“Renting While Muslim”- India’s new Conundrum!

By Majed Iqbal- Indian Elections are in full Swing as the Worlds largest democracy takes its course to decide the future of its 1.1 billion populous.

India’s marathon elections entered the penultimate phase of the five-stage election with parties going head to head in the last rounds. In this festival like Election fever, feelings around politics and the future of India have been mixed as citizens and observers abroad put their thoughts forward.

“Indian democracy is nothing but a miracle” said one person.

“It is a shinning example that how 1.1 billion people with different ethnicity, religion, caste and language can vote together is a victory of democracy and its institutions”

“The greatest democratic operation in the world is a model to every country” said another”

Some had more deeper and sceptical views about the whole Election process.

“In this country the educated don’t vote because they think it will make no difference and the poor don’t seem to realize the reason of voting”

Lahore attack on the Sri-Lankan cricket team- Who did it?

By Majed Iqbal- Once again Pakistan is placed onto the international centre stage following the attack on the Srilankan cricket team. The immediate response from the international community and commentators seemed to implicate ‘extremists’ operating in Pakistan without even a shred of evidence; an approach no different to the Mumbai attacks where India was the judge, jury and executioner in pointing the fingers at Pakistan and building a case of declaring it a failed state and a sponsor of Terrorism.

Both the US and India, helped by many other countries have actively used any semblance of any issue to declare Pakistan as an unstable state requiring international intervention.

India spearheaded a campaign to convince several countries to sever sports relations with Pakistan and put tremendous pressure on Sri Lanka not to send its cricket team to play here.

The latest attack on Pakistani soil raises many questions on who could be behind the attacks and why against sri-lankans? Pakistan has had conducive relationships with this country and was instrumental in bringing it to the international cricketing stage.

Mumbai Attacks- Pakistan’s ISI comes under fire

In the continued efforts and pre-Iraq invasion styled rhetoric, the US continues to jab away in any way possible at Pakistan to present the case against the country as being on the brink of disaster.

Now the intelligence services run under fire accused of in-directly supporting armed militant groups. In these endeavours old recruits from the ISI are being named by the US to be added onto the UN list of people and organisations linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

“It goes beyond information sharing to include some funding and training” The Times quotes one US official as saying. “And these are not rogue ISI elements. What’s going on is done in a fairly disciplined way”.

A report, which appeared in The Washington Post’s Sunday issue, claimed that Islamabad has agreed to a 48-hour deadline set by India and the US for key suspects to be handed over to India. New Delhi was keen to see the extradition of 20 suspects including former director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Hamid Gul.

Condoleeza rice in her visits levelled similar accusations stating that “Pakistan has had historic links with these armed groups previously” referring to the relationship of the Intelligence services and movements operating in the Kashmir region.

COMMENT: Mumbai Attacks- Is Pakistan now on the Defensive?

  Published on the Asian News Website

By Majed Iqbal- Pakistan’s weak government, despite claiming that we are not on the back foot on the Mumbai Blasts is surely feeling the heat.

Whilst the foreign minister argues that there was no reason for Pakistan to be on the defensive over the attacks, the President, Mr zardari went as far as offering a no first-use of nuclear weapons, ignoring decades of established policy.

The apparently off-the-cuff remark in an interview with Indian media astonished Pakistanis as much as Indians.

Whilst the Foreign minister talks about not being defensive, the President does exactly that.

With no consistent line on how to tackle the Mumbai blasts scenario, Pakistan will end up presenting itself a failed state who is unable to deal with the challenges it is facing- whether economic, political or Foreign affairs.

This case which is being built internationally against Pakistan as a failed state is a pre-requisite to any further action by outside powers in an Iraq style invasion. Before that, the rhetoric now drums up against this country which from being an ally of the US, now faces being the next casualty in the War on Terror.

Mumbai Attacks, Pakistan and the American strategy

By Majed Iqbal- “The terrorist attack on Mumbai is an audacious challenge to India’s Nation State. While maintaining calm and unity, we must all resolve to break the back of India’s enemies. Clearly, the terrorists have declared a full-scale war on India and sought to sever the country’s economic nerve with their meticulously planned carnage across the metropolis”.

The words echoed by India’s Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani could sum up how the Indian nation is feeling after the unfortunate events in Mumbai that took place in the last week of November as well as providing us with glimpses of where the anger is being directed at.

The blame game over who was responsible for the attacks turned into internal chaos as Indian ministers came in the firing line. Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil and national security adviser MK Narayanan submitted their resignations amid growing pressure on the Indian government to explain why it was unable to prevent the strike in which at least 172 died.

Pakistan immediately became the first target for Indian officials to point the finger of blame on which began from the onset of the crisis with hardly any investigation done. India’s Deputy Home Minister, Shakeel Ahmad, told the BBC it was “very clearly established” that all the attackers were from Pakistan. “Whether they had government backing or whether there was any official involvement in it – it will come to light after proper investigation,” Mr. Ahmad said.