Amna Malik
With so many twist and turns, highs and lows; the Pak-US bilateral bond can aptly be termed as a roller coaster relationship. Resembling the roller coaster ride, there was smooth beginning, but after a short while, the riders had to experience a lot of jerks and jolts. Therefore, there has been more screaming than cheering. The Pak-US roller coaster ride has further turned unpleasant on account of the mutual mistrust between the riding partners. However, in contrast India offers a large market for US goods and additionally, its age old rivalry with China provides US the opportunity to use India as a bulwark against China. In this background, various US resources have partnered India for their own gains. One such project is the ‘Georgetown India Initiative’; a forum launched by Georgetown University with the stated aim to ‘strengthen research, teaching, and outreach to India.’ Irfan Noor ud Din, a highly biased scholar of Indian origin, who closely associates himself with Christine Fair, of Foreign Policy has been appointed as its Director. Reportedly, the forum has been established with the total funding of around US $ 10 million of which large part is known to have come through the Indian Diaspora while part of it has been funded by US administration. Although ‘Georgetown India Initiative’ aims to create a platform for high-level dialogue among American and Indian leaders from government, business, the academy, and society which acknowledges political and ideological divides, while promoting mutual understanding and collaboration, yet its main purpose is to distort the image of Pakistan in the comity of nations. Contrary to the natural objective of fostering closer partnership between America and India, it organized an event titled ‘Re-imagining Pakistan’ on 27 Jan 2016. It featured Pakistan’s most loud critics in the town including Christine Faire and former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani. This event which was co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program via the ‘Georgetown India Initiative’ and the Mortara Center for International Studies clearly reflects that the forum is being used as a vehicle to undermine Pakistan through Christine Faire and Husain Haqqani. Hussain Haqqani, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US from 2008-2011 and managed a difficult relationship during a serious stage in the global war on terrorism, was the keynote speaker. During his tenure as ambassador, the notorious Memo-Gate scandal erupted, in which he was named and summoned to Pakistan for interrogation. It is interesting as well as intriguing that Hussain Haqqani, whose role as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US was dubious and damaging, finds the red carpet spread out to him in India as well as in anti-Pakistan events in the US. Recently, the Defence Minister of Pakistan, Khawaja Asif, informed in a Parliamentary Briefing that Hussain Haqqani was playing an active role in placing impediments in the procurement of F-16 fighter aircraft by Pakistan from the US. As if on cue, the Indian External Affairs Ministry also jumped into the fray for opposing the arms sale albeit of limited quantity to Pakistan, thus exposing on whose behalf Hussain Haqqani had raised his cudgels against the country of his origin.
It is worth mentioning that in an event held on 13 January 2016, Farahnaz Ispahani, the wife of Husain Haqqani was also invited by Observer Research Foundation (ORF), RAW affiliated think tank in New Delhi to launch her newly written book titled ‘Purifying the Land of the Pure-Pakistan’s Religious Minorities’ two weeks before her husbands’ controversial address on 27 January this year. Following the foreign agenda against Islamabad, Farahnaz Ispahani’s castration of the government of Pakistan’s callousness towards the minorities was welcomed by the Pakistan bashers. A good number of Indian foreign analysts, diplomats, retired defense and intelligence officers attended the launch ceremony. Highlighting the plight of minorities in Pakistan, Indian participants mainly focused on Pakistan’s identity and argued that national identity for Pakistan was not Islam, but their being part of Indian civilization was more realistic. They found solace in diverting attention away from Indian brutality and planned genocide of its minorities at the hands of organized ethnic cleansing pogroms, which have been a matter of grave concern to its sensitive intelligentsia. The rise of the Sangh Parivar comprising Hindu extremist outfits such as BJP, RSS VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena including other similar parties have been promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India by propagating ideology of Hindutva. Narendra Modi, the BJP Prime Minister was elected on the agenda of shunning secularism and was supported by the hardliner extremists.
I would like to argue here USA has also double standards i.e. that overtly, American high officials remark that they seek stability in Pakistan, but covertly, they continue to destabilize it, especially with the assistance of India. Perhaps, as if following a well choreographed script, US expressed concerns regarding Pakistan’s nuclear assets, clearly forgetting US support of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)’s discriminatory waiver to India and the Indo-US nuclear deal, which has allowed New Delhi to increase its fissile material and disturb the strategic stability in South Asia. Indo-US lobbies which are well-penetrated in the US administration, think tanks and universities leave no stone unturned in continuing their endless propaganda against Pakistan. Yet it is surprising that an elite institution like the Georgetown University has set up its premises in India and is following a parochial agenda to disparage Pakistan and to add authenticity to its schema, it is utilizing the services of known Pakistani critics. Hindu writers, artistes, intellectuals and academics have sounded the alarm at this rise of bigotry and planned extermination of the minorities. The hostile and covert tactics of Indo-US nexus are making concerted and unified attempts to achieve their aim of destabilizing Pakistan. Nonetheless, ‘Georgetown India Initiative at the Georgetown University is part of the organized propaganda campaign of India and the US against Pakistan, which continues unabated.