Recommending Aatish Taseer – by Alamdar Mengal
Aatish Taseer should realize that the mentality of the Darbari liberals who are trashing his article is no different from the intolerant mindset of his father’s murderer, Mumtaz Qadri.
It was interesting to come across some Twitter reactions to Mr. Aatish Taseer’s boldly written article, “Why My Father Hated India” that was published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, which poses some tough questions about the historical and current nature of the military dominated state of Pakistan.
Prominent Fake Civil Society (FCS) journalist types (also known as Darbari Liberals) were quick to dismiss this compelling and incisive article and resorted to the typical personalized digs that one makes in the absence of coherent arguments. Then again, what would these FCS types know about coherent arguments and maintaining journalistic integrity?
Prominent among them was Ejaz Haider, a “journalist” whose long ties with the Pakistan Military Academy are well reflected in his condescending, too-clever-by-half “articles” that the discerning reader has to suffer to on a regular basis.
Suffice to say, Ejaz’s latest article is another piece of incoherent babble that suffers from reductionism and petty personal digs- the same thing he unfairly accuses Aatish of.
While the FCS Tweeple Brigade will do its best to diss Aatish’s article, one must at least examine the arguments within Aatish’s article.
Aatish Taseer gets to the roots of the issue of extremism in Pakistan:
“To understand the Pakistani obsession with India, to get a sense of its special edge—its hysteria—it is necessary to understand the rejection of India, its culture and past, that lies at the heart of the idea of Pakistan. This is not merely an academic question. Pakistan’s animus toward India is the cause of both its unwillingness to fight Islamic extremism and its active complicity in undermining the aims of its ostensible ally, the United States.”
For the urban (fake) liberal chatterati, this profound insight is unsettling. Most cannot come to terms with critical questions about the hazy myths and drawing room gossip that they hold as sacred truths regarding Pakistani history and Partition. Hence, it is very difficult for them to grasp Aatish’s very valid argument that the India-phobia shared by the security establishment has been the primary factor for fuelling violent Islamofascism in Pakistan.
For the venal, shallow and fickle de-politicized urban elites, the India phobia of the security establishment defines them as well. Their virulent hatred for elected political leaders blinds them to the fact that the vast majority of Pakistanis who vote in PPP and other groups do not share their warped obsession with India. Pakistan’s elected leaders in the last three decades have all done their best to restore good relations with India (BB-Rajiv, NS-AV, AAZ-MMS) only for their efforts to be scuttled by the security establishment.
Therefore for this class, America, like India before it has become a convenient scapegoat to perpetuate an Ostrich mentality. Hence any criticism of the Taliban and their security establishment sponsors is diverted by regurgitating Tariq Ali’s stale and rehashed critiques of US foreign policy. Like Tariq Ali, this class is mostly beholden to the world view of the security establishment and its assorted creatures like Imran Khan.
It is Aatish’s bold and direct criticism of the military establishment that is the most refreshing aspect of this article and perhaps the single major reason for the unfair criticism he has to bear by urban liberals of Pakistan. He writes:
“The primary agent of this decline has been the Pakistani army. The beneficiary of vast amounts of American assistance and money—$11 billion since 9/11—the military has diverted a significant amount of these resources to arming itself against India. In Afghanistan, it has sought neither security nor stability but rather a backyard, which—once the Americans leave—might provide Pakistan with “strategic depth” against India. In order to realize these objectives, the Pakistani army has led the U.S. in a dance, in which it had to be seen to be fighting the war on terror, but never so much as to actually win it, for its extension meant the continuing flow of American money. All this time the army kept alive a double game, in which some terror was fought and some—such as Laskhar-e-Tayyba’s 2008 attack on Mumbai—actively supported.
The army’s duplicity was exposed decisively this May, with the killing of Osama bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad. It was only the last and most incriminating charge against an institution whose activities over the years have included the creation of the Taliban, the financing of international terrorism and the running of a lucrative trade in nuclear secrets. This army, whose might has always been justified by the imaginary threat from India, has been more harmful to Pakistan than to anybody else. It has consumed annually a quarter of the country’s wealth, undermined one civilian government after another and enriched itself through a range of economic interests, from bakeries and shopping malls to huge property holdings.”
In these few lines, Mr. Aatish Taseer is more lucid and clear than most of the media big wigs like Najam Sethi (1990s messiah fame), Omar Waraich (who recently tried to paint Messrs Hamid Mir, Najam Sethi and Ejaz Haider as anti-ISI), Marvi Sirmed and Cyril Almeida (PPP-abandoned-Taseer fame) and all those who have recently anointed themselves as “liberals” (or as a Balcoh friend recently called them ‘darbari liberals’).
Such criticism of the security establishment only comes from a few brave individuals amongst a small group of non-professional journalists and analysts – individuals who are not part of a sellout industry.
The bold tone of Mr. Taseer’s article is sorely lacking among our “Darbari liberals” who jealously guard their turf and whose one-sided virulence against political parties, particularly the PPP, is matched by their tame, weak and vacillating critiques of the security establishment.
The “Darbari liberals” of Pakistan are liberals in name only and in the mistaken impression that the ability to imbibe bribery liquor and show-off their surface knowledge of the European Football league somehow qualifies them as liberals. I wish it were that easy.
For example, most recently, these “Darbari Liberals” and their FCS cheerleaders couldn’t even tolerate a twitter activist @laibaah whose impassioned, in-your-face approach to minority rights was too much to bear – a quality that saw her account being suspended for the third time in 2 weeks via the coordinated effort of this tweeple brigade of “darbari liberals”. For these “Darbari liberals”, the daily human rights abuses of the Baloch can be explained away as part of a RAW conspiracy to destabilize Pakistan-anything to divert attention away from the security establishment whose material interests are allied with theirs.
Mr. Aatish Taseer should realize that the mentality of these darbari liberals who are trashing his article is no different from the intolerant mindset of his father’s murderer, Mumtaz Qadri. They are in no mood to be circumspect at the harsh but true observations of Aatish. During the lifetime of the late Governor Taseer,
he and his family were often made the targets of vicious personal attacks due to his loyalty to PPP and on his clear stance on the Lawyer’s Movement and the Jamaa Islami and Sipah-e-Sahaba leaning judges in the LHC and SCP.
The same people who rushed to cry a few crocodile tears on Salmaan Taseer’s death whilst simultaneously blaming the PPP for his murder are also likely the ones who will not take too kindly to the bold and refreshingly honest article of his son. In the post-Taseer scenario, they were up to their typical obfuscation tactics to minimize the role of the security establishment in fanning religious hatred (directed against the democratic government) and the role of the Opposition parties both in providing compromised security and fanning extremism and hysteria.
This is the first fair assessment of Aatish’s piece which I could find in Pakistani (alternative) media. Thank you, Mr. Mengal.
Mr Mengal, you have wrongly quoted the title of Aatish’s article. Please correct.
Mr. Mengal, I think you mean “Why My Father Hated India” and not “Why My Father Hated Pakistan”. Or is that a Freudian slip? Anyway, it is a refreshing thing to see an article written by a Pakistani that actually calls a spade a spade. Best, Anup
Taseer wallows in favorite Indian question of “Why Pakistan exists”. Junk like that is of no interest to Pakistanis.
@Asok, @Anup Misra, Thanks for the alert. Title now corrected.
Is this guy really Taseer’s son?
This was my reply to Ejaz in Express Tribune but they didn’t publish it. You can understand why.
Hi Ejaz,
I generally like your articles (and no offence to you) but this one seemed to be more of a rant than objective analysis. Aatish’s article is his viewpoint, his theory on the Indo-Pak situation that we have today. No were does he claim that he has to be correct, its just one way to look at things.
Honestly do you actually expect for anyone to create a “linear reality” of a complex entity as a country in itself?No sir, a mortal can just provide a viewpoint while the reality in totality can only be claimed by the God.
**Frankly lets see what Aatish has attempted.**
Using his personal experience and knowledge he is trying to sum up the situation in Pakistan today. He has given a historical background for ideology of Pakistan (Iqbal’s vision to partition) and then touched upon development of Pakistan as we know it based on the predefined ideology.
His article actually touches some very valid points. If you go into human psychology concept of “self” and “community” are very basic to human identity. What Aatish is saying is that after partition Pakistan had to create a new “self”, “new identity” totally rejecting historical ties with Indian subcontinent and opting for somewhat “Arabic” identity. However Pakistan is closer to India than Middle East and this is what the problem is. Any Indian failure provides positive feedback to Pakistan rejection by masking it as a good decision while Indian success is more of an irritant.
I will not even touch the Pakistan Army related statements as they are out in open for all to see. Lastly all things aside supporting terrorist organisations (Haqqani network, LeT etc), nuclear proliferation and duplicity in dealing with WoT seriously undermine Pakistan credibility.
**Now I’ll go through your statements.**
1. Comment regarding Salmaan Tasser’s support for wrongly accused woman, Aatish claims his father hated India but that does not mean he hated Pakistan. I am sure he was as patriotic a Pakistani as I am an Indian. I am also sure you will agree that oppression of minority as in Aasia Bibi’s case will only make situation worse for Pakistan. He realized it and fought for it and was unfortunately taken down by extremists.
2. Other comments regarding “Basant festival”. again letting minority have their basic cultural right is necessary for any society and I applaud Salman Tasser’s work towards promoting this cultural event (kite flying) which had been banned for last two years!!! However this has again nothing to do with India. However if you connect “Basant festival” with India, this just proves that Aatish is right about rejection of Indian culture as main issue. Are there no Hindu’s in Pakistan? why do you think “Basant festival” is something Indian and not something Pakistani even though it has been celebrated in streets of Karachi and Lahore for long long time?
3. Regarding Indian Army I agree 1/3rd of Indian Army is Pakistan centric however 80% of Pakistani Army is India centric. Heck last year Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani candidly admitted on record that Pakistan Army is India centric. Now this will turn into another “egg first or chicken” kind of question so lets not get into that.
4. Lastly reductionist analyses, Nomotheic Psychological analysis are generally Reductionist in nature. Morever Molar approaches cannot be applied to as complex an entity as a country. Please don’t take Aatish’s article as personal. It is his viewpoint. And even if it was an opportunist article towards targeted audience, he still does an awesome job in explaining a lot about Pakistan as it stands today.
Seriously No offence intended.
and I hope you publish my comment (took me over 20 mins to write)
Very good Aatish
Salmaan Taseer was killed by a brainwashed product of Pakistan’s jihadi-oriented military establishment. By criticizing his killers (jihadis and jihadi patronizing genreals), Aatish has proved that he represents his father more than any of his siblings.
Sad to see the reactions on twitter where Aatish is being abused by the elite tweeples simply for stating it like it is.
@bangash
I am confused, India asks this question? Read about 1947(history) then you will maybe know why Pakistan exists? If India keeps asking this question then I think Indians need a proper education system. You need to back your statement with concrete evidence.
Militancy must be eliminated from Pakistan with the help of allies of war against terrorism!! unless and until we do not kick out this mindset we can never grow as a nation!!
look,a pakistani is talking of Indian education system,loooooooooooollllllzzzzzzzzzzzz..
Recommending Aatish Taseer – by Alamdar Mengal
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