Counterpoint: The burning of Jinnah’s residence in Balochistan
By Vivekanand Jha
As I watched Pakistan burning, especially the residence of Muhammad Jinnah in Balochistan, a 121 years old building where the Quaid e- Azam had stayed for some years, two aphorisms gushed forth on my mental screen: ‘As you sow you reap’, and ‘ Nero was fiddling, while Rome was burning’.
In Bhagvatam, there is one stanza: ‘Avashyameb bhoktavyam, kriti karma subhasubham‘( Men cannot leave this world without availing the results of their Karma). In the case of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the scenario unfolding then in Pakistan was ample evidence all his vision for carving out a separate nation for Muslims, had gone awry; the figment of the imagination of a separate nation for Muslims will be a Zannat for them, began unravelling before him. Hence against the backdrop of his dreams proving to be a nightmare, Jinnah died a disillusioned man.
Also read: Spotlight: Failed State Pakistan!
In a number of places, I am in agreement with Sarojini Naidu, when the latter had dubbed Jinnah as the ambassador of Hindu- Muslim unity. However, the clarion call given by Jinnah on August 16, 1946, resulted in the macabre killings of thousands that remain a blot in the history of the nation’s independence.
What Jinnah did get out of the creation of Pakistan is this: a failed state which is bent upon committing mass hara-kiri. There has been political unrest in Pakistan ever since its creation. There have been violent coupes in the country, and brutal killings of people – of minorities and in Balochistan.
Little surprise therefore that after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this month, we have seen charged crowds attacking the military offices and their homes.
What more? The mighty Pakistani military remained a mute spectator to the ongoing destruction of the country by Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in the wake of his arrest. So much so that, the army personnel were deployed only after two days of vicious tandav unleashed across Pakistan by the former Prime Minister’s supporters! If its menacing degree is any indication, the people hate their Army the most, as the burning of the Army Commander’s house, targetting the military bases in Rawalpindi and unleashing the feast of fury on any trappings which they even remotely perceived to have the imprimatur of their almighty protector.
Imran is out on bail now but today but the Government of Pakistan is shutting down social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others, and there are some strict restrictions on Pakistani media channels, like what to show and what not. Many analysts believe that the rifts in the Pakistani military, growing extremism, and political unrest now pose a big threat to the safety of Pakistani nuclear assets.
Today undoubtedly Jinnah’s Pakistan is not just a failed state but also a sanctuary of global terrorist organisations.
Like Aurangzeb’s last night, when the myriad human transgressions he had committed re-visited him with a dreadful vengeance, especially his killings of his brother Dara Shikoh and his son, Jinnah’s transgressions, the formidable of which was the ‘Great Calcutta Killings’ which he had orchestrated with the wholesome complicity of Suharawardy, are now revisiting Pakistan. Killing tens of thousands of innocent, unsuspecting Hindus in the streets of Calcutta, for the sake of carving out of Pakistan, were the humongous crimes whose fallouts he had escaped during his lifetime, yet the negative Karma, with all its accompanying trappings, were destined to visit the posterity!
The bloodied partition of India, which was only due to the selfish dreams of a few politicians, including Jinnah, was sure to boomerang someday; that it took so many decades to unravel, is itself a miracle. Pakistan today is only reaping the toxic seeds which Jinnah had sown by carving out a separate nation through much bloodshed and communalism.
*Author, Academician and Public Intellectual. The views expressed are personal.
