Warmongers in India, Pakistan Denounced

The following is a statement issued on June 16 by the Indian and Pakistani Chapters of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy.

We, the peace loving people of Pakistan and India, are strongly condemning the recent war of words between the leaders of both countries and are deeply concerned about the diminishing sanity of the leaders who are passing on intimidating remarks time and again which will risk the lives of many innocent people and risk the possibility of a peaceful transformation of the conflict.

The derogatory and provocative statements are originating from India. It all began with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, calling Pakistan a “Nuisance” during his recent speech in Dhaka, which is a serious breach of diplomatic etiquette. The Prime Minister has been making both provocative and derogatory statements about Pakistan for quite some time both inside the country as well as on the international forums which is clearly condemnable.

Clearly encouraged by the stance of their leader, his aides, Mr Manohar Parrikar, the Indian Defence Minister, and Mr Rajyawardhan Rathore, the Minister of State, Information and Broadcasting, are making statements which are clearly jingoistic. The Defence Minister’s statement last week on “the use terror to neutralise terror” and Mr Rajyavardhan’s tweet after the Myanmar operation by the Indian Army on “the Karara Jawab or a fitting response” and attributing it to the Modi Government with a tag that said “56 inches rocks” are condemnable. The very recent one of Mr. Parrikar on the ‘waning respect for Indian Army because it hasn’t fought a war in decades’ are clearly provocative and irresponsible.

Furthering this conflict Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chowdhury Nisar Khan responded by saying Pakistan is not Myanmar. Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf went ahead and threatened India saying Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not for Shab-e-Barat.

These warmongering remarks are not only creating a hostile situation, rather these are also encouraging a culture of hatred and hegemonic depictions of masculinity by showing off each other’s military strength. The increase in the military budgets and weapon stockpiles are disturbing evidences that are also reasons for our concern.

Some of the best lessons learnt from wars across the world are about how best to avoid them in future and opt for peace instead. Hence, we urge the leaders of both countries to immediately cease and desist making such warmongering comments and be more responsible as fear politics cannot be accepted as a practice in the culture of governance in both countries.