From Jinping to Obama: Here's how the world still hyphenates India with Pakistan

United States President Barack Obama telephoned Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday to inform him about his decision to visit India as chief guest of the Indian Republic Day. Chinese President Xi Jinping had planned to visit Pakistan in September this year just before he had paid his maiden visit to India but had to cancel the trip at the eleventh hour because of volatile political situation in Pakistan. [caption id=“attachment_1817451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  US President Barack Obama. AFP[/caption] Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had made India the destination of his first foreign visit in May 2013 but had proceeded straight to Pakistan after concluding his India visit. Nawaz Sharif expectedly adopted the me-too approach and asked Obama to visit Pakistan also but Obama did not make any commitment. Sample the quote of the Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office: “The President (Obama) also assured the Prime Minister (Sharif) that he would undertake a visit to Pakistan at an early date, as soon as the situation normalizes in the country.” And if Japan promised $35 billion investment in India for the next five years when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan in August-September, China too has committed to invest $45.6 billion for economic corridor in Pakistan over the next six years when Sharif recently visited China. The political message emanating from this is clear: the world is still hyphenating India with Pakistan. Pakistan may be going through the self-destruct mode with myriads of problems. Top foreign leaders may be avoiding visiting Pakistan for security reasons and political instability and top cricket playing countries may have refused to play cricket in Pakistan for the same reasons. And yet the fact is that the world is still cajoling Pakistan. The world is careful not to annoy Pakistan while improving relations with India. Why? The world is not much interested in forging trade and economic ties with Pakistan, a $250 billion economy, but deeply conscious of Pakistan’s highly strategic location and Pakistan’s biggest USP of being the only Islamic nation armed with a nuclear bomb. One must notice a subtle new trend with regard to Pakistan over the years. When it comes to important foreign officials visiting Pakistan the number of security and intelligence officials is far more than the number of presidents or prime ministers or ministers visiting Pakistan. The reason is obvious. Foreign officials visit Pakistan largely to discuss their own country’s safety and security, at risk mainly because of Pakistan’s numerous sins of omission and commission. That’s why one would hardly hear about Pakistan attending major world summits like G20, G8 Plus, ASEAN, EAS (East Asia Summit) or BIMSTEC etc simply because Pakistan is not a member. Leaders of Pakistan have been so uni-focal on needling India by raising and nurturing terror machines for decades that they did not realise how much the world has changed and progressed in the past two decades. For decades, the Pakistani military has indoctrinated its politicians as well as the masses as to how India is the biggest threat to the survival of their nation. What has been happening in Pakistan for the last one decade is absolutely different. Terrorist and fundamentalist outfits, flourishing in Pakistan, have emerged as the biggest threat to Pakistan. More people have been killed in Pakistan by home-grown terrorists than in all the India-Pakistan wars till date. This is a fact which is now being acknowledged even by the powerful Pakistan Army also. Against this backdrop, it should be embarrassing for India to be bracketed with a country like Pakistan. But the diplomatic heft which Pakistan had till about 2001-02 is no longer there. Therefore, Nawaz Sharif may have urged Obama to raise the Kashmir issue with India during his January visit but in the heart of his hearts Sharif would know full well that nothing much is going to happen on this front. If India has to de-hyphenate itself from Pakistan for all times to come, it will have to ramp up its economic and military might. India will have to be a $10 trillion economy from the present $1.8 trillion. In fact just a few years from here, the world would be permanently de-hyphenating India and Pakistan. Till then India has to play its cards smartly. One such card is ensuring free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir which would navigate the state away from Pakistan for the next six years. By the time Obama arrives in India, results of elections in Jammu and Kashmir would have come. The ongoing assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir are going to be most defining in the history of the state. If India is able to pull off the J&K polls peacefully, it would have won one of the many important battles before winning the all-important war when comparing India with Pakistan would become as ludicrous as comparing the US with Somalia.