OF A REFORMER

The death of Ayatollah Rafsanjani has implications for reforms in Iran and India’s prospects there

THE PASSING OF Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president of Iran, and patron-in-chief of its political reformers, comes as a moment of decision looms for the Islamic republic. Faced with president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to roll back the process of normalisation that kicked in with the nuclear deal negotiated last year, Iranian hardliners, hostile to the agreement, have been preparing to reassert their influence. As head of the Expediency Council, a body which is intended to resolve disputes between the elected parliament and the Guardian Council of clerical jurists, and the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that selects Iran’s supreme leader, Rafsanjani was uniquely placed to resist the hardline campaign, and assert the importance of pragmatism. This pragmatism would have been critical in addressing tensions with Iran’s regional neighbours, and the West. His presence will be missed even more, though, in an Iran divided bitterly on its foundational values.

Inside Iran, politics is fundamentally divided over the role of republicanism in the Islamic republic. In 2014, Rafsanjani revealed his arch-rival, Ayatollah Mohammad-taghi Misbah Yazdi, éminence grise of the religious right, had rejected joining in the broad front which fought the Shah of Iran, on the grounds that it included the Left. In turn, Yazdi alleged Rafsanjani had funded the Mujahideen-e-khalq, a cult of revolutionary terror that was outlawed after the Iranian revolution. The discussion was a thinly-veiled debate over whether the 1979 revolution was pluralist or not — with Rafsanjani leading the republican cause. The debate has direct implications for a welter of issues: Women’s rights, freedom of speech, political pluralism. In essence, Rafsanjani believed the revolution had to be reformed to survive; his rivals believed it had to impose its core values harder.

For India, the years ahead could prove exceedingly challenging. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, realising that Iran holds the keys to India’s trade with Afghanistan, central Asia and near-europe, has invested heavily in the Chabahar project, hoping to Indian industry through the port with a network of roads and railways leading north and west. These plans, however, could hit a brick wall if President-elect Trump’s election-time threats against Iran are realised in coming months. It will take a deft hand at the helm — and more than a little luck — to ensure India’s interests can been steered through the treacherous currents sweeping through the Persian Gulf. FACEBOOK IS FULL of photographs where the Indian actor, Om Puri, is regaling drawing rooms in Pakistan with his thoughts on culture. He had the masterly knack of advocating his country in a milieu permeated with the venom of anti-india nationalism. He was familiar, not because he was photogenic like Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, but because he was a natural actor who invited focus.

There is genuine pain in the way Pakistanis talk about him now. They recount how he flew off the handle when India’s new street power forced a ban on Pakistani actors. He confronted India’s new nationalism on TV — and seemed taken aback by the assault from those who once loved him. Everyone else publicly ate the words they had spoken earlier against it. India suddenly seemed like Pakistan, accusing an admired public figure like Imran Khan of blaspheming against the Prophet (peace be upon him); there is nothing to do but apologise and save your life.

Needless to say, when I met Om Puri last year at a friend’s house in the Lahore Cantonment — where Indians are not allowed to enter — I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what I said as I gushed, naming the films and TV serials I had seen featuring him. He was surprised by this sudden affection and didn’t know how to respond. But soon, he was mobbed by other guests with questions more searching than the normal curiosity about India’s film icons. He kept reminding them of what is taboo in Pakistan: We are all one people, belonging to the same civilisation, tragically divided through Partition. The Pakistani orthodoxy hates this