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Rushdie: The greatest calamity of all may lie ahead of us
In an evocative piece in The Times, Salman Rushdie points out that with winter almost upon the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, the absence of substantial aid and relief could ensure that more people suffer and die.
But the people of Kashmir deserve better than they are getting. They certainly do not deserve to be subjected to a kind of "political test" of aid-worthiness. Yet, ever since the day of the earthquake, people in the US and Europe have been asking me and many others the same politically loaded questions: will the disaster "help"? Will it allow India and Pakistan to sink their differences and, at long last, make an end of their long Kashmiri quarrel? It has been hard to avoid the conclusion that Western attitudes to aiding Kashmir are dependent to some degree on the answer to these questions being "yes".He is practical enough to rightly realize that the romantics' wish that this disaster would perhaps bring India and Pakistan closer to each other will remain just a pipedream, given the fracas over helicopters and accepting relief from India. In fact he seems to suggest that aid is being given with the hope that the differences between the two countries will vanish overnight, just as Pervez Musharraf's wish for the Kashmir issue to be resolved overnight.
Alas, the answer is "no". India and Pakistan are still mired in mutual suspicion, as the saga of the Indian helicopters revealed. (India offered them, but Pakistan refused to accept unless they were flown by Pakistani pilots, a condition that India in turn refused to accept, and, in the meanwhile, the quake victims went right on dying.) Also, as the murder by militants of a Kashmiri moderate politician showed, and as the bombs in Delhi would seem to confirm, there are Islamist groups who are determined to continue to sabotage any improvement in Indo-Pakistani relations, and as long as those groups find sanctuary in Pakistan, a peace settlement will be impossible.
Rushdie also hints at a potential compassion fatigue following last year's tsunami and hurricanes in North America.
Labels: jammu and kashmir, musharraf, pakistan
Rambled @ 3:02 PM
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>> seems to suggest that aid is being given with the hope that the differences between the two countries will vanish overnight
Rushdie also seems to suggest that people are not giving aid because of the unrest. Donors, using some twisted logic , seems to think that the people ate not worthy of the aid because they live in a place of conflict.
Compassion fatigue it indeed has been. Not just the ordinary people, but also the media. Take a look at any of the leading international (European/US) news website. You will be surprised if you find any news on the disaster. When the Tsunami struck, ordinary people on the street, influenced by the coverage I am sure, were giving donations without a second thought. Now, you don't even see anyone asking for donations!
Sad!
Aid with strings, definitely, right? I think the donors are perhaps wondering if the aid money would be misused and instead of being put to use for relief effort, be used for building up military arsenal, nukes etc. Their fears are probably not entirely misplaced, after all, when you do shell out so much money, you do want it to go to the right folks.
By 
Jagadish (Nov 16, 2005, 1:52:00 PM)
Yes, I was really appalled with Musharraf crying like a kid whose neighbour got more ice-cream. It was a tragedy. He sought to make political capital out of it, like he always does. The tsunami affected just about every country in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake affected PoK and J & K. No prizes for guessing which one is more likely to get aid. Like you mention, the remoteness of the disaster certainly contributed to the logistical problems associated with getting aid to reach the needy.
I think Musharraf's cry was in desperation. He certainly did not want to be seen as having forsaken PoK one more time! So he whined. Shaukat Aziz's first few statements were to convey the impression that if India could refuse aid during the tsunami, Pakistan Hindustan se kam nahin hai. In all this political one-upmanship, who suffers?
By Jagadish (Nov 16, 2005, 3:27:00 PM)
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