I AM in Islamabad where a copycat military march is about to begin after a seven-year break. The suggestion is that the threat to the state from Islamic militants has been conquered. Key roads have been sealed off and alternative route maps published in newspapers. This is how it happens on Republic Days in Delhi too.

During the Vajpayee era amid many difficult days with Pakistan, a few dummy anti-aircraft guns were installed on the parapets of the 16th-century Purana Qila. The idea was to impress the citizens about the hard work it took to keep them secure. Parliament was attacked regardless.

Military parades are showy, blusterous and a waste of public money. I have never seen a Pakistani parade nor have I been interested in the Indian one. A former Pakistani diplomat sees the Islamabad parade as very moving, perhaps better than the Delhi version, in the rhythm with which the soldiers march. There will be nuclear missiles on display and many will applaud. Copycat people with their copycat weapons on both sides.

I find myself in the cluster of maligned men and women who see nothing moving about the military or their parades. What moves the reviled peace ideologues is the destitution and devastation the military leaves behind doing duty in the so-called national interest. The army is a holy cow in both countries.

As I scour Pakistani newspapers, I am struck by other running stories that are identical to both. Rights advocates in Pakistan want to win reprieve for a condemned man who they say was not an adult when he killed someone. The role of juveniles in crime has been in the public eye in India of late. A juvenile carried out the most vicious attack on the girl in the bus in the Delhi gang rape. He will walk free after three or four years in prison. Ask them the right question and you’ll find hardened criminals on both sides exuding nationalism.

Then there is a video of a death-row prisoner in Pakistan that has gone viral. The video implicates a powerful politician in the crime for which the prisoner must pay. The murder he committed was in the ‘national interest’ and the politician who allegedly ordered it would have seen a national cause even if he won’t admit to the crime.

While the debate continues in Pakistan about who leaked the video or why it was aired, a British filmmaker was officially sneaked into Delhi’s Tihar Jail. There she interviewed one of the killers cum rapists of the Delhi bus episode.

Far from being contrite the condemned man blamed women for inviting their rape. The film has set off a foolish debate in India about the national interest and honour. In my view, such well-meaning films can neither add to the number of rapists, nor deter their growing numbers in the future. Earlier, the Indian army was excused from civilian scrutiny of rape charges, obviously in the national interest. The British lady should consider a film about that — in the international interest.

Jails in both India and Pakistan are packed with nationalists.

Jails in both countries are packed with nationalists even if they were locked up for raping, killing, robbing, whatever. Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani’s book about his illegal confinement in Tihar Jail describes many instances of convicted criminals calling him a traitor. They tried to teach him nationalist songs. Prisoners have lynched such ‘traitors’ from their ranks on both sides. Iftikhar was lucky that he was only mercilessly thrashed. Recently, a lynch mob dragged a suspected rapist from prison in Nagaland and killed him. The entire Gujarat ritual of blood and gore was outsourced by the state to religio-nationalist mobs.

Now we are told that Ajmal Kasab didn’t ask for any mutton biryani during his confinement in Mumbai’s Arthur Road high-security prison. You may disagree with the Indian Penal Code that killed him, a code bodily lifted from its British prototype enacted to oppress a huge and complex colony. The British hanged tens of thousands from trees in the 1857 revolt in their national interest. This is not to deny that Kasab’s crime was heinous. How would the European Union handle it though?

A question remains. What made the public prosecutor admit what he did at a Jaipur meeting on Friday — that Kasab had in fact never asked to be served any special food, leave alone mutton biryani? On his last day too he had rejected the so-called special meal with extra tomatoes.

The prosecutor had earlier told a lie, but he told it in the national interest. Now that Kasab is no more he could tell the truth. There are people who can justify the most horrendous outrage in the national interest. Sri Lankan soldiers brutalised Tamil women in the national interest, didn’t they? Hindus in Pakistan are forcibly converted to Islam in the national interest. Muslims and Christians are similarly lured to become Hindus in the national interest.

Therefore, if Nikam cooked up a story to protect India’s core beliefs he was being a good patriot. The American woman soldier who put dog straps round the necks of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib too was only expressing what she thought was a nationalist sentiment. We will want to know why Lynndie England was punished for carrying out her national duty if Nikam is not.

The biryani phrase came into play often, but most notably when a bloody-minded naval officer ordered the blowing up of a dhow in the Arabian Sea. Why catch the suspicious men and give them biryani, the officer reasoned in the national interest.

The mobs, including those that blessed the Punjab governor’s killer, are nationalist and youthful. The nuclear-armed military is nationalist and perpetually battle-ready. The hangman was only earning his keep, poor fellow. But he is getting old and rusty. Take your pick.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

Published in Dawn March 24th , 2015

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