Opinion Some plainspeaking for Mr Akbar
Whatever Manmohan Singh might have wanted in the matter of making a breakthrough with a visit to Pakistan, someone should share with Akbar the BJP’s official position.
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M J Akbar
M J Akbar’s comment (‘What Mr Aiyar won’t say’, The Indian Express, November 20) on my Jinnah Institute lecture and some perversely construed statement of Mani Shankar Aiyar convinces of three things: One, the BJP has no Pakistan policy, and if it does, its spokesperson has not been briefed; two, the invincible PM is looking fragile and the cheerleaders must thus remain on their toes; and three, selective memory helps with diminished responsibility.
But in this case, there seems to be an additional feature — Akbar appears not to have read an authentic text of the lecture or seen Aiyar’s TV interview, or else his intellectual prowess is limited to dealing with propositions he is able to conjure, rather than with an inconvenient truth. Does he recall that the very leadership he believes makes Aiyar and me relevant once blessed him with a parliamentary seat from Kishanganj? But then he would argue he is only questioning the 10 years of the UPA. And what about these 10 years does he find significant to point out? That PM Manmohan Singh did not go to Pakistan, and that the Balochistan concession was made by India at Sharm el-Sheikh.
Whatever Manmohan Singh might have wanted in the matter of making a breakthrough with a visit to Pakistan, someone should share with Akbar the BJP’s official position. It did not even want the composite dialogue to be resumed. And look at what it did to L K Advani merely because, during his visit to Pakistan, he removed the spectacles of the Sangh for something that gave him clearer vision. Not happy with that, it thought to silence Sudheendra Kulkarni. The revered Jaswant Singh fared no better. Ideas seem to be the BJP’s enemy, whether from within or from without.
On a serious note, for one must take the BJP seriously, are the spokespersons of the party not painting it into a saffron corner? No talking to the Hurriyat; no giving credit to Nawaz Sharif; no dialogue with Pakistan; no trade or transit; no cricket; no theatre; no ghazals. It would be impudent to suggest there be no exchange of saris and shawls, and no serving of biryani, but no restriction on selling Akbar in Pakistan. I am conscious that anything I say might be taken as vindication of Akbar’s charge of elitism. My thoughts go back to my first meeting with Akbar at Akbar, where he was puzzled at my refusal of his offer of whiskey and his unsolicited advice that, to be a politician, I had to enrol in the Chotanagpur school of politics!
Fortunately, I preferred the less romantic Farrukhabad, but I am amused that he continued on at the RSS academy in Nagpur. I wish Akbar had the guts to tell the world we have a long history, but then it is naive of me to search his otherwise impressive vocabulary for prosaic words like guts and freedom. But I will bet what riles Akbar is not that he believes Aiyar and I cannot accept that “chap” becoming the PM, but that a person he once lectured became India’s external affairs minister.
The reactions of the extreme right (including Akbar, who I must generously concede is a bird of passage, rather than an inhabitant) are about propriety, as opposed to freedom of expression. On the first, I believe, I need not belabour against Akbar and his leader, PM Narendra Modi (there is much to be said for both). But on the second, it might surprise people to know they both believe it is a virtue for themselves but a vice for others. How long does Akbar think India can play a traumatised parrot to Pakistan? Is Nawaz Sharif a better bet than General Raheel Sharif, or would Akbar rather play Imran Khan? I will not run away from the truth: We did not succeed in our efforts with Pakistan, and that has much to do with the BJP. But the world must move on, and so should Akbar.
As spokesperson of the BJP, Akbar should tell the world what the party has done or intends to do, not merely repeat what we did not. For poor PM Modi, I can only say, with friends like these, who needs enemies. The BJP might note that I have said this on Indian soil, presumably to an Indian audience. Does that hurt less?
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