Pak Senator in Nepal: Claims SA center of gravity of global politics

Date : August 07, 2012

It has rightly been said by some scholars that Nepalese diplomats can talk confidently well with the envoys from other friendly countries but not with their counterparts from India. May be our diplomats get carried away by their Indian counterparts, at time of tea/coffee session(s) or even at time of luncheon or dinner, as against the expected free Indian government scholarship for their sons and daughters back home which provides the other side to have their upper hand and thus Nepal gets defeated by her own nationals at the negotiating table.  

The same applies to our incompetent leaders who tentatively bow down to earth as and when they confront the Indian leaders either in Delhi or in Kathmandu fearing that any lapses from their side may disqualify them from being elevated to the desired ranks and posts, for example, of a Nepal Minister or for that matter being the country’s India preferred Prime Minister as well.

The same terrifying Indian diplomats, analysts have been told, exhibit the same Nepali syndrome as and when they confront with the representatives from China, Pakistan or the US.

While encountering the diplomats from Britain, the Indian envoys, analysts have been told, can’t speak even face to face. Perhaps they are reminded of their good old colonial days. Fear psychology still persists.

This scribe was stunned when he listened to a Pakistani scholar taking the Indian Prime Minister as BECHARA (helpless) at a Nepal Council of World Affairs talk program, held Friday, August 3, 2012.

No Nepali leader worth the name could dare to talk in the manner as Hussain did.

The Pakistani speaker was Senator Hon’ble Mushahid Hussain and the topic of the discussion was "Nepal Pakistan Relations in the Changing Regional Scenario".

Mr. Hussain was basically a journalist in the early eighties who later became a matured politician and is currently the Chairman of the Defense and Defense Production, Pakistan.

He has assumed the post of Minister several times in recent past.

According to this Senator, Pakistan was now by all standards a vibrant democracy which could be taken as the one among the freest democracies in the present day world.

Dwelling over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979, Senator Hussain made it clear to the attending participants that since the then USSRs entering into Kabul, Pakistan and its people had been kind enough to provide shelter to the Afghan refugees which even as of today stands to the tune of 2.8 million.

“We the people of Pakistan have resilience, needed compassion and love for all those who have become homeless and we support them as we have been doing it with an open heart”, added the senator during his speech.

Talking on Nepal-Pakistan relations, the journalist turned politician Hussain said that today Pakistan and Nepal have come of their age and they both now understand on how to rebuff the foreign dictates because both Nepal and Pakistan were now having strong civil societies back home.

(Perhaps Senator Hussain doesn’t know about the “alien dictated” internal political dynamics of Nepal or else he would have not said so).

Albeit he said a million dollar fact to the satisfaction of the audience who had converged to listen to his frank and straight remarks.

“Nepal-Pakistan relations have ever remained friction free”, is how he described the present day bilateral ties.

The Pak senator without any hesitation admitted that Lord Buddha was born in Nepal who later travelled to Taxila some 27 hundred years ago and the place, now a Pak territory, was then one of the greatest seats of learning on Buddhism.

“This event also binds the two countries together even as of today”, said the Pak scholar.

What was pleasing to the Nepali ears was the unbelievable that Pakistan marks the day of Lord Buddha. “It is a holiday in Pakistan”, informed the Pak senator.

He then switched his lecture onto the changes observed in the balance of power in the world.

According to Mushahid Hussain, the power balance has already shifted from the West to South Asia which apparently meant that South Asia now has become already the center of gravity of the entire global politics.  

“ I now see the very emergence of Greater Asia that includes Myanmar, Afghanistan, China, Iran and some other central Asian states”, he added.

At yet another plane, Mushahid Hussain, who is talked to have developed his own intimate relationship with some high placed Chinese central leadership said that at present there exist a sort of “Great Game” which was solely aimed at containing China.

“Containment of China” has now become the fresh catch word in world politics because Arms have got to be sold by the manufacturers and thus the entire idea is to send fake signals of the looming Chinese threat which would encourage the weaker countries, those which fear China’s threat, to buy arms. However, says Mushahid, the days of cold war mindset have already become obsolete.

At the conclusion of his speech, the Pak senator indirectly sounded to India and said, in his own words, “Big countries should have large heart” adding that “let all the south Asian countries unite for materializing the dream of having a Rising Asian century.

“Nepal and Pakistan must unite and join the Rising Asian century”, the Pak Senator concluded his speech.

Earlier, the NCWA President, Mr. Tika Jung Thapa introduced the Pakistani scholar to the attending guests.( Photo: L to R: Pak Senator and Tika Jung Thapa).