Long Distance Marriage

Price: Rs 799

Meticulously researched,fluently written,anecdotal yet profound,provocative yet insightful,I would award the Book of the Year prize to this outstanding contribution to scholarly study of what has gone wrong with Pakistani foreign policy and,indeed,our benighted subcontinent over the last 67 years.

If Farzana Shaikhs Making Sense of Pakistan nakedly reveals the magnificent delusions of the idea of Pakistan,Haqqanis magisterial work attempts to make sense of Pakistans motivations,occasional achievements,and repeated failures in foreign policy.

Obsessed with parity between majority and minority communities in the run-up to Partition,Haqqani recounts how Jinnah promptly understood at his moment of triumph that if this were to translate into parity between Pakistan and India,Pakistan would have to make up for its inherent relative weakness by bringing the might of the United States into the equation. There were those in the withdrawing colonial powers defence establishment who correctly assessed that Pakistan,much more than India,would be willing to play cats paw in containing the expansion of the Soviet empire and,therefore,promoted Partition. Narendra Singh Sarilas In The Shadow of the Great Game compellingly tells the story. And C. Dasguptas War and Diplomacy in Kashmir 1947-1948 shows how accurate initially was Jinnahs assessment when the US jumped sides at British urging to put the complainant in the dock in the UN Security Council on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Jinnah stood vindicated in peddling dependence as the cornerstone of his policy even as Nehru implanted independence of thought and action in his. Pakistan,however,remains mired where it was; we have won out in the end,or,at the very least,drawn the match.

Jinnahs view would have made eminent sense if Pakistan and the US were on the same page. Haqqani brilliantly shows they never or rarely were. The Brits wanted Pakistan as the gateway to protecting their interests particularly oil in Persia and the Gulf; the Pakistanis wanted to project themselves to these very countries as the exemplar of a new Islamic awakening. The Americans wanted to co-opt Pakistan as their very junior ally in the struggle to contain the red menace even as they tried their hand at building a viable relationship with a headstrong India. Pakistan had no interest in the Red Menace except as a red herring to bait the Yanks.

Alas for Pakistans quest for parity,the geopolitical relevance of India led to the independent-minded Nehru being invited to Washington first,where he flaunted Indias independence of mind and spirit,well before the Pakistan premier,Liaquat Ali Khan,received his summons to squeam before the American durbar. Haqqani amusingly recounts the heartburning this led to in Karachi. It also led to Pakistan redoubling its efforts to give the Americans what they wanted which was,principally,a base in and around Peshawar; in exchange,they hoped the US would strengthen them with arms and money in their struggle with India. The US obliged,but wanted no part of Pakistans principal national ambition: the containment of India. Yet,Pakistan believed it could trick the naive Americans into thinking they were with them in the struggle against godless Communism while what the Pakistanis really wanted was parity in armed might in their struggle against the gods-excessive Hindu kafir.

There was perhaps only one moment in this tangled relationship when the US and Pakistan were actually on the same page. That was over the Bangladesh war in 1971 when Nixon with his friend Yahya Khan sought to contain that bitch,Indira Gandhi. This love-fest turned into a monumental flop as the Mukti Bahini escorted the Indian army into Dhaka even as the USS Enterprise steamed into the Bay of Bengal. Yahya drowned in his misdeeds. Nixon followed soon after,drowning in his. That affair between the most obscene,foul-mouthed and criminal occupant the White House has ever seen and the most drunken,lecherous,murderous President that Pakistan has ever had was the only period of genuine Pak-US collaboration.

Then came a repeat performance of the magnificent delusion when the Soviets stupidly invaded Afghanistan. Washington and Islamabad came together to create and nurture the Taliban and midwife the birth of south Asian terrorism as their instrument of chastising Moscow. The Americans thought they could cut and run as they did once the Soviet Union was taught its Vietnam lesson. And Pakistan thought the moment opportune to find strategic depth in Afghanistan under the tutelage of Islamic fanaticism. Instead,Pakistan became the worlds worst victim of Islamic terrorism. And Osama enticed the US back for a decade of the most futile war the Americans have ever fought. Osama is gone. Al Qaeda lives on.

Pummelled by US drones every day,Pakistan is now the most anti-American country in the world. And America is the most anti-Pakistan. Pakistan increasingly recognises the imperative need to cease being a frontline state in other peoples interests and become a frontline state in its own. This,therefore,is the moment for a magnificent turn in Pakistans relations with India for,as this marvellous book shows,many I suspect most Pakistanis,and certainly all intelligent ones,are more ready to work with India than ever before.

Alas,India is caught up in its own magnificent illusions over a relationship of parity with the United States. We are,therefore,edging towards where Pakistan tripped itself in 1954 by becoming the Americans closest ally,even as our economy gets entrapped in the Pakistan syndrome of 1965 certified by the UN then as the second most industrialised country in Asia,second only to Japan. Now,we are the second fastest growing market economy in Asia,second only to China. And so Pakistans infamous 22 families of 1965 are finding magnificent counterparts in Dalal Street and on Nariman Point.

We need to understand where our true interests lie in an uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue with a Pakistan that is ridding itself of its delusions. Will we rid ourselves of our illusions? Thank you,my friend,Husain.

The writer is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha