to parliament his chair fell. His sage said it was a bad omen –
“Beware the ides of March” and all that jazz – for ‘The Chair’ is akin
to a throne, symbolizing power and office. “You will have to pray at
the shrine of a Sufi much bigger than any we have in Pakistan,” the
sage declared. So Zardari decided to go to the biggest South Asian
Sufi of them all, Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti (1141-1230 CE), whose
shrine is in city of Ajmer in India.
Many kings, presidents and prime ministers have gone to Ajmer.
The official reason for Zardari’s visit was that he went to honour
bazaars is that it was the ‘bad omen’ that triggered it off. It could
have been both. Should it matter?
Yes it should, because the Pakistani state, ergo the people, must have
paid for some part of the visit, even though it is said that the
president paid for everything from his own pocket, including the one
million US dollar offering he gave to the shrine. Fine, but the
questions then arises: from where did he get so much money? Best to
leave it to the judges of our highest exalted court – the ‘Supreme’
one that is – to take suo moto notice. I don’t know how Muslims can
call any court ‘supreme’ and that too in an Islamic state since in
Islam only the court of God is supreme because only God is supreme
with the Almighty. That in Islam no one can intercede with God on
anyone’s behalf is forgotten. And – you guessed it – that’s yet
another discussion.
So off our president went with son, daughter, sage, ministers,
sycophants, journalists, media and staff in tow, enough to require
that one with the ‘royal’ family) and an army C-130, the type in which
this ‘royal’ family’s nemesis General Zia ul Haq crashed and perished
with many others. That particular aircraft, legend has it, was the
same that transported Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s dead body half way to his
ancestral graveyard in Sindh before returning to Rawalpindi halfway
with engine trouble and the body had to be shifted to another C-130.
Not that it means anything; else the sage wouldn’t have kept quiet. By
the way, such is our attraction for graves that Bhutto’s mausoleum has
become another saintly shrine. Why do you think that some Muslims
level them off every few years?
It was good that Zardari’s private visit included a ‘sumptuous’
semi-official lunch with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Not
that a constitutionally ceremonial president and a weak proxy prime
minister amount to much in this land of dynastic rule with the fig
leaf of British parliamentary democracy. But it is precisely because
of dynasty that Zardari wields real power, being Bhutto’s son-in-law
and co-chairman of his party, with his young son the chairman and icon
of the Bhutto cult, a symbolic figurehead so far. As for Mr. Singh,
real power lies with the daughter-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty
who is also the leader of the ruling party. No matter: jaw-jaw is
better than war-war a la Churchill.
Be all that as it may, our media’s hysterical hoopla that accompanied
the visit last Sunday was shameful. So obsessed was it with Zardari’s
lunch and pilgrimage that it callously paid scant attention to the
worst peacetime tragedy our army has ever faced when 135 of soldiers
were buried alive in an avalanche in Siachen. The two oldest
civilizations in the world have been at each other’s throats for 28
years in what is called the “highest war in the world”. Stupid. Both
have lost more soldiers to the elements there than to bullets. It’s
about geo-strategy and water. To get news about the Siachen tragedy
when the collective mind is wonky: the difference between right and
wrong, relevant and irrelevant or less relevant is lost.
Our media went overboard on the visit because we as a people are
merrily unaware of where the limits of respect for state office end
and the courtier’s pathological sycophancy begins; of where
constructive criticism ends and national damage begins. There was
daydreaming galore by anchors, clapped out ambassadors, bureaucrats
gone to seed, generals put out to pasture, all masquerading as
analysts, most in awe of America, many members of the Langley Club
That the Supreme Commander of our Armed Forces chose to go to
Zardari’s presence? Would he have any use for the one million US
dollars offering? Only his progeny would. Custody of shrines by
progeny is a booming business because illiterate, desperately poor
passed on to his descendants. In Zardari’s mind – and he is our best
political tactician, mind you – the symbolism of his pilgrimage to
Ajmer would hold importance with Sindhi voters, what with elections
looming.
Shrines often become political constituencies of Sufi progeny whose
habits their exalted forebear would have looked at askance. Their
graves are where the credibility and constituencies of ‘Mukhdooms’
tribalism since all three societal forms prey upon the illiteracy,
poverty and helplessness of the hapless. Pathetic. Sufis are people
Only those who cannot see God with their inner eye, in their hearts
and in His creations pray to mortals or ask them to intercede with
Him. Human beings find it difficult to think in the abstract. Go to
mausoleums, certainly, because very pious and God-loving people
Moinuddin Chishti is regarded as the greatest Sufi of the subcontinent
for helping people, which is why is called ‘gharib nawaz’ or helper of
the poor. The fire of the huge cauldron in which food is cooked and
distributed free has been alight for centuries. It takes a ladder to
get to its lip.
Back to the visit: Pakistan wants to be seen to be trying to improve
relations with India, if for nothing else than to score brownie points
with America. India has had the bad habit of linking disparate issues,
particularly terrorism with everything. But now it seems that it is
breaking that habit. India should remember that it is state terrorism
that begets non-state terrorism. I will not say more. No point in
laboring the obvious. America and India shouldn’t forget that no
country in the world has suffered more at the hands of homegrown
