An open Letter to Indians

I write to you as a Pakistani who has always wished for peace and prosperity of the entire subcontinent. We may not see eye to eye on history, but violence between Pakistan and India negates the raison d'etre of Pakistan. That is why it is in Pakistan's own interest to have peace with India and get down to the task of building a prosperous and peaceful Pakistan.

Horrified by the violence in Bombay (the city was renamed Mumbai by rightwing Hindu fanatics, but I reject such name changes, be they in Pakistan or India). I began writing an article which spoke of Bombay's common heritage for both India and Pakistan, of Jinnah's long connection to it (he famously told the Indian High Commissioner in 1947 "Oh, I love Bombay and long to be there."), of Bombay's status as the premier Asian city embodying the values of secularism and multi-ethnic cultural ethos, and so on. I quoted Pakistan's President who said "there is a little Indian in every Pakistani and a little Pakistani in every Indian." I seconded Adil Najam's "Today I am a Mumbaikar too" sentiment (except that I amended it to "Bombaywallah"), but just before I finished the article, I happened to turn on the news. After two minutes of the news, I deleted the article and I am glad I did.

Look, I am not going to apologise to anyone for being a Pakistani. Get it out of your head. You cannot take the internal contradictions of your polity and blame it on us. The fact is that just like not everything that happens in Pakistan is your fault, not everything that happens in India is ours. The events of the Samjhauta Express – in which your media similarly went crazy blaming Pakistan, but which turned out to be the doing of a rightwing Hindu fundamentalist group – should be an eye-opener for you. I have been watching your news channels, and what they are doing is disgusting. They are accusing Pakistan without any real evidence. One of the militants supposedly "confessed" to being from "Faridkot" in Pakistan. Perhaps you would like to show me where Faridkot is on the Pakistani map, because until I heard its name on the Indian media I was not aware of this great factory of jihadi terrorists in the Land of the Pure and despite several attempts I haven't been able to locate it on the map of Pakistan.

Next, your media spoke of RAW's intelligence intercept of Nov 17, which showed a mysterious Pakistani ship heading for Bombay. Interestingly, despite this, the alleged Pakistani ship managed to penetrate through Indian waters amid an on-going naval exercise which had mobilised a large section of the Indian Navy. The exercise – codenamed "Defence of Gujarat" – was aimed at stopping "Al Qaeda and Pakistani ships," and yet, at the height of this exercise, the "Pakistani ship" snuck through with its deadly cargo. Of course, these ten militants – who had according to Bombay police never visited the city before – then holed themselves up at strategic points in the city and held a city like Bombay hostage for 60+ hours. If this is true, perhaps you should first prosecute your naval chief. But this is unbelievable, to say the least.

For years I have fought against those of my fellow Pakistanis who blame any and all insurgencies within Pakistan on you guys. I have taken to task those Muslims who quite outrageously accuse the Jews of creating 9/11 themselves. The fact of the matter is that Muslims have been involved in terror activities all around the world, and there is no denying that – no reasonable person would dare deny this, and sadly there are not many reasonable people in the Muslim world. This points to our lack of introspection. However, what about your own lack of introspection? One friend from India suggested that the Hindu nationalists didn't have courage (I'm omitting the actual word here) to execute something like what happened in Mumbai. I would not be so callous as to underestimate the determined followers of a great ancient creed which continues to be the life force of close to a billion people. The Samjhauta Express bombing also showed that there is an ultra-nationalist section in the Indian Army which is in cahoots with Hindu nationalist forces.

I was shocked initially at the immediate reaction by the Indian government and their belligerent tone. But as I thought about it, I understood the difficult position Prime Minister Singh is in. With elections looming, this incident presented a clear and present danger to Congress's chances. Unfortunately for the Congress Party and its coalition, which includes, among others, the Indian Union Muslim League – the only surviving heir of the pre-1947 Muslim League – is never going to be able to outdo the shrill voice of the BJP and its rightwing coalition when it comes to "desh-bhagti." The only real way out for it was to try and expose the real elements behind the Bombay violence which would strengthen their hand. Instead, they've chosen to blame Muslims in general and Pakistan in particular.

We in Pakistan have our own problems, and by no means are we a strong state. We've been victims of terrorism even more than India has been. However, rest assured that a war with us – while completely disastrous for Pakistan – will leave you in ruin as well. All the great dreams and aspirations you have of India as a world power will stand shattered and broken. If Pakistan fades, its ghost will continue to haunt you for centuries to come. In fact, Pakistanis would tell you that this is a good year for us to go to war. With Pakistan hit by a slowing economy and a growing discontent, a war would unite the disparate groups in this country.

In terms of economic losses, you would lose as much more as Bombay's stock exchange has market capitalisation when compared to the Karachi Stock Exchange. This would be a good example of MAD – mutually assured destruction. All because some parties wanted to win the elections by making Pakistan a scapegoat. This, you might say, would be the first and only case of destruction by democracy.

Instead, let us choose the path of cooperation and acceptance. Let us fight the lesser terrorism caused by violence and the greater terrorism – poverty – together. Let us, as Indians and Pakistanis, join hands in making South Asia truly prosperous. And let us, for once, learn to tell the truth.