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Hamari taraf se kabhi kisi tarah ki pehel nahin hogi.”

On the basis of those 10 words, Reuters put out a story Monday evening saying Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan would not use nuclear weapons first against India.

But watch the video carefully of Khan speaking at a gathering of Sikhs invited to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in Pakistan –the holy Kartarpur Sahib shrine where the Sikh guru breathed his last is in Pakistan Punjab’s Narowal district. Those 10 words did come immediately after comments on how both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed countries posing a danger to the world, but Khan never actually linked the two sentences directly.

Still, even if you wanted to give the Pakistan PM the benefit of the doubt for his comments tweeted by his party’s official handle @PTIOfficial at 8:03 pm, at 11:47 pm came this statement by Mohammed Faisal, the spokesman of the Pakistan foreign office :

Prime Minister’s comments on Pakistan’s approach towards conflict between two nuclear armed states are being taken out of context. While conflict should not take place between two nuclear states, there’s no change in Pakistan’s nuclear policy. — Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) September 2, 2019

Clearly, Faisal was making Pakistan’s position clear, even if he didn’t want to outright deny Reuters’ clumsy reportage. Pakistan has always maintained a doctrine of “first use”, claiming that it is a deterrent to nuclear neighbours like India.

In any case, his country’s nuclear, security or foreign policy is hardly under the control of Imran Khan; it is Pakistan’s military establishment that decides. Mohammed Faisal’s iteration is also a message to his PM that he can invite as many Sikhs as he wants to Kartarpur Sahib or any other gurudwara littered across Pakistan, but he should definitely keep away from important matters of state.

Also read: Pakistan says no change in nuclear policy — ‘Imran Khan’s statement taken out of context’

Not that the rest of Imran Khan’s speech was not a litany of embarrassment. Khan could hardly remember the name of RSS ideologue Veer Savarkar, leave alone pronounce it; he had to be helped by someone in the crowd. Then he went on to add that Pakistan’s fair treatment of minorities is in line with Jinnah’s famous August 1947 speech when he promised them the right to religious practice – he said it took place in 1948.

The last gaffe relates to his insistence that Kartarpur Sahib, the holy Sikh shrine where Guru Nanak breathed his last, is like “our Mecca and Medina”. Except Khan should know, that unlike the mosques in the subcontinent that don’t refuse admission to anyone from any religion, no non-Muslim is allowed to enter the divine premises of the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia.

So much for the peace gesture that wasn’t. But if Khan has been entirely predictable in recent weeks since the abrogation of Article 370, the Bangladeshis on India’s eastern border have shown considerable spine.

Also read: Children out, parents in: The real challenge begins now that final Assam NRC is here

A rising Bangladesh

Mere days after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar visited Bangladesh to explain both the NRC process underway in neighbouring Assam as well as the Article 370 decision, Bangladeshi foreign minister Abdul Momen quoted Jaishankar back at the press, saying, “Under no circumstances, Bangladesh will be affected.”

Momen went on to add that in any case, “Bangladesh is doing much better and therefore it does not look like there is any interest in any Bangladeshi to go to India. In Bangladesh, even the per capita income is comparatively higher….”

Momen is absolutely right. As India’s economic growth faltered in the wake of the Modi government’s disastrous demonetisation decision, tiny Bangladesh accelerated structural reform. If it keeps this burning pace through the 2020s, according to CEO Standard Chartered Bangladesh Naser Ezaz Bijoy, its per capita income may even top India by 2030.

“With the tailwind of demographic dividend, healthy domestic consumption, rising investment, and successful export-oriented industrialisation, we have every confidence that our nation will continue on this high-growth trajectory in the 2020s and establish itself firmly in the 7 percent club,” Bijoy told the Daily Star.

How badly can you feel yourself cringe as you watch the Modi government tout 5 per cent growth?

Certainly, Bangladesh has the advantage of a strong and stable government – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rules her country with an iron fist, brooking little disagreement and throwing her main opposition leader Khaleda Zia into jail with less reason than the Mad Hatter in Alice’s adventures in Through the Looking Glass.

Also read: Bangladeshis will be richer than Indians by 2030, StanChart Bank says

So does Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India voted him back to power, despite the perils of demonetisation, because they hoped he would lead the country into a Manmohan Singh-like growth spurt.

According to Madhur Jha, head of Standard Chartered India’s thematic research division and David Mann, the bank’s global chief economist, also quoted in the Daily Star, Bangladesh’s per capita income will rise to $5734.6, while India’s will edge up to $5424.4.

Perhaps it’s unfair to compare India and Bangladesh – like comparing apples and oranges. Apart from the size of the nations and population, India is a bewildering diversity of socio-economic challenges. But instead of leaving people to figure out their own assimilation processes, both in Kashmir as well as in Assam, and focusing on growth, the Modi government’s inability to get its economic house in order could have disastrous consequences.

For the moment, the world will keep quiet. It is India’s business to figure out how to absorb both Kashmir as well as keep a lid on the NRC in Assam. But if growth continues to falter and the Swadeshi lobby at home puts conditions on FDI, watch the international community begin to grumble. Human rights violations will be next.

Watch out for the bad old 1990s.

This article has been updated to reflect changes.

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