Tolerance of intolerance is a cowardice. India's seven decades of tolerance got a new leaf on August 15 Independent Address by the Prime Minister Narender Modi who referred to the brazen human rights abuses in Balochistan by Pakistan. The key takeaway from Prime Minister is the hardening of India's stance towards Pakistan. India, too, can play the game Pakistan has played all these years in Kashmir — and play it with greater finesse. Modi did not for a moment suggest even obliquely with any intention to interfere in the affairs of Balochistan, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan.
He merely offered his sympathies to the long-suffering people there who were being crushed under the boot of the Pakistani Army. He talked about the grave human rights violations in all these regions which have been seeking to break free from the yoke of slavery of the Punjabi Muslim-dominated Pak Army.
Large scale killing, abductions and maiming of the Baloch people in their own territory by ISI and Pakistan Army since 1948 has converted the Balochistan into land of miseries and sufferings. There is a very long list of killing even the Baloch political activists and leaders without bothering the reaction of International community. People have not forgotten the brazen killing of Mr. Bhugti the senior most leader of Baloch freedom movement under orders of Military dictator Musharraf by blasting the place where Bughti had taken refuge.
Prime Minister very cautiously referred to the issue remaining strictly within the confines of diplomatic grammar, and still managed to send a strong message to the Rawalpindi. Though the weak-hearted will read in the I-Day address from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort an unavoidable ratcheting up of the rhetoric, the change in public stance vis-à-vis Pakistan is welcome. For seventy years, a peace-loving India has tried everything to placate Pakistan but it has been rudely rebuffed.
Since India cannot, will not, ever part with Kashmir, it is only time that something new was tried — and tried to make Pakistan understand the futility of wasting its men and money on a misadventure which is doomed to fail, come what may. Modi has signaled that Pakistan will have to pay for its fanning of trouble in the Valley. Pakistan is ridden with several insurrectionist movements of varying intensities. Balochistan, which accounts for 45 per cent of the total area of Pakistan, to POK, Sindh, etc., remained unsettled due to the suppression of the peoples' basic civil rights. Balochs want to break free from Islamabad, refusing to be cowed down by the military might of Pakistan. But instead of setting its own house in order, Pakistan has sought to divert the poverty-ridden peoples' attention by drumming up anti-India propaganda and day-dreaming about annexing Kashmir.
Indian prime ministers have known of the Achilles' heel of Pakistan all along but have refrained from openly exploiting it to embarrass the hostile neighbour. International human rights groups have regularly spoken of the atrocities committed by the Pakistani security forces against Balochs and other ethnic groups resisting the draconian dictatorship of the Rawalpindi G.HQ. Human rights activists are bound to feel energized by the support extended by the Indian Prime Minister on Monday.
Modi cleverly contrasted the Indian reaction to the barbarism of terrorists with that of Pakistan. While Pakistan glorified terrorists, calling them martyrs, India believed in humanity. Modi has from the unlikely podium at the Red Fort may have given them something to chew on. We only hope they can digest it well. Otherwise, it can result in a
