Sunday, August 28, 2016

If one sentence can be so effective why have we stayed silent for so long?

For years we have been bemused as to why India, a much bigger and stronger power, has surrendered to Pakistan, which has openly supported terrorism to 'bleed India through a thousand cuts'. Every time our brave soldiers won wars, by sacrificing their lives, against superior weapons supplied by the state sponsor of terrorism, the US of A, our politicians have handed back all the gains, with nothing in return. The policy of successive governments to kowtow to the mad dogs seems especially unpardonable when a single reference to the atrocities in Balochistan by Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day address has set off absolute panic across the border. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is sending 22 emissaries to various capitals to bring up the old chestnut, Kashmir. The army hastily invited Baloch leaders for talks. But Baloch nationals living in Germany chanted slogans against Pakistan and raised the Indian flag. Brahumdagh Bugti, leader of the Balochistan Republican Party said," Pakistani forces are engaged in a tsunami of human rights violations in Balochistan," adding that " the Baloch people don't want to live with Pakistan any more." Bugti and 2 others, living abroad in exile, have been charged with sedition. Balochistan is a province in the southwest of Pakistan, separated from India by the province of Sindh. It is very rich in natural resources which is why it has been brutally suppressed by the Punjabi dominated Pakistan army. Balochistan was supposed to be an independent state when the British left India but was forcibly annexed by Pakistan and has been fighting for independence since. The panic in Pakistan is because a resurgence in fighting in Balochistan may derail the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a highway connecting Kashgar in China to the Gwadar port in Balochistan. Pakistan sees this project as a 'game changer' because the Chinese have promised to invest $46 billion which Pakistan desperately needs because of reduced aid from the US. The other supporter of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, which finances most of the terrorism in the world, has posted a deficit of $87 billion in its budget for this year. The bombing of Yemen is to cost an extra 20 billion riyals, about $6 billion. Pakistan expects the CPEC highway to create jobs and China expects to use Gwadar port for its ships, to threaten India. The Baloch see it as a massive land grab and a way to loot its natural resources, such as gas, coal and minerals. Kashgar is in the Xinjiang province of China whose people are Muslims Uyghurs. China viciously persecutes the Uyghurs as it does the people of Tibet. A Chinese think-tank has warned that it will have to 'get involved' if India tries to disrupt the project. If the Baloch and the Uyghurs can link up they could create problems for both these enemies of India. How wonderful.

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