FRIENDS OF PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH OR INDIA?

SHAH JILANI

With the Indian PM, Narendra Modi publically confessing Indian involvement in the breakup of East Pakistan, doubts, if any, have been finally laid to rest. Those blessed with an understanding have always known about the evil Indian schemes of undoing Pakistan since its independence. Others, for a number of reasons, have blamed Pakistan for creating conditions leading to the eventual breakup. Unfortunately, this group of blinds includes a number of Pakistanis also who have been advocating a formal apology from Pakistan. Some of them have gone to Dhaka to receive Foreign Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War Awards from Ms Sheikh Hasina Wajid whose malice for Pakistan needs no elaboration. Interestingly, most of these Foreign Friends of Bangladesh are Indians including Mrs Indra Gandhi and Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora. No wonder Mr Modi boasted that it was every Indian’s dream to see East Pakistan turn into Bangladesh.

Pakistani Friends of Bangladesh are all intellectuals, too busy to have had an opportunity to go through a host of books, authored by writers of international repute shedding light on the web of conspiracies and intrigues surrounding Pakistan, its Eastern Wing in particular. These publications include Sheikh Mujibur Rehman : The unfinished Memoirs, Dead Reckoning : Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War by Ms Sarmila Bose, Inside RAW : the story of Indian Secret Service by Asoka Raina, Mission RAW by RK Yadav, Subversion in East Pakistan by AMK Maswani, Second Thoughts on Bangladesh and Bangladesh Today – Indictment and a Lament by Matiur Rehman, RAW and Bangladesh by Zainal Abedin etc.

After Mr Modi’s confessional statement in Dhaka, there was a storm in the tea cup as usual, which lasted its life and died. Pakistani Friends of Bangladesh must be real proud today for helping India turn East Pakistan into Bangladesh; standing in line with Indra Gandhi, Narindra Modi and Jagjit Singh Aurora is no mean feat, even at the cost of Pakistan. Some simple folks floated an idea to them – return your awards after Modi’s confession but their suggestion fell on deaf ears; which lead me to two conclusions that they are not only blind but deaf also and that they are not friends of Pakistan or Bangladesh but friends of India.