Thanks Kaustubh Kulkarni for forwarding the following to me:
Woof! Woof! When Pak took diplomacy to dogs
By Rajeev Sharma
India-Pakistan
engagement has been known to be based on tit-for-tat principle for the past 65
years. But this unwritten policy has just been given a bizarre twist, bordering
on absurd.
A
stray Indian dog accidentally boarded the Samjhauta Express at Attari station
in Amritsar, remained unnoticed by the Indian security and custom officials and
reached Lahore where the four-legged visitor was discovered.
The
discovery was reported to the higher echelons in Islamabad and the Pakistani
authorities, in their wisdom, found it to be a deliberate and grave provocation
as the incident happened at a time when Indo-Pak tension was at the peak over
the beheading of an Indian soldier on the Line of Control (LoC) in January
2013.
So, the Pakistanis
decided to send 50 stray dogs to India by the same train – and they did so.
They made their reprisal even more ingenious by making sure that the selected
stray dogs are among the dirtiest and were kept hungry for a day so that they
could bark more at the Indians!
The
news story was first broken by The Spokesman, a recently-launched new Pakistani
daily, and published in its 15 February edition.
There
has been no formal reaction from India to this incident yet. This writer today
spoke to Ministry of External Affairs’ spokesman Syed Akbaruddin and asked for
his comments on the incident. Expectedly, he chose not to react, though he said
he was aware of it.
However,
Indian diplomatic sources told this writer that the Indian government has
decided to keep a stiff upper lip over the incident and not even raise it with
Pakistan through diplomatic channels. “We don’t wish to play up a non-issue by
dignifying it with a comment. Let it be left where it is. We have no desire to
enter a competition on who wins more brownie points over the most stupid
things,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.
The
incident demonstrates the anti-India mindset of Pakistan. More importantly, it
shows that Pakistan government continues to be micro-managed by Pakistan Army
as it was the General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi, which vetoed the foreign
office plea for exercising restraint.
Imagine
that the issue was seriously discussed at the highest levels among civil and
military bureaucracy! The foreign office view was that the incident could have
been a genuine mistake and it should merit a response only if it were to be
repeated. However, the men in green had the last word as it was concluded that
the Indians had found a clever way of cocking a snook at Pakistan when the LoC
was a live wire.
Pakistan’s
kneejerk reaction to a small incident like this should come as a shocker for
the international community, particularly the West. For South Block mandarins,
it is nothing new. The whole issue could have been sorted out if someone is
Islamabad had lifted a phone and called up New Delhi for a clarification if the
Pakistanis suspected something sinister from the Indians. But this did not
happen.
The
spokesman even compared the incident to the Cuban missile crisis and warned
that the possibility of its ballooning into a nuclear war could not be ruled
out. An Indian news magazine which followed up the story, wondered what would
happen if India were to cull those 50 Pakistani dogs and send the bodies back
to Pakistan by Samjhauta Express. India and Pakistan have, after all, traded in
train loads of human bodies during the post-Partition riots.
Though
there is no word on how India has dealt with the 50 Pakistani stray dogs, the
Indian diplomatic establishment deserves to be praised for not taking the
Pakistani bait hook, line and sinker. India could have at least sent back those
50 Pakistani stray dogs after giving them a good wash and food but the Indians
decided to leave the matter where it was.
Be
that as it may, this small incident must have demonstrated to peaceniks in the
UPA government how difficult it is smoke the peace pipe with Pakistan.
One
is only reminded of a quotable quote in context of Pakistan’s dog diplomacy:
Never argue with an idiot; first he will bring you down to his level and beat
you with his experience.
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