In all the years of hearing critics of Pakistani people and state policy by fellow Pakistanis (I myself am a strong Pakistani critic), I notice it always has to walk hand in hand with a strange praise for India.
Even those Pakistan critics that I admire such as Tarek Fatah who reminds us all of Pakistani people's inferiority complex towards Middle Eastern people or others such as Pervez Hoodbhoy who speaks openly about the Arabization of Pakistan through the spread of radical Islamist Wahaabism.
Yet, with all their constructive criticism, there comes a price to pay with a praise for India.
Much of this praise can easily be disproved through basic facts. But regardless, why should these praises even be there?
Whenever Pakistani patriotism comes up or any defensive counter action against Indian propaganda or cultural invasion comes up, Islamists always find their way through into patriotic movements as in me and my friends case or people turn to Islamists like Zaid Hamid and other fundamentalists to counter Indian propaganda.
Heck even I favored the Middle Easternization of Pakistan when I noticed the Indianization and pro-Indianist fever that infected many Pakistanis.
Today many Pakistanis opposed to Indian cultural invasion and propaganda warfare against Pakistan see Islamitization and Middle Easternization as the solution to the problem.
Is it now even a wonder why?
Because our liberal and educated speakers and analysts have no hesitation to praise India when drawing out our own problems yet take a one eighty degree turn on the fact(s) that India is hit with far worse problems than Pakistan socially speaking.
I don't want to go into detail on India's problems of being the poorest country in the world or why more than half the world's hungry population lives in India or why there have been countless more incidents of violence towards religious/ethnic minorities and women in India than in Pakistan.
People argue because India is the enemy or a country 'closer' to us culturally speaking, that we must compare the two.
If that's the case, how many countries do we actually know that always speak highly of their enemies to seek a 'solution' for their problems. I'll be happy if anyone can find me one.
What about the fact that Afghanistan and Iran have also shared culture with Pakistan due to common ethnic Pakhtuns and Baloch?
How many compare Afghanistan or use it as a role model for Pakistan?
These pro-Indian elites have such a powerful influence in Pakistan and their self-hatred is echoed across the border in India as an attempt to show the world that Pakistanis hate their country and want to join India. The media of these self-haters has usually held an inferiority complex to the Indian government.
I am a strong admirer of Tarek Fatah, especially when it comes to discussing the inferiority complex many Pakistanis have developed towards Arabs. But his praise for India as a way to smack ourselves for our problems is again something that bothers me.
So people who want to deflect Indian propaganda have almost always the Islamists to turn to. In the end because our educated leading speakers refuse to see reality. Neither are they helpful in countering Indian propaganda against Pakistan. Infact, these people often support anti-Pakistan propaganda manufactured in the Indian media. I recently read on a government financed newspaper in Pakistan (from our tax money) being published to counter anti-Pakistan propaganda.
But instead, according to what I read, the writers started writing pro-Indian propaganda.
Now people should stop wondering why Islamist radicals like Zaid Hamid are able to become the Pipe Piper for those sick and fed up of Indian Hindutva fascism.
In Iran during the Shah's regime, people were living under a dictatorship that they weren't happy with. Iranians were outraged at the Shah's attempt to Westernize Iran and feared the loss of their own culture.
But few were willing to stand up to the Shah. All those except for the mullahs were silent. And in the end the people turned to the mullahs to overthrow the puppet dictator who threatened Iran's culture(s) with his Westernization programs and the same puppet dictator who sold his country to America.
Were the mullahs a better option? Of course not. But look how they got into power. The same is happening in Pakistan where those opposed to Indian Hindutva fascism are turning to the Islamists who are the most outspoken against it.
The most outrageous thing is not the negative result that pro-Indian criticism of Pakistan, but most of this praise for India is entirely untrue. Most of their praise for India is actually quite the opposite of reality.
We have to come out of this self-hatred. Firstly it's not going to solve our problems. Secondly it's all lies. Thirdly it's clearly not having a positive impact and sending people to the Islamist Middle Easternization front.
If those pro-Indian critics want to criticize Pakistan, then do it but keep your love for India separate from that.
I am one of the few Pakistanis who openly reject both the pro-Indian front and the pro-Arab Islamist Wahhabi front.
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