Jaithirtha Rao’s article “Let’s wish them well” in Indian Express on 29/9/2007 was amusing.
Jaithirtha Rao thinks partition was good and is grateful to the British. Pakistan is a buffer state that protects India from Afghanistan and Iran.
Pakistan is not a buffer state. It will be offended at such a description. It wants Kashmir. It fought wars with India. It supports terrorists in Kashmir and calls them freedom fighters.
Partition resulted more than one crore people being displaced. Many were murdered. Many lost their property. Many women were murdered by their family members to prevent them from falling in the hands of enemies.
If Pakistan disintegrates nothing will happen to India. If refugees come they will return as happened with Bangladeshi refugees.
India not being able to deal with Naga, Naxal and other insurrections is a different matter. If India had not been partitioned the money spent by India and Pakistan against each other would have been better utilized. Many lives would have been saved. States would have had more powers.
Why should India be useful to USA and UK? Are USA and UK useful to India? USA trained many people to fight against USSR in Afghanistan. Some of them turned against USA.
Some Germans who were about to carry out terrorist activities were caught. They were trained in Pakistan. London’s July 7 bombers were trained in Pakistan.
The people of the sub-continent are still paying a heavy price for partition.
