India should take the following steps to destabilise the economy of Pakistan:PS: it is scary, but I've now been a Pakistan-watcher for 18 years. Conclusion - what an unmitigated waste of time. It should have been obvious from the start that there is no way to dislodge the Pakistani military's hold on the country without dismantling the Pakistani state. The unwillingness of the Pakistani military to even protect NATO convoys from Taliban attacks on Pakistani territory is evident, and they are getting paid for this. You think that they can be turned from their obsession with India and the search for "strategic depth" in Afghanistan? They lurch from disaster to disaster, but do not learn, cannot change. No good change can come from within Pakistan - the only force that can challenge the military is a fundamentalist terrorist movement that slips its leash.
1. Identify the major export items of Pakistan (like Basmati rice, carpets, etc) and provide zero export tax or even subsidise them for export from India. Hurt Pakistan on the export front.
2. Identify the major countries providing arms to Pakistan and arm twist them. Tell Brazil and Germany (currently planning to supply massive defense items to Pakistan) that it will impact their ability to invest in India. Tell Germany that retail license to Metro will be off and other existing projects will be in jeopardy.
3. Incidentally, after the arrival of Coke and Pepsi in China, the human rights violations of China are not talked about much by US government organs. Think it is a coincidence? Unless we use our markets to arm-twist arms exporters to Pakistan, we will not achieve our objectives.
4. Tell American companies that for every 5% increase in FDI limit for them, their government needs to reduce equipping Pakistan by $5 billion. That is real politics, not whining. Let us remember that funds are in desperate search of emerging markets and not the other way about. Let us also remember that international economics is politics by another name.
5. Create assets to print/distribute their currency widely inside their country. To some extent, Telgi types can be used to outsource this activity. Or just drop their notes in remote areas.
6. Pressurise IMF to add additional conditionality to the loans given to them or at least do not vote for their loans.
7. Create assets within Pakistan to destabilise Karachi stock market - it is already in a shambles.
8. Cricket and Bollywood are the opium of the Indian middle classes. Both have been adequately manipulated/ controlled by the D-company since the eighties. Chase the D-company money in cricket/ Bollywood and punish by burning D-assets in India instead of trying to have them auctioned by the IT department when nobody comes to bid for it.
9. Provide for capital punishment to those who fund terror and help in that. We have the division in the finance ministry to monitor money laundering, etc. It is important that terror financing is taken seriously and fully integrated into money laundering monitoring systems and this division is provided with much larger budget and human resources. And it should coordinate with RAW.
10. Encourage and allow scientists/ academicians/ elites of Pakistan to opt for Indian passport and widely publicise that fact since it will hurt their self-respect and dignity. There will be a long queue to get Indian passports -- many will jump to get our passport -- since they will not be stopped at international airports. It is rumoured that Adnan Sami wants one. Do not give passports to all -- make it a prized possession. Let it hurt the army- and ISI-controlled country. This one step will destroy their identity and self-confidence.
11. Discourage companies from India from investing in Pakistan, particularly IT companies, till Pakistan stops exporting its own IT (international terrorism).
12. In all these, it is important that we do not bring in the domestic religious issues. The target is the terror central, namely Pakistan, and if there are elements helping them here then they also should be punished -- irrespective of religious labels. If Pakistan is dismantled and the idea of Pakistan is gone, many of our domestic issues will also be sorted out.
But I think it will take at least another couple of decades to convince the international community that this has to be done, and by then it will be way too late.
I don't object to the protectorate idea, I just don't see how it could work. Who would provide the occupying Army? Not the US. I doubt that China wants the job. India? Only if the plan is a war of extermination.
ReplyDeleteWhat I object to is the idea promoted in this post and in earlier quotes, of deliberately destabilizing Pakistan to turn it into a failed state. I object because it would be immoral - millions, perhaps tens of millions, would die. I object because I think it would be foolish - such a collapse would make it very likely that the nukes would fall into the hands of the most dangerous terrorists in the world.
Pakistan's disintegration may be inevitable, but India should not be the proximate cause.
You do not need an occupying army. You have the states of Sindh, Baluchistan, Pakhtoonistan and Punjab created from Pakistan. The main non-viability of these is from the point of view of defense. That is where the UN comes in.
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