Indistan - an interesting concept

After the Mumbai massacre, everyone agrees that something has to be done about Pakistan, which without doubt was the passive platform for if not the active instigator of the attack, as it has been of so many terror attacks against India in the past. Everyone not just India, but also the US, the UK, Israel and other countries whose nationals became targets in Mumbai agrees that Pakistan has to be dealt with. But exactly how is it to be dealt with? And which of the many Pakistans is to be addressed?

Today there is not one but too many Pakistans for that bedevilled country's own good and for the well-being of the international community. Which of these many Pakistans to deal with, and how? Internationally coordinated military strikes at terror training camps located within Pakistani territory? Global pressure diplomatic, economic and moral brought to bear on Islamabad to stop its covert support of terrorism? All these and other measures are being mooted, in various combinations. But, singly or together, they fail to get to the crux of the problem: Pakistan's lethally dangerous multiple personality disorder.

Not just India, but the world as a whole, can't afford a failed Pakistan with all the disastrous ramifications it would entail, not the least being Islamabad's nuclear arsenal falling into rogue hands. What Pakistan needs is a miracle cure, an instant evolution from fragmented feudalism to cohesive democracy.

Pakistan needs to radically rethink itself. And what more radical than to rethink Partition and think about reunification with India, the world's most populous democracy and the world's second fastest growing economy? Preposterous idea, of course, for mortal enemies to come together. But is it any more preposterous than the risk of nuclear war of 60, or 600, more years of so-called 'proxy warfare' which neither country can afford?

Instead of its constant demands for a plebiscite in Kashmir, Islamabad should hold a plebiscite within Pakistan to see how many would like to review Partition in favour of a united Indistan. It wouldn't work, of course. But then, neither has Partition.

For the full text, click on:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Subverse/Indistan_zindabad/articleshow/3797952.cms

May not be practical. But, no harm dreaming about it.

Muralidhar Rao