Cleaning Ahmed Rashid's Clock

By John Ballard

Flooding in Pakistan is resulting in a tragedy of Biblical proportions. The toll of lost lives, homes, crops and already meager assets of millions of poor people is incalculable, complicated by the specters of disease and civil conflict which always ensue after such events. 

The words of Ahmed Rashid, perhaps the best-known English-speaking journalist from that part of the world, once again plea for help. Toward the end of a piece in the New York Review of Books (although his column is not a book review), following ominous warnings that a surge in terrorism is as predictable as cholera, he cannot resist a swipe at India.

With the chronic shortage of foodstuffs and the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan, food prices have already doubled, raising the prospect of social tensions and even food riots. Amid overbearing heat and humidity, electricity production is down by one third across the country, leaving those rural areas where power lines are still standing without electricity for up to 18 hours a day.

So far the international aid response, apart from the US and Britain, has been next to pathetic. The US is providing some US $71 million and has sent 19 helicopters from Afghanistan and from US carriers stationed off the coast of Karachi. Britain has given US $31 million. But as international aid organizations like Oxfam have complained, donations from the European Union, NATO countries, and especially the Islamic world have been negligible. The UN appeal for US $459 million to cover immediate relief for the next ninety days is not even half met yet.

Once there is sufficient humanitarian relief, the most urgent need is for donors to rebuild bridges, restore power, and reopen roads, especially in the strategic KP province. Pakistan�s coffers are empty and the country is entirely dependent on a US $11.3 billion loan from the IMF. If it is to deliver any kind of effective response to the crisis, Pakistan�s government must be bolstered by the international community.

For its part, India has failed to respond to the crisis, and relations between the two countries remain locked in bitter animosity, especially as India blames this summer�s uprising in Indian Kashmir on Pakistan. Major international pressure is needed for both countries to sort out their acute differences over the control of their common river systems and the building of new dams on both sides of the border. (The sources of many of the rivers that flow into Pakistan are in Indian-controlled territory either in the Himalayas or Kashmir. There have been recent rise in tensions with Pakistan accusing India of building unauthorized dams on these rivers upstream.) Indian relief goods, cheaper food, and construction materials should be immediately allowed to enter Pakistan.

The Pakistani floods are more than just floods. They herald a potential regional catastrophe. Unless the West acts quickly, the situation could rapidly become too difficult to contain.

The comments thread appended to his plea is not what one might call undiluted support.
That swipe at India hit more than one nerve. One comment in particular jumped out at me.

I would take you more seriously if you could give examples of "India's policy of discrimination against Muslims." While there are tensions and occasional riots between Muslims and Hindus in India, those seem to be a feature of every country that has a substantial Muslim population (even in a Western country like the UK). To the best of my knowledge, there is no official "policy" of discrimination against anyone in India.

Here are some facts:

Pakistan: in 1947, non-Muslim population was 30-35%, today it is less than 1%
India: in 1947, Muslim population was 8%, today it has doubled to 15%

Pakistan: by law, non-Muslims cannot be the President or Prime Minister
India: four Muslim presidents to date (Zakir Hussain, Hidayatullah, Fakhruddin Ahmed, Abdul Kalam). Our current Prime Minister is Sikh, vice-President is Muslim.

Pakistan: state religion is Islam and sharia is the supreme law for everyone
India: constitutional and secular democracy

Pakistan: killed between 1-3 million people in Bangladesh, disproportionately Hindu. Not one soldier or civilian was ever punished
India: in 2002 Gujarat riots, roughly 2000 Muslims were killed. There are ongoing trials and even a minister (Kodnani) has been put in prison for her role in this shameful incident.

Pakistan: widespread use of blasphemy laws (Hudood) to imprison and ruin minorities
India: richest Muslim businessman in the world is Azim Premji (Wipro) from Bangalore, and there for 3 or 4 more Indian Muslims in the Forbes billionaires list. 40% of the companies on the Mumbai Stock Exchange are controlled by Parsis (Zoroastrians) like Tata and Godrej, whose ancestors fled from Iran to India to escape persecution by Muslims.

Pakistan: does not recognize Israel
India: has sheltered Jews since AD 70, one of the few countries where Jews were never persecuted.

I could go on in this vein but somehow I doubt it will make much difference to you, given the Olympian heights from which you look down on us and see no differences at all between ants scurrying around in the Indian sub-continent.

There is indeed a humanitarian case for helping Pakistanis but it is obscene to make a moral equivalence between India and Pakistan.

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The Cold War was characterized by a struggle for hegemony on the part of Superpowers, notably the US, the Soviet Union, and China. One potent weapon was winning the support and good will of populations from humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of natural disasters. Primitive though they be, governments, like businesses, sometimes grasp the benefits of good public relations. Even China sent assistance teams to Haiti following the earthquake.

We call it "public diplomacy" and the folks at home always get a frisson of delight with every report of American nobility. (As long as it isn't in the form of "foreign aid" which is somehow categorically different. Pocket change is okay for beggars but if you give them folding money they will just go and buy liquor or drugs.)

Along the same lines (unfortunately for Pakistan) the folks at home in America are increasingly focused on tightening their belts and protecting their borders. Brown-looking people, especially Muslims, are way down the list of beneficiaries of Christian charity.