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        Pakistan’s President - he should be more aptly called dictator - Pervez Musharraf has been quoted as saying that India should shed its ‘obsession’ of being a ‘greater nation’ and its attempt to ‘dominate’ Islamabad. As he put it, ‘I respect the Indian Prime Minister, but it is regrettable that India wants to keep its domination in the region and wants Pakistan to be a weaker force’.

        Musharraf is obviously suffering from a tremendous inferiority complex. India, in the first place, suffers from no ‘obsession’.

        India is India. It has existed from times immemorial and will continue to remain so for another million years. That is because India is more than a country; it is a civilisation. Pakistan is a bad dream.

        India does not compare itself with it. In fact it does not have to compare itself with any other country in the world, including the United States and China.

        The United States is a super power, both militarily and economically. China will also be a super power, sooner than later. India is not competing with either of them. It is moving at its own pace because it is confident of itself. It does not have to claim ‘greatness’. A nation with a past such as India has, and a civilisation which is over 10,000 years old and has survived barbarian attacks from Central Asia and Europe and survived them all, has no need to claim ‘greatness’. It is the home for many religions, many languages, many ethnic groups and it accepts them all with graciousness unlike Pakistan which has practised genocide on a large scale since 1947. Yes, there are, as Musharraf points out, places in India were there is ‘violence’.

        Delhi has made mistakes. It admits to them. It is a democracy. But can Musharraf name one country which has a Muslim as President, a Sikh as Prime Minister and a Roman Catholic who heads the party in power? There are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. But it is Pakistan that is waging a war in Baluchistan and has surrendered to Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Waziristan. The Mujahideens in Sindh have been suppressed. There is hardly any Pakistan left, if the truth is told.

        Musharraf had the cheek to say, in an address to some of his fellow countrymen in far-away Brussels that ‘Kashmir runs in the blood of every Pakistani’. So does it run in the blood of every Indian. In fact, if the truth be told, Pakistan is a latter-day invention. It did not exist till 1947. If it exists today, Musharraf has to thank the United States for its survival. Pakistan was part of India from times immemorial and Pakistan runs in the blood of every Indian. For all its shortcomings, India is a living, democracy while Pakistan is not.

        Any comparison between India and Pakistan will only be odious. India does not have extremists such as Pakistan has. And Musharraf admitted as much the other day (12 October) when speaking in Islamabad he warned that Pakistan as envisaged by its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah will be ‘no more’ if extremists wrest control over ‘moderates’ like him. Musharraf describes himself as a ‘moderate’ and that is one of the biggest jokes going. It was Musharraf, at the prodding of the United States, who helped set up the al Qaeda and the Taliban, had them trained in arms within the confines of Pakistan before setting them loose to invade Afghanistan territory.

        Now Musharraf is blackmailing the West by saying that if he stops cooperating with it ‘the West will be brought down to its knees’, by the very terrorists he sponsored and cherished.

        India does not sponsor terrorists. Pakistan has. And now Musharraf says he cannot control them. In his Brussels speech he admitted that he doesn’t ‘hold a whistle’ to control the killers. And he speaks as the ruler of Pakistan and has the audacity to demand that his country be treated on par with India. What is even more amusing is that the very thugs he supported now want to get rid of him. Even worse is a report that he ‘survived a coup attempt after his return from the United States’.

        The Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online quoting contacts in Rawalpindi where the Pakistani military forces are based said that ‘more than 40 persons, most of those middle-ranking Pakistani Air Force officers had been arrested so far and more arrests were likely’. The Pakistan Air Force revolt apparently came around October 5. It was stated that ‘the conspiracy was discovered through the naivety of a PAF officer who used a cell phone to activate a high-tech rocket aimed at the President’s residence in Rawalpindi’. The rocket was recovered and its activating mechanism revealed the officer’s telephone number. This is par for the course.

        In India, the Prime Minister rules according to democratic norms and the entire country respects him. In Pakistan, Musharraf invites nothing but hatred. Nobody trusts him. He claims to hold elections in Pakistan but former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief has been quoted as saying that Musharraf is not trying to create a level playing field for all players who are in the arena for the polls.

        Speaking also in behalf of his former opponent, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sherief said: ‘So we have serious doubts and suspicions about the fact that Musharraf is going to hold free and fair elections. Both of us agree that the general elections scheduled between October 2007 and February 2008 should be held under a neutral caretaker set-up...’ such is Musharraf’s fear that in a free and fair elections he will be effectively defeated that he won’t even want Bhutto and Sharief to return to their country.

        Pakistan is a historical error which is why it has no standing. The Harappan civilization was not an Islamic civilization in case Musharraf has heard of it.

        Pakistan has no base of any kind, historical, cultural or civilizational. In no way does it stand any comparison with India. The thought doesn’t even occur to Indian leaders.

        India’s greatness is self-evident. India does not need to make a song and dance about it. It does not have to blow its trumpet. Its very existence is evidence enough. Pakistan can share it and India would be happy to do so if Pakistan returns to Bharat’s fold in a confederation. Think it over, General. For your own good as for the good of Pakistan.