LoC violation: Liberals are ignoring the reality of Pakistan

Liberal artists protest too much over India’s momentary suspension of cultural and sporting links with Pakistan, but wilfully ignore the maniacal suspicion that agitates the minds of Pakistani Army officers who see even Indian films as propagandist tools. Writing in the Indian Express, for instance, Mani Shankar Aiyar derides what he calls the " hostility industry" in India - which he says is made up of " retired generals, superannuated ambassadors, and - the most dangerous of the breed - demobbed short service officers turned diplomats" for vitiating the tense atmosphere with their “favourite prejudices” and their “shrill tub-thumping.” Citing a “huge mindset change” under way in Pakistan, Aiyar claims that a critical mass of Pakistanis have been sold on the imperative for peace with India, particularly since Pakistan’s own descent into the hell world of jihadi violence in recent years has shown up the utter folly of the radicalisation of that country’s polity over a generation and more of Army-ISI-backed cultivation of terrorists as their proxy arm. Swami writes: “From the very first essay in the current Green Book, it becomes clear that the Pakistani officer corps’ maniacal suspicion of India hasn’t stilled.” A Pakistani Brigadier, for instance, claims that the Indian exernal intelligence agency RAW funds televisions channels to promote “psychological war” with Pakistan. Rather than deal with bigotry and needless suspicion at its very roots - in the minds of the jihadists and their Army backers - the peacenik brigade of Aiyar, Bhatt and Salman Ahmed has taken to lecturing the rather more accommodating Indian audience who only make the nuanced point that perhaps at this particular moment of justifiable national outrage, there may be eminent good sense in not rolling out the red carpet to Pakistani cultural artists and sportsperson - if only to signal to the official Pakistani establishment that our protestations about the border atrocity are earnest.