Looks like Shashi Tharoor’s delegation that went harrumphing all the way to Washington carrying the rightful anger message coming out of Operation Sindhoor came a cropper, a big one. Witness the emergent love scenes between Donald John Trump and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah. It might as well have been taken out of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43: A judicious display of strategic military thigh as Munir is given an eyeful at the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Central Command headquarters in Florida.
Followed by a lot of billing and cooing in the White House cabinet room as the lunch is laid out, Trump and Munir, eyes locked across the wide expanse of highly polished mahogany, the cabinet colleagues and Munir’s uniformed flunkeys appreciatively watching the scene play itself while the trolley waits groaning with the weight of the liveried working lunch. “How do I love thee. Let me count the ways.”
Munir flutters his eyelids and suggests a couple of more ways the American President can court the Pakistani, ways that should send diplomatic shudders down New Delhi’s spine at the prospect of the full-blown X-rated scenes that are sure to follow. In his mind Trump, with a faraway look in his eyes under those pale eyelashes, makes a mental note to bestow Munir the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian medal an American President can give, which will take Field Marshal Munir soaring even higher, up there, amongst Elvis Presley and Pope John XXIII.
Shashi Tharoor will probably have to settle for a Padma Shri for his failure to talk up Munir as Global Terrorist Number One. In India it is called making good use of the taxpayers’ money.
Prime Minister Modi’s eyes will have that mischievous twinkle when that happens. But that’s another story, and there is still time for that. Meanwhile, briefly consider this: “Terrorism is the enemy of humanity. It stands in opposition to all nations that uphold democratic values. Unity in the fight against terrorism is imperative. Unfortunately, our own neighbourhood has become a breeding ground for terrorism. For the sake of global peace and prosperity, our thinking and our policies must be extremely clear—any country that supports terrorism must be held accountable and made to pay the price.
“Unfortunately, however, the reality is quite the opposite. On the one hand, we are quick to impose various sanctions based on our own preferences and interests. On the other hand, nations that openly support terrorism continue to be rewarded. I have some serious questions for those present in this room.
“Are we truly serious about addressing terrorism? Will we understand the true meaning of terrorism only when it knocks on our own doors? Can those who spread terror and those who suffer from it be weighed on the same scale? Are our global institutions at risk of losing their credibility?
“Turning a blind eye towards terrorism for the sake of vested interests, or extending support to terror or terrorists, is a betrayal of all humanity.”
This fine speech is an excerpt from Prime Minister Modi’s plaintive address at the outreach session of the G-7 that ended in disarray and whimpers and helpless-handwringing. Our dear Prime Minister’s utterances on terrorism, which could, stacked end-to-end, easily fill up all 3745 km of the NH 44, which stretches from Srinagar to Kanyakumari, India’s longest highway, obviously fell on deaf ears. Not because Trump had shown a clean pair of heels to his real G-7 colleagues (India is only an outreach invitee). It fell on deaf ears because Trump is not interested in hearing the entreaties of the other suitor in the love triangle. Trump loves Pakistan more.
New Delhi did not see it coming. It is cold comfort that neither did Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s intelligence chief, when she testified just the other day that Iran was not pursuing a path to nuclear weapons. “I don’t care what she thinks” was Trump’s disdainful brush-off as his finger hovers over the trigger to bomb Iran.
Let’s face it. New Delhi miscalculated when it walked into the Pakistani trap after Pahalgam, where rhetoric swamped reality, and now it is the weakest leg of a love triangle in a three-ringed circus. The only ring that counts here, thankfully, is the message conveyed dutifully in Hindi by the foreign secretary on how and where New Delhi told President Trump to get off on his mediation thing.
New Delhi miscalculated big time when it came to Trump, who falls in and out of love constantly. Our strategic thinkers are still getting used to Trump’s Jack–in-the-box ways.
Hugging simply doesn’t cut it. The personal chemistry thing has turned out to be a bit of a joke. Pakistanis are better at this Swann-inlove thing, past mistress, in fact. Trump himself has, in a fit of pique, declared Pakistan has “given us nothing but lies and deceit”. He complained like a jilted lover that the United States had bestowed more than 33 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan over fifteen years. It is the price of courtship.
But that was in 2018. This is 2025. Love conquers, and as Trump says, “I love Pakistan.” This time it is bound to last longer than his affair with Elon Musk. Pakistan is about to be courted with a rare vengeance, inflation-indexed. Thirty-three billion dollars is going to look like paltry love tokens.
The question to ask is, if there is another terrorist incident in India today, where does that leave Trump and Munir? Where does that leave all our great diplomacy? Munir is a wily fox, wearing the garb of a field marshal that he practically had stitched for himself by the fine tailors his country is famous for. He knows that Shun Tzu saying: “if you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear a hundred battles.” Or as the modern and somewhat under-rated philosopher Alfred E. Neuman put it more succinctly, “He who fights and runs away, lives to run another day.” Munir will keep running straight to Washington’s ever-waiting arms. New Delhi will have to play catch-up.
V Sudarshan is the editor of FPJ. |
