One must admire Pakistan’s relentlessness, conceived even before the country came into existence, in deploying anti-India rhetoric to serve its goals. Muhammad Ali Jinnah famously claimed “I have nothing to do with this pseudo-religious approach that Gandhi is advocating” and then went on to build Pakistan claiming it to be God’s own nation. Bhutto’s “We will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (atom bomb)...We have no other choice”, similarly, was aimed towards a
One must admire Pakistan’s relentlessness, conceived even before the country came into existence, in deploying anti-India rhetoric to serve its goals. Muhammad Ali Jinnah famously claimed “I have nothing to do with this pseudo-religious approach that Gandhi is advocating” and then went on to build Pakistan claiming it to be God’s own nation. Bhutto’s “We will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (atom bomb)...We have no other choice”, similarly, was aimed towards a make-believe world where Pakistan continued to be a victim. The latest addition to this long list is Pakistani deputy prime minister Ishaq Dar’s reiteration of the establishment’s current buzzword: weaponisation of water.
On July 6, this newspaper’s editorial focused on Pakistan’s double game in internationalising the issue of India putting the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in abeyance. As a singular irony, India’s decision, after the Pakistan-backed Pahalgam terrorist attack, has been touted as water terrorism for both domestic and international audiences. While Pakistan continues to reel under economic distress, protests have broken out in many parts, including Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). The insurgencies in the frontier areas and protests against Imran Khan’s imprisonment, too, are far from going anywhere. Relying on its tested playbook, Islamabad has materialised its India card to trump all these challenges. The newfound solidarity for the army, during and after Operation Sindoor, has emboldened army chief Asim Munir to aggressively pursue the case of painting India as an aggressor.
India has rightly stayed on track by rejecting all such allegations. For the foreseeable future, IWT remains in abeyance. New Delhi must now ramp up its efforts internationally to call out yet another Pakistani bluff.
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