THE SAMJHAUTA EXPRESS: THE DESTROY INDIA TRAIN FROM PAKISTAN
I wonder if I am the only one left on the web who has very strong feelings on the "SAMJHAUTA EXPRESS", the train that plies twice a week between India and Pakistan. I think, after Kargil, after the hijacking, there's just no acceptable justification for this train's operation. Even for us to talk of any "samjhauta" with a nation that talks relentlessly and daily about using the bomb on India, is an exercise in futile folly. Do we still want to build bridges with Pakistan so it can have the pleasure of destroying them? What ails India?
In the news bulletin of 8/2/2000 Star News showed video footage of this train. People from Pakistan as well as some from India are plying between these two nations with fake currency notes manufactured by the ISI. These currency notes are being mass produced; it is easy to see that Pak is getting desperate in its uneasiness: India's fast-paced economic progress is being talked about the world over and Pak cannot come to terms with this changed balance of power. Pak is, therefore, trying to undermine India's solid economic base by counterfeiting these 100 rupee and 500 rupee notes. One of the nabbed Muslim carriers revealed that in coded conversation the 100 rupee notes are referred to as, "chota joota" and the 500 rupee notes are called, "bada joota" ( small shoe, big shoe respectively). The counterfeiting operation, to my mind, can't be undertaken by an individual however powerful he may be, without the Pakistani government's direct complicity. If such is the case, after Kargil, after the hijacking, and after these currency notes, do we still want more proof of Pakistan's guilt before condemning it to diplomatic isolation? We are like the trusting yet silly wife whose husband, she has been told, is playing the field with all her friends and sister too: she still wags a finger at him and says, "next time I will really leave you!"; everytime, she awaits one more proof of his errant ways. And he knows this.
"Samjhauta Express can now be re-named "Bewakoofi Express". Incidentally, why are the airlines still plying between these two nations? But India is sweet! Only when Pakistan flexes its muscles will India follow suit; this is the tragedy of the Pakistan-India history. Pak acts the bully, we react to protect our interests. Can we please start getting proactive for a change? I guess India awaits the Pak initiative in this matter too: why will it stop a train that serves it better than a heat-chasing missile? Why will Pakistan chop the hand that feeds it? They are barbarians, but they are by no stretch of the imagination, stupid.
Its our turn to get on the offensive, and lets not wait for more evidence to come in.
Why is India once again flat-footed? Why not snap ties and close shop in Pakistan and ask Pakistani diplomats to take the last PIA flight back to Karachi? This is nothing but a serious lapse on India's part. India moves as slowly as an elephant does, lacking the speed, silence and cunning of the snake.
But what shocks one is that there appears to be absolutely no media hue and cry on this subject; in fact, the Indian press is more concerned about the non-entity called Deepa Mehta and her film, "Water", than with the dangerous and diabolic train from Pakistan to India.
Why have the politicians no will in this matter? Can it be that India too is using this train to undermine Pakistan? But even if one were to accept that, can we ever defeat Pakistan at its game of wilful barbarism hidden behind its mask of injured innocence? India cannot be barbaric, even if it wants to do so, because it is democratic not only in letter but in spirit. In that case, why keep the mission open? Why have this train from Pakistan ply into India when we know it will spell India's ruin?
Much as one would like to deny it, there is something terribly rotten in India that makes it ineffective; Pakistan is focussed in its single-minded vision: Destroy India. India, on the other hand, is concentrating on putting its economy first. So far so good, but if we don't deal with the bully next door, we will soon find our house robbed and ourselves dead.
But if India chooses to slumber as it did while the Indian Airlines plane was in Amritsar, it will be a loss beyond all proportions. Our leadership will have let us down. A leader that ponders too much, reminds me of Zorba the Greek's famous lines to the vacillating academic enacted by Alan Bates:"You think too much, that is the trouble; clever people and grocers they weigh everything."
There's still time: let the Vajpayee government ponder no more. We have all the evidence we need: it's time to call a spade a spade. Mr Vajpayee needs to take a page out of Indira Gandhi's book, her words will suffice to jolt him out of his ineffective and dangerous laissez-faire status quoism:
"I can't shake hands with a clenched fist". For once, she got it right. Time for Mr Vajpayee to call the shots.
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Lata Jagtiani
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