Pakistan: The troubled Neighbour

 

 

Pakistan

The troubled Neighbour

Pakistan is the western neighbour of India . India got independence on 15 August 1947. The independence of India came with a heavy price. This price was the partition of the country. Before independence Pakistan was the part of India.

With the establishment of Indian National Congress (INC) in 1885 the educated Indians started making political demands to British rulers in more organised way. Slowly by the beginning of 20^th century Indian National Congress emerged as the major all India level political organisation in India. It was secular in nature. It means the members of Indian National Congress belonged to different religious and social background. It included Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and persons belonging to different castes.

In 1906 All India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka, capital of today’s Bangladesh. It was the turning point in Indian political scenario. The members of All Indian Muslim League nurtured the wrong notion that Indian National Congress was the political organisation dominated by Hindus and hence would promote their interests only. Around 1913 Barrister Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the leader of All India Muslim League. Barrister Jinnah slowly and steadily put forward agenda of separate nation for Muslims. It ultimately led to the demand of partition of India and creation of Pakistan for Muslims.

Even though efforts were made to avoid partition, those efforts proved to be futile. At last as per Mountbatten Plan the partition of India was finalized and two separate countries of India and Pakistan came into existence. India celebrates independence day on 15 August while Pakistan prefers to call 14 August as its independence day.

Integration of Princely States was the major challenge before the government of independent India immediately after independence. It was successfully met with under the able leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister of independent India. But, three Princely States viz. Jammu and Kashmir, Junagadh and Hyderabad gave a tough time. These three princely states were integrated with India . But, a case of Jammu and Kashmir needs a special reference here. Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir  couldn’t make decision in time about integration. The tribes from North Western Frontier region of Pakistan supported by Pakistani government started attacking Jammu and Kashmir. These tribes helped  by Pakistan army came up to Baramulla. At last, Hari Singh pleaded for Indian help and integrated Jammu and Kashmir with India. Indian army pushed back Pakistani army and tribes to major extent. This issue was taken to the United Nations Organisation (UNO). In 1949 cease fire was declared and territory to the east of Line of Control (LoC) is the part of India and the territory to the west of LoC is dubbed as Azad Kashmir by Pakistan which is a blatant lie, actually it is Pak occupied Kashmir (PoK) illegally taken over by Pakistan. This Kashmir War immediately launched after independence was the first major headache created by Pakistan for India which would be followed by many more troubles till date.

During Cold War period Pakistan proved to be an ally of Western Block led by the United States of America. Later on, Pakistan developed friendly relations with Communist China better known as People’s Republic of China. This was a deliberate move on the part of Pakistan as relations between China and India were taking downward turn as China had ran over lots of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir, especially adjacent to Ladakh. 

In 1962 China invaded India and illegally occupied Indian territory. During this conflict Pakistan supported China.

Pakistan not only created trouble and occupied territory in Jammu and Kashmir but afterwards it struck claim on Rann of Kutch as well. Around April 1965 Pakistani army entered the Rann of Kutch. But, Indian army gave befitting reply and defeated Pakistani army. At last as much as ninety of the Rann of Kutch remained with India and three hundred square miles of the territory in Rann of Kutch went to Pakistan.

Pakistan again created trouble by invading India on 5 August 1965. But, Indian military forces were much stronger than Pakistan army. Indian forces fought with great courage, valour and love for their nation. The Indo-Pak war of 1965 formally came to an end with the signing of Tashkent Agreement of 1966. Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan, a central Asian country. In 1991 many provinces of erstwhile Soviet Union seceded away from it and became independent countries. One of them was Uzbekistan.  Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan signed the Tashkent Agreement on behalf of India and Pakistan respectively.

In 1971 there was yet another war between India and Pakistan. In 1970 Shaikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League Party won majority in Pakistan’s Assembly but Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was not ready to accept Shaikh Mujibur Rahman as the leader of Pakistan. Awami League was having its base in East Pakistan and West Pakistan was the stronghold PPP. Yahya Khan, the then military ruler of Pakistan instead of allowing Shaikh Mujibur Rahman to form the government chose to arrest him and suppress his voice. The arrest of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman triggered the crisis. The East Pakistanis protested against the arrest of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman. Hence, Yahya Khan used military force in order to suppress the voice of East Pakistanis. Many East Pakistanis were killed and tortured. As a result of it millions East Pakistanis fled to India. It created an unprecedented refugee problem for India. Indian government warned Pakistan to control the crisis. Pakistan did not stop its army from committing atrocities in East Pakistan, rather threatened India with war. This is how the Indo-Pak War of 1971 began. Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India at that point of time. Indian armed forces gave fitting reply to Pakistani military and India won this war. Due to timely help of India not only the atrocities and suppression in East Pakistan came to an end but they got freedom from oppressive Pakistani regime. Thus, East Pakistan became independent and came to be called as Bangladesh from this time onwards.

After Indo-Pak War of 1971 Shimla Accord was signed between India and Pakistan. It accepted that the issues between India and Pakistan should be dealt with bilaterally. But, Pakistan conveniently forgot it and raised and still tries to raise Kashmir issue at an international level.

In 1977 General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and took over power in Pakistan. Zia-ul-Haq systematically supported the terrorists and separatists from Punjab and Kashmir. During his reign as well India was sincerely trying to establish good relations with Pakistan and solve the problems peacefully.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, P. V. Narsimha Rao, H. D. Devegowda and I. K. Gujral ruled India as Prime Ministers in a row after the assasination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s in 1984 to 1999.  All off them tried to have amicable relations with Pakistan. It would not be an exaggeration if we say that even though India always wanted to have friendly relations but Pakistan often created troubles for India in one or the other way.

In 1999 Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister of India. The ruling coalition was called as National Democratic Alliance (NDA). During Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure India became the full-fledged nuclear power. In May 1999 Pakistan army entered Kargil sector and provoked war with India. Indian armed forces once again showed their strength over their Pakistani counterparts. Ultimately by July 1999 India defeated Pakistani army and established control over military posts in Kargil.

Before Kargil War Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had gone to Lahore by Bus in order to attend a Summit over there. It was a great gesture on the part of India.

In 2002 General Pervez Musharraf, the then military ruler of Pakistan visited India.

In 2004 Lok Sabha elections United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power India and Dr. Manmohan Singh, an economist who had taken education from world famous Oxford and Cambridge Universities of United Kingdom (UK) became Prime Minister. Earlier Prime Minister P. V. Narsimha Rao had appointed Dr. Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister after coming to power in 1991. In the capacity of Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had played vital role in designing and implementing the New Economic Policy based on this principles of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. During the tenure of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as well India tried to have cordial relations with Pakistan.

In 2014 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got majority in Lok Sabha elections and NDA once again came to power and Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. During the Modi era also India always has made efforts to maintain peace with Pakistan.

Peaceful and cordial Indo-Pak relations will definitely prove to be useful for both India and Pakistan. Indian establishment has always wanted healthy relationship with Pakistan and Pakistan is needed to respond positively to these efforts of India.