granted to Pakistan. I have heard very senior former diplomats openly questioning the logic of granting the MFN status to Pakistan? It is only now that the chorus of withdrawing MFN status is gaining traction and even PM Narendra Modi has decided to review it but this should never have been granted at the first place let alone continuing for last 30 years!

There has been a total lack of political will to boycott Pakistan completely. I am not one of those who will indulge in “warmongering” but I very strongly feel that we can hurt Pakistan without going to war! Give them a cold shoulder at every platform. Boycott their proxies in India who do everything at their behest! But what we see instead is that they get not just government security but crores and crores are spent on their staying expenses in hotel, travelling to foreign countries, logistics and other expenses as the lawyer ML Sharma had very rightly pointed out in his PIL which even Justice Anil R Dave had admitted had irked them also and lamented that, “We also share the same feeling…everybody sitting here feels the same”! All this must stop forthwith if India really cares for its soldiers!

Why when India accepts that Pakistan is a terror sponsor country has it never moved a motion in Parliament to pass a resolution declaring Pakistan a “terror sponsor country”? Why inspite of our soldiers repeatedly getting slaughtered do our political masters decide to invite ISI agents to India to visit the terror hit spot as happened after Pathankot and Pakistan slapped us by refusing NIA to visit Pakistan? Why this one sided generosity from our political masters? What have we achieved by it? One more Uri attack in which we lost 20 soldiers!

Just blaming Pakistan without doing anything to punish Pakistan is a crime. We saw how pompously the Pakistani invader Gen Pervez Musharraf who masterminded Kargil war in which we lost more than 600 soldiers was invited to India like a royal emperor just 2 to 3 months after Kargil war and who threatened to nuke India if Indian soldiers dared to step even one step Indian territory as he feels Pakistan alone has the luxury to send soldiers and terrorists to India for slaughtering our soldiers and people and India has no such similar right! Politicians who connived in according a heroic welcome to Gen Musharraf shortly after Kargil war are more dangerous than Pakistan themselves!

Why when our politicians knew that Gen Musharraf had masterminded Kargil war and had ordered our soldiers to be brutally tortured and killed as happened with Captain Saurav Kalia and 5 soldiers of 4 Jat Regiment who were captured alive after their ammunition were all exhausted and who were first to report Kargil intrusion due to which we could retaliate in time and who were brutally tortured not for a day or 5 days or 10 days or 15 days or 20 days but for nearly a month and whose eyes were gouged out after hitting them with hot iron rods, similarly their ears, nose and other body organs too were brutally chopped off with even private parts not being spared and whole body bore signs of cigarette torture and finally they were shot in the head yet India did not rake up this worst violation of human rights at any international forum rather invited mastermind Gen Musharraf to India like a royal emperor? Why Gen Musharraf paid Rs 1 lakh to dreaded Al Qaeda terror leader Iliyas Kashmiri when the latter presented him a severed head of an Indian soldier whom he had beheaded as was reported in most English dailies in 2000 yet why Indian politicians overlooked everything and preferred to dine and have biryani and kabab with Gen Musharraf? Did he even deserve entry into India? No. He should have been arrested on his arrival in India and tried for crimes against our soldiers! But the priorities of our politicians were different!

Even Commonwealth nations had expelled Pakistan but it was India which was first in world to accord recognition to Gen Musharraf as President! Why? What have we got in return? Our plane was hijacked and we had to release 3 most hard core terrorist including Maulana Masood Azhar who founded dreaded terror organization Jaish-e-Mohammad responsible for carrying out many horrendous terror attack including the aborted one at Parliament in 2001! Why didn’t India ever press hard for declaring Pakistan a rogue and terror sponsor country before? Why India never pressed hard for extradition of Masood Azhar to India from Pakistan? Same holds true for other dreaded terror leaders who are all enjoying safe havens in Pakistan!

Why India does not nuke all relations with Pakistan? Why we keep ignoring everything and treat everything as normal? Why we keep ignoring the valiant sacrifices of our soldiers and keep treating Pakistan like our guests? Why when Pakistan never accorded MFN status to India did we unilaterally grant MFN status to them?

We all know fully well that Pakistan has been indulging in worst form of human rights violation not just in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir but also in Balochistan, Pakhtoonistan, Sindh and many other places. Why it is after 70 years that PM Narendra Modi has raised it for the first time? Why no one raised it earlier? Why are we so lenient with Pakistan?

Why don’t we boycott Pakistan in all manners unless and until it stops sending terrorists to India and why we see “blow hot and blow cold” policy adopted by our politicians? Why can’t we stop all bus, train and all form of trade with Pakistan? Why can’t we stop all Pakistanis from entering India till terror issue is addressed? Why can’t we finish all diplomatic ties with Pakistan till terror issue is addressed? Lack of political will!

Why when we know that Pakistan is a terrorist state which channelizes billions of dollars, much of it diverted from international aid to training, financing and supporting terrorist groups as militant proxies against its neighbours and has established itself as the ‘global epicenter of terrorism’ has our government never made any move to officially declare Pakistan as a “terror sponsor country”?  Why instead have we accorded unilaterally MFN status to Pakistan? Why we kowtow in front of Pakistan and keep maintaining diplomatic relations with them even after our Parliament, Red Fort and other sacred places are attacked by terrorists sent from Pakistan?

Why it is after 70 years that our PM Narendra Modi feels that, “Blood and water cannot flow together” and decides to suspend Indus Water Commission talks until terror stops and review Indus Waters Treaty which is unequal and allows Pakistan to avail of 4 times more water than India even though its origin is from India? Why no PM did this earlier? Why is it that nearly one lakh people have lost their lives in Kashmir violence but yet India has never punished Pakistan in real terms? Why Indian politicians dither in nuking all relations with Pakistan until and unless all terrorists sanctuaries are destroyed and dreaded terror leaders either killed or deported to India and why do our politicians knowing fully well that dreaded terror leaders like Hafiz Saeed and others keep planning more and more terror attacks on India do just nothing about it and keep maintaining cordial relations with Pakistan? For how long?

How long will it take for politicians to realize that mercy petition for terrorist must be abolished? How long will it take for politicians to realize that “talks, dialogues, declaring repeated ceasefires, appointing interlocutors of the eminence of senior IAS or IPS or ministers to engage with various dreaded terror groups as happened when Vajpayee was PM and Ramzan ceasefire was declared with Hizbul Mujahideen and other terror groups as also with terror exporting nations like Pakistan has yielded nothing but only more ghastly terror attacks and still our politicians refuse to learn any lessons from it? How long will it take for politicians to realize that terrorists are a threat to our nation as a whole whom they want to destroy completely with the help of hostile nations like Pakistan unlike other ordinary criminals who only adversely affect one or few individuals? Still terrorists are accorded VVIP status and treated like foreign dignitaries! Why?

How long will it take for politicians to realize that terror acts are nothing but act of war for which there has to be zero tolerance and no mercy of any kind? How long will our Indian soldiers be killed by terrorists while asleep yet our politicians will vow never to abolish this “mercy petition drama” for terrorists”? I say “mercy petition drama” because it is just a pretext for not hanging terrorists even after being convicted by Supreme Court! We have seen how the LTTE terrorists and killers of Rajiv Gandhi, our later former PM have not been hanged even after more than 25 years even after being convicted by Apex Court! This has set a wrong precedent!

We have seen how deliberately the files of terrorists keep moving from one department to other and the mercy petition which should be decided in just few days are not decided in decades leave alone years! In this respect, the present President has set the right precedent by deciding mercy petition in a short span of time as ideally should be the case but it was not so earlier. We saw how the mercy petition of Afzal Guru kept pending for many years and even  after many years of being convicted by Apex Court it took such a long time for mercy petition to be finally decided! This must end now once and for all by abolishing mercy petition for terrorists!

How long will Pakistan and terrorists be treated with kidgloves? How long will we keep trusting Pakistan? How long will India keep submitting dossiers of evidence on Pakistan’s proof of involvement in various terror attacks in India only to be rejected outright inspite of confession of an alive terrorist like Bahadur Ali to which even Sushma Swaraj referred to in the UN General Assembly? How long will India keep waiting for Pakistan to take action who is itself creating, funding, training, arming and nourishing terrorists to cause maximum destruction in India?

How long will politicians keep chanting that, “Baatcheet ke sabhi raaste khule hain, sabhi raaste khule hain, sabhi raaste khule hain, mil baatke baat karenge, mil baatke, aankh se aankh milakar” and that too only with terrorists? Not with rapists or murderers or any other ordinary criminals but with terrorists trained ion foreign countries on how best to destroy India! Which self-respecting nation will behave so foolishly?

How long will our politicians refuse to learn anything from past experiences? How long will our politicians ignore that even in Assam when ceasefire was in force with ULFA a few years back they violated it and killed nearly hundred of our CRPF soldiers? How long will terrorists be allowed to regroup, rearm and attack with more vengeance by exploiting repeated ceasefire?

How long will taxpayers money be diverted to providing security, lodging, staying in hotels, foreign trips and other expenses to Hurriyat leaders who rant most venomously against India and support terror acts by hailing it as freedom struggle? How long will terror act be treated as ordinary crime and no amendment will be made in our penal laws like IPC in this regard? How long will India tolerate waving of Pakistani flags and flags of dreaded terror outfits like ISIS on its soil? How long will India tolerate burning of Indian flags and Constitution?

How long will Indian media keep giving Pakistani invaders like Gen Musharraf its prime coverage where he will threaten to nuke India and will rant “Osama to hero hain ji hero. Hafiz Saeed bhi hero hain. Syed Salaluddin bhi hero hain. Harat ke liye ye aatankwadi hain paar hamare liye to yeh bilkul aasli hero hain ji ek daam aasli”? How long will Indian media keep giving Pakistani generals a platform to threaten India? How long will Indian media feel privilege to interview such generals like Musharraf who in his own country has a non-bailable warrant pending against him and who is involved in killing of Baloch leader Nawab Bughti, Imam of Lal Masjid – Abdul Rashid, former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto etc and whose property has been ordered to be attached?

How long will politicians and media ignore what the present Chief Justice of Pakistan himself said about deep rooted support for terrorists from political parties there? How long will we keep ignoring the ground reality? How long will India allow Pakistani actors and actresses to gain financially by acting in serial and films in India when Pakistan does not allow the same to Indian actors and actresses? How long will media groups ignore what Subhash Chandra who is owners of Zee Groups has done bravely to boycott all Pakistani stars till relations improve with Pakistan and all cross border terrorism stops?

How long will India allow Pakistan to benefit by Indus Water Treaty of 1960 not doing anything even after Siachen conflict and Kargil war and repeated terror attacks? Pakistan  says Uri attack stage managed. Will it say Kargil also stage managed which Gen Musharraf proudly owns and claims to enter 15-16 km inside Indian territory to encourage his soldiers to slaughter Indian troops? 26/11 also stage managed? How long will Pakistan keep bluffing the world? How long will world keep getting bluffed especially USA which has given billions of dollars in aid without accounting for it?

How long will it take for a Bill to be tabled in India’s Parliament to designate Pakistan as terror state? This should have been done a long time back. But it never happened because there are sympathizers of Pakistan in every party!

Two Republican lawmakers have introduced a Bill in the US Congress to designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism and stop all financial; aid to it who is an “untrustworthy ally”. Congressman Ted Poe and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher both of whom introduced the Bill in the House of Representatives on September 20 said that, “It is time we stop paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a state sponsor of terrorism”. Called “HR 6069, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act”, the Bill enjoins the President to report within 90 days of its passage as to whether or not Pakistan has provided support for international terrorism.

“Thirty days after that, the Secretary of State must issue a follow-up report containing either a determination that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism or a detailed justification as to why Pakistan does not meet the legal criteria for designation,” said Poe, who heads the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade. The Bill has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the United States for years,” Poe said adding that, “From harbouring Osma bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the War on Terror. And it’s not America’s. This Bill will require the Administration to formally answer this question.”

The Texas Congressman had taken the lead on the House side in condemning the Uri attack on army base that killed 18 Indian soldiers while asleep calling it “the deadliest assault in Indian-administered Kashmir in over two decades”. Poe said that, “This is just the latest consequence of Pakistan’s long standing irresponsible policy of supporting and providing operational space for all stripes of jihadi terrorist groups”. He added that, “Pakistan’s reckless behavior in this regard is a serious security risk to its neighbours – and India unfortunately pays the price all too often. A threat to democracy in India is a threat to democracy everywhere. And that’s just the way it is.”

What a shameful tragedy that India inspite of tolerating Pakistan’s proxy war since last many decades has shamelessly accorded MFN status to Pakistan despite Pakistan not granting us the same! Not just this crores and crores are spent on those Hurriyat leaders who are deadly against India and receive funding from Paksitan also! That is why many feel that, “Politicians of India are more dangerous than Pakistan”! What a shameful and crowning irony that independent MP in Rajya Sabha Rajeev Chandrashekhar has writtento Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to introduce a Bill to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. This should have been done a long time back ideally after Kargil war!

The Bill introduced by Rajeev Chandrashekhar says that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan harbopurs agents of terrorism and is a continual risk to the peace and security of the region. The Bill has a number of prohibitions applicable to the government, citizens and corporate of a State sponsoring terror: travel in India, meaning no grant of visas; trade with India or its citizens, etc. The government of India is, however, permitted to make some relaxations but it should make none. The Bill also lays down that any person violating the provisions of the law is punishable with imprisonment for a term extending to five years in prison or fine or both.

How long will India keep maintaining diplomatic relations with Pakistan? How long will BJP national President Amit Shah say BJP has “zero tolerance” for terrorism but will do nothing to abolish mercy petition for terrorists or do anything by which terrorists are actually treated as “war criminals” by amending the IPC and penal laws? How long will politicians not follow what a senior Lt General (retd) of Indian Army said recently in a news channel that, “Terrorists should be burnt alive” rather will allow terrorists to avail of “mercy petition drama” for many decades and spend many crores on their security, living style etc as happened with Pakistani terrorist Kasab before being finally hanged?

How long will eminent Indians writing in newspapers, magazines and appearing on newschannels keep advocating that India should keep engaging Pakistani army as it hold all the key of decision making in Pakistan very conveniently forgetting that they are not Indians who will forget thousands of terror attacks including the one on Parliament rather they will never forget even one defeat of 1971 and will not rest in peace till they avenge it with the help of dreaded terror leaders like Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salaluddin, Masood Azhar etc to not just snatch away Jammu and Kashmir from India but also to break India into thousands of pieces and this is exactly the pipe dream of Pakistan Army, ISI and politicians there yet India maintains cordial relations with them and takes no lessons from repeated terror attacks rather invites ISI agents to inspect Pathankot after terror attack there? How long will BJP national President Amit Shah keep telling Pakistan that it follows terrorism as “state policy” which shall be treated as a war crime but will do just nothing on ground to make terror act a war crime and abolish mercy petition drama for terrorists? How long will this dubious double standards continue?

How long will politicians keep showing like fools “large heartedness” for terrorists and their sympathizers who wave Pakistani flags, burn Indian flags and do nothing to check them as has been the trend in Kashmir since last many decades and this has now spread even to Delhi as we saw in JNU sometime back? How long will politicians keep treating those who wave Pakistani flags and burn Indian flags as Indians? How long will they be allowed to stay in India when they love Pakistan? You cannot have it both ways. Adnan sami loved India so he left Pakistan and took Indian citizenship similarly those who love Pakistan must quit India and accept Pakistani citizenship instead of staying in India and availing all benefits here and still chanting “Meri Jaan Pakistan, Mera Kaleja Pakistan, Bharat teri barbadi taak jung ladenge jung ladenge etc etc”? This is no freedom of speech and is an act of treachery where you question our Supreme Court which is the highest court of the land and which sentenced Afzal Guru to death and vow to take revenge by destroying India!

How long will politicians take to give marching orders to all diplomats of Pakistan and nuke all relations with Pakistan till all terror leaders are deported to India or killed and all terror camps are closed permanently? Indian leaders lack strong will power and this has been the case right from the beginning when India accepted the creation of Pakistan way back in 1947 which ideally should have never been accepted and that too on the ground of religion when they always claim themselves to be secular! My best friend Sageer Khan rightly said to me way back in 1994 that, “Spare a rapist or a dacoit or a robber or a murderer but never ever in life spare a terrorist. I say so because a rapist or a dacoit or a robber or a murderer or any other ordinary criminal never goes to Pakistan or any other foreign country to get the best possible rigorous training on how best to destroy India. Also, a rapist or a dacoit or any other ordinary criminal adversely affects either one or few individuals but a terrorist adversely affects not just one or few individuals alone but our nation as a whole whom they want to destroy completely. I don’t fear Pakistan. I don’t fear ISI or Taliban. I don’t fear US, UK or China which aids Pakistan. I only and only fear those Indians who defend terrorists on one pretext or the other especially those politicians who never allow terrorists to be hanged even after they kill our PM as happened in case of Rajiv Gandhi. They are more dangerous than Pakistan or terrorists or anyone else.”

Pakistan by now would have fallen in place if India had boycotted Pakistan after Kargil war but we kept pardoning only to witness attack on Parliament, Red Fort, Kandhar plane hijack, blowing of train at Mumbai in which more than 200 people were killed, 26/11 attack, Pathankot attack and so many other attacks! To teach Pakistan a lesson you have to be tough with them and not keep chanting as we do often that, “You can change your friends but you cannot change your neighbours.”

India can teach Pakistan a lesson without going to war by severing all relations with them and hurting them where it hurts them the most. But our politicians are just not determined to do it. After every terror attack we hear strong statements of very strong action only to be conveniently forgotten soon.

This is exactly what is most imperative that must change. Spend money for development of border areas and make sure that terrorists who try to enter India are killed right at the border itself. If this is done, India can hurt Pakistan without going to war. There has to be complete boycott of Pakistan which our politicians have always been reluctant which alone explains why Pakistan has never been declared a terror sponsor country till now rather figure in the MFN status even though they have never granted us this special MFN status! This is what really hurts most Indians!

-Sanjeev Sirohi,

Advocate,