The Leak

The Leaks created drama for a week. And then nothing! The US media was buzzing with analysis and counter-analysis and all of it conspicuously stopped. One can argue that these leaks are creating havoc thousands of miles away from US mainland and perhaps that explains the apathy of US populace towards back-stabbing drama. But, what about Indians or Indian government? Shouldn't’t they be more alarmed by the picture that’s emerging through these Leaks? Shouldn't’t Indian newspaper carry sustained analysis of the Leaks and create a dialogue for general populace? Shouldn't’t general public demand action from government, especially, considering they are the one in the line of bomb blasts and gun totting mad-men doing shooting practice with AK-47’s on the streets of Mumbai? Unfortunately that would be too much to ask. I know news agencies in India are either too partisan or outright imbecile and unprofessional. I know that government of India is more worried about, well, nothing and cares shit about safety and security of the innocent citizens. And we all know how myopic Indian citizenry is. So there is no surprise in any of it at all.

We demand lowest possible standards from everyone. We don’t expect news agencies to give us real news. We don’t expect politicians to act in the best interest of the country and worst, we don’t expect ourselves to perform our civil duties correctly. Sab ke sab beimaan. Fir bhi mera Bharat Mahaan. Common sense tells us that after US leaves Afghan land, the Taliban will run over the country quickly. And if we apply common sense more then Pakistani army will start ruling Afghanistan again through Taliban proxy and if history is any precursor then after settling the scores in Afghanistan these useless and extremely harmful viruses will continue the journey of mayhem into Kashmir. Except the history in this case isn’t exactly history yet. It happened only twenty years ago.

When US was done having fun in Afghanistan they left these creatures enormous cache of guns and ammunition and pretty much nothing else to do. The infrastructure, if something of that sort ever existed in Afghanistan, was totally flattened by Russian army. The working class probably vanished. And what’s left in Afghanistan was gun-wielding, illiterate young men drunk on religious zealotry. As if that wasn’t enough then these Afghanis were supported by scores of Pakis and Arabs in the war. All these people were suddenly jobless and were told to turn their attention to Kashmir. Everybody knows what happened next. Right? Well not exactly. I don’t think many Indians know what happened in Kashmir. Even I don’t know enough to fill a blog on this issue.

When Kashmir erupted in flames in 1989, the region was religiously cleansed of Hindus. Scores of Kashmiri Hindus were killed and those who survived were forced to flee the valley. Then once Kashmir became an Islamic state, a war cry was given to free the region from the “clutches” of Hindu India. Enough Kashmiri Muslims were roused to take weapons against their own country and they were well supported by scores of Afghanis and Pakis who were making their way into Kashmir valley. Caught off guard (which, generally, is the case) the Indian government deployed thousands of army soldiers in the valley. Without understanding the real issue and lacking skills to deal with hostile native population as well as fighting a counter-insurgency operation, Indian army lost scores of young, talented and patriotic young men. This continued for few years culminating, sadly enough, into Lahore bus ride (Vajpayee ji, really?) and then back stabbing in Kargil. But talking about Kargil is getting ahead of us because in 90’s the busy-bees of Pakistani army were simultaneously playing a different ball game with their other neighbor - Afghanistan.

No body knows where Taliban came from but Pakistani army propelled them to the seat of Kabul so rapidly that no one was sure how to take the news. Except for Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai no one recognized their legitimacy. Nonetheless, Taliban immediately started nourishing terrorist network, most notably among all, of Osama Bin Laden. Things quite down a bit in Afghan land. It was all hell inside Afghanistan but they weren’t making any waves for outside world. Pakistani army during that time, perhaps cocky from their success in Afghanistan, decided to intrude into Kashmir ensuing what’s now known as Kargil war.
Their plan was simple. During winter both, Indian and Pakistani, armies back down from super freezing heights of Himalaya. Taking advantage of this situation Pakistani army positioned their regular army, disguised as Kashmiri freedom fighters, atop heights of Kargil heights. The operation was darn hard their objective was to cut off Kashmir from rest of the India by capturing the vital highway by controlling the kargil heights that overlooks the highway. When Indian army found out the intrusion, it was quite late and the army operation to wrest Kargil heights back from Pakistani army cost cost India at least one thousand young lads. The war was bitter and Indian soldiers were brave. But little did they understand that they should be worried about corrupt and useless politicians of Delhi rather than Pakistani army. After all, Indian army has kicked Pakistani ass numerous times before. And I am sure they can do that as many times needed in the future.
There was some quite time after Kargil war on Kashmir front and if it wasn’t for afghani-arab terror network destabilizing New York City, I am sure that Pakistani army was using this ‘time-off’ to plan another devious insurgent operation in India. But as US troops started piling up across the Durand line (official border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is called as Durand line after British general who separated these two nations) Pakistan was left with not much better option than bombing various Indian cities and sending gunmen on to Mumbai streets.

This Dummies guide for Pakistani terrorist network is not a secret. Everyone knows about it. Except for inept and corrupt politicians sitting in Delhi rest of the India knows about it. And unfortunately the whole cycle is poised to repeat again. The US is surely going to leave Afghanistan sooner than later and Pakistan will build its stronghold again in Kabul. The current government of Afghanistan is not only incompetent but extremely corrupt too and they will readily let Pakistan take over. After capturing Kabul Pakistan will have ample time to do start worrying about killing innocent Indian citizens. And looking at the indication then we can confidently say that Indian government will do absolutely nothing to safeguard the civilians. They would rather have a peace dialogue with Pakistan than to prosecute and hang convicted terrorists.

I have a great idea. The best way to keep all citizens safe is take away Z-Plus security from all the politicians. Let them live like common citizens fearing bomb blast or gun wielding assassins spraying bullets anytime and let’s see how they act then!