Pakistan's $5,000,000 from India

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

Just before posting this piece, I decided to do a status check and discovered that, even as I was writing my conclusion, the offer's acceptance had been announced, though not effusively.  Given the extraordinary delay in acceptance as well as that shockingly obvious lack of enthusiasm for India's gesture,  I decided that WhirledView readers might still find some useful tidbits in the post exactly as written.  Here it is:

Last week, evidently, India offered $5,000,000 in aid to the Pakistani government, which is struggling, unsuccessfully, to meet the needs of people driven from the flooded areas of the country.  Immediate response from Pakistan?  Silence.

To India’s credit, the spurned offer was renewed this week.  This time around Pakistan’s Foreign Minister S. M. Qureshi managed a grudging “Thank you,” but an unnamed Foreign Ministry source contributed an unbelievable elaboration: “We have not rejected the offer outright and a decision will be made soon.” 

Huh?  Everyone who knows anything about disaster relief is shouting that not nearly enough assistance has been pledged to keep more than a tiny percentage of the flood-displaced alive and healthy, let alone to rebuild thousands of washed away villages and to restore vast swathes of inundated agricultural land.  Oh, yes, and to rebuild bridges and roads.  And Pakistan isn’t sure that India’s assistance is wholeheartedly acceptable?

The callousness of looking this Indian gift horse in the mouth adds damning substance to accusations that the Pakistani elite have never cared about the rural poor on whose backs Pakistan’s unfairly distributed wealth has been accumulated.

But wait.  Perhaps one should be gentler here.  After all, the U.S. hesitated before accepting foreign aid  in the wake of hurricane Katrina several years ago.  The U.S. isn’t used to depending on the largess of others.  Pride was involved.  A bit of disbelief, too.  How can we possibly need aid?  How did we fall so low?  And so on.  Accepting gifts gracefully is never easy.

Given Pakistan’s enduring dependence on foreign assistance, however, the mere offer of aid would leave the national psyche undaunted—were the proposed generosity in this case not India’s.  To be beholden, in any way, under any circumstances, to the Great Enemy and Scapegoat for All Ills would not only bruise the pride of a deeply nationalistic Pakistan.  It would  be very inconvenient for those whose power depends on bad-mouthing India.  The army, for example, which seems as interested in taking real pot shots at India (see below) as in dealing with the floods which, surely, are a far greater threat to the country's stability.  People are very unhappy with the government's response to the present disaster.  Militants see an opening to further discredit an already unpopular government.  And so on.

India’s rather nice gift horse might also force some in  Pakistan to do some serious  reflection about international friendship, especially in re the much celebrated coziness with China.  China has become the world’s second largest economy, so Beijing can afford to sink a lot of money into building a deep water port at Gwador on the Arabian Sea in Baluchistan.  Also in constructing the roads that will make the port a major transit point.  This port could be very good for Pakistan’s economy, especially if Pakistan can upgrade and diversify its export industries in the relatively near future.  Whatever happens, however, Pakistan’s profit from the joint venture will be dwarfed by China’s.  Gwador is the key to exporting manufactures from Western China to Europe, economically.  So China stands to make billions and billions from Gwador.  But China so far has pledged only $9,000,000 for flood relief, and an article in Xinhua on 8/20/10 mentions no increase in this amount, despite international criticism of China’s niggardliness.  Looks like friendship comes cheap in Pakistan, unless the helping hand comes from the U.S.—or India, for whom $5,000,000 is not chump change.  Facing up to this could be awkward.

There’s another reason why Pakistan might (or should) be embarrassed to accept aid from India, and why India might justifiably contribute nothing, zilch, nada.  Actually there are many interrelated reasons.  In 2001 Pakistan-based terrorists bombed the Indian Parliament building.  Twelve people died.  In 2008 Pakistan-based terrorists sailed from Karachi to Mumbai to launch an attack on India’s financial center.  The death toll was 175.   In the latter case, evidence for the complicity of Pakistani militant groups was incontrovertible.  Pakistan has refused to extradite or prosecute the ringleaders. 

And, finally, consider all these reasons for India to withhold aid funds: this year Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire border in Kashmir on May 12, 18 and 23; on July 6, 9, 15 and 16; and, most recently, only two days ago.  Typically, rockets and mortars as well as small arms were fired.   On May 18, two Indian soldiers were killed; on July 6 one soldier died.  Several more have been wounded. India has registered official protests with the relevant authorities in Pakistan. 

Yes, I checked to see if there were press reports of counter-complaints from Pakistan.  Surely, if the Indians had fired first, killing Pakistanis, there would have been howls of protest from Islambad.  I found none.  Perhaps the Indians are correct in charging that the Pakistanis were trying to provide cover for the insertion of more Islamist militants into Indian-administered Kashmir.

So there are many reasons why India might let Pakistan stew in its swirling muddy flood waters. Can anyone imagine today’s China offering assistance under such circumstances?  And yet India is offering $5,000,000.  It’s downright Ghandian.   Well, it’s also good public relations.

And, whatever the motive, it's good for Pakistan.

Needless to say, the U.S. is advising Pakistan to stop dithering and accept the Indian aid.  Let’s hope that sanity and compassion prevail in Islamabad.

PS.   And, dear reader, my wish was granted.