BASE MOTIVES
Diplomatic missions in state capitals occasionally become unwilling witnesses to public demonstrations directed against certain policies of their countries. Perhaps this is a measure of the shrinking world in which we live and of the increasing importance of what, not so long ago, was only a theoretical aphorism—world public opinion. But there are demonstrations. It would be doing an injury to the concept of demonstrations to place, in this category, the calculated vandalism of the Karachi mob on the premises of the Indian High Commission. It was President Ayub Khan himself who threw the first stone, figuratively speaking, with his gleeful jibe at the Jabalpur incidents and their comparison with the situation in the Congo. t does not seem to occur to the childish minds of Karachi that Pakistan is not the only Muslim country in the world and that Pakistanis have no monopoly of safeguarding Islam. If Cairo or Riyadh or Baghdad or Djakarta find nothing in the Jabalpur incidents that is hostile to Islam or rush to interpret these incidents as a manifestation of discrimination, Karachi cannot very well make a show of grievance without acknowledging its base political motives. Further, what is hostile to Islam is also hostile to India which is as proud of its 40 million Muslim citizens as of Islam’s contributions to its heritage. But it is not necessary for India to defend its Constitution every time a lunatic crowd in Karachi aims stones at the windows of the Indian High Commission and we do not think Indian Muslims need answer the Karachi mob by publicly declaring their loyalty to the country and faith in the Constitution. They would be serving India and themselves better by refraining from making this a religious or partisan issue as between the two major communities in this country and letting the facts of the situation in India speak for themselves. It is often said by Pakistani politicians that India has not reconciled itself to partition. The boot, however, seems to be on the other leg and one wonders if Pakistan will ever reconcile itself to the existence of India.
February 28, 1961