India has tasted remarkable success in its campaign to isolate Pakistan and Pakistanis, even if not at the BRICS summit in Goa. On the plus side, Mumbai’s film industry has sworn never again to hire Pakistani actors, and a Pakistani film has been excluded from the Mumbai film festival. These signal triumphs come on top of preventing Pakistan from hosting a summit for South Asian leaders, and the cricket board excluding Pakistani cricketers from being considered for any team in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Given the national mood, it is time to go beyond these half-measures. In the field of sports, which after all is war by other means, why is Ten Sports being allowed to telecast the Pakistan-West Indies Test series? And why did the Indian team play Pakistan yesterday in the Asian Champions Trophy? After all, India used to boycott South Africa in apartheid days. Sure, the country gave up the chance to win the tennis Davis Cup, for it had to beat South Africa to win the trophy. It opted out because fighting apartheid was more important than winning at tennis. Today, isolating Pakistan and winning the war against terror should be more important than winning (or losing) at hockey.
And, if the time for half-measures is really over, why allow Pakistani journalists to write in The Indian Express, and Pakistani generals to appear on Arnab’s war programme? For that matter, why aren’t Pakistani newspaper sites, like those of Dawn and Nation, being blocked? And why is the country still buying billions of goods produced by a Pakistan that does not give India the Most Favoured Nation status? India should cripple Pakistan economically, and vote in the relevant board against every loan that the International Monetary Fund or World Bank thinks of giving to a perennially impecunious Islamabad. If there is another cross-border outrage, the country should impose economic sanctions on Pakistan, and ask all countries to face penalties if they don’t respect the sanctions. That way, India can get back at China for blocking its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
If the country really wants to isolate Pakistan and Pakistanis, why are they still being issued visas? If trade is blocked, and no visas are issued, and there are to be no talks, why does the country have an embassy in Islamabad and a consulate in Karachi? Both should be shut down. The money saved on these outposts should be sent as a donation to the army welfare fund, for the benefit of bravehearts. Naturally, as a corollary, all Pakistani diplomats in India would be sent packing. One advantage of this would be that the Pakistan ambassador cannot hold forth on Indian TV; why would Indians want to listen to his lies, when they can trust the truth uttered by Indian spokesmen? Also, the Hurriyat will no longer be able to come to New Delhi and get instructions from him, or get clandestine funding from Pak embassy operatives.
Then, flights over Indian territory by Pakistani aircraft should be banned, as Indira Gandhi had the guts to do in 1971 — without any RSS training. This may cost us more than it costs Pakistan, since many more Indian aircraft overfly Pakistan than the other way round, but nationalist sentiment should not be weighed in rupees and paise. Besides, the Indian taxpayer is already used to paying for Air India’s losses. If the national intent is to cut our nose to spite our face, there should be no room for half-measures. Seriously.