Aitizaz Ahsan:The Other Side Of The Coin!
The press these days, is going ga-ga over Aitizaz Ahsan, as are
various web-sites, that seems to have sprung up, out of the blue, his
life long "struggle" is being penned with eloquence worth reading,
and, for an average reader, with no insight into the intricacies
involved, the impression that is being created, that, he was the dark
horse, whose arrival and bursting upon the public scene was long
awaited to lead our nation, according to the media, primarily
targeting the intelligentsia, composed of the english speaking reading
lot.
The projection is for the next elections to come, when this able and
capable man, is to lead us to a path of glory, strewn with rose petals
and the rainbow overhead!
Words, it seems, are not enough to highlight his story of "struggle",
for the freedom of our masses. The dedication of, a few, amazes one
when one reads and hears these tributes. It is said;
"Expression and manner can often conceal,
But your writing, your true self will always reveal".
Being a nationalist to the core, and a bystander, in these events to
come, one can only marvel, as to what and where, these projections
will eventually lead us.
No person can claim to be a nationalist, if he is being projected by
the western press, as such, if the man is from the masses, and the
voice which he voices is the voice of the masses, then there is no
need for the crutches of the western press. Then thirty-eight US
Senators need not put their weight behind the man, then two dirty and
scruffy looking americans do not have to stand vigil at his house!
It is the fear of the unkown, for him, a weak person, with no inner
motivations or convictions who seeks foreign help, especially from a
nation which no one likes in our country for it's dubious role in our
political history for the last sixty years or so.
In fact, no pivotal power of the past and the present has been sincere
to us, history proves it. So let's not keep a veil over our eyes, in
all sincerity, each leader or aspiring leader, must have an untainted
background, in the aspects of morality, and loyality to the nation.
Not a government in power or a super power whose interests has always
been double-edged.
If the man, in question, under the guise of appeasement, which is an
act whereby, a nation makes concessions to a possible enemy, in order
to avoid a war, will lead us nowhere.
Being no jingoist , or a hawk at the moment in time, I will still very
catiously, put my money on the new dark horse, the upcoming Darling of
the West. A person muses when writing, as there, the inner most
mindset is revealed. In the present circumstances, the person in
question has already given away this mindset and stance in his book.
It would not have mattered in the least, as what his stance has been
in his book, but when the same person aspires to be a national leader
and if portrayed by such by a super power, the alarm bells do ring!
Aitizaz Ahsan, in 1996, wrote a book, the INDUS SAGA,"And the Making
of Pakistan'. However, by 2005, an "improved " version with additional
pages was written.This was published, of all the places, from New
Dehli, India.A country, with whom we had had three wars, a country
responsible for the dismemberment of a wing, a country on whose behest
King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, had, vetoed our entry in the UN. And a
country, who has always given refuge to the undesirables of Baluch
seperatists movement, and also, otherwise, more favourable to him, in
his design of creating a greater Afghanistan.
On the basis of a fallacy, thinking that the old Suba of Qandhar and
Kabul was his by right, and in fact, the whole of the lands from the
west of Indus were his for taking. In all of his endeavours, he was
supported by India from which country Aitizaz deceided to get his book
published!
Now, the new book, has a title of INDUS SAGA'"From PataliPutra To
Partition', which reflects his inner self. And his thought process.
Men like Khushwant Singh have given their favourable comments on the
cover of the book, and we all know the directions in which Khushwant
Singh writes. Besides his humour, barbs laced with pricks but dipped
in honey, with double entendres, he ridicules ,as his theme is, the
muslim rule in India and ofcourse the independence of 1947.
Referring back to our subject, this book has acknowledgements by
Aitizaz for M. J Akbar and Pramod Kapoor. When you read the book, you
know why. Because the book outwardly written on the Indus Valley and
the Identity of the Indus Person, is but a farce! He applauds , the
figure of Nehru, the same man and his colleague Gandhi who had wanted
to dismember NWFP from the proposed Pakistan, in order to create a
corridor starting from NWFP to the North in the administrated areas of
the Dogra Maharaja of Kashmir ie Gilgit Agency, Kashmir and down to
Gurdaspur, and rest of British India.The Step Two of this Grand Plan
was the takeover of Kalat State and eventually, the Pakistan would
have been just the present Punjab and the Sindh Province, all east of
Indus. Naturally, minus Karachi.
Now, Aitizaz is a wise man, I am sure he would have read our political
history and the efforts of Quaid-e-Azam when he, too, had asked for a
muslim corridor to be carved out of British India linking Bengal with
Oudh, Dehli, East Punjab, and the present Pakistan. This aspect is
well documented in the then Viceroy's, Letters to the Secretary of
State,Amery(Corrospendence of April, May, June, 1943).
I am sure, Aitizaz Ahsan, would have spent sometime researching while
writing his book. I am sure these points and references must have come
up, on which Quaid-e-Azam fought for Pakistan and it's creation! One,
wonders, how did he miss these points? And what induced him to publish
his book from India, the role of the country that I've briefly stated
above.
In the book in question he attempts to discover our original
inhabitants of the Indus region, and yet he can only name only 11
persons. The most astonishing is the name of Arjun(a charachter of the
mahabharta epic). Aitizaz tackles, the unfolding of the global
empires, by portraying a Grand Mahabharta, as if the world lived in a
culturo-civilization vacuum.He thereby denies the more powerful, well
recorded, Iranian and Turkish Empires of the same epoch. He fails to
understand and axcknowledge that,our national anthem is in Farsi,
while the crescent and star ,of the Pakistani flag is influenced by
the Turk.
Aitizaz, is obsessed by the theme of Mahabharta, either by design or
ignorance, this modern day champion of Indus, does not enlighten us,
that concept of a mahabharta is actually, a concoction, of the fertile
Hindu Brahmin mind, in the recent past, not more than a thousand years
back.
Aitizaz propounds the thought process of Nehru and Oneness of India on
the grounds of a common Indian race. thus, this apt and able lawyer
builds up the case of Akhund-Bharat.
But remember, the book is on creation of Pakistan and it's past history!
A person may be given the benefit of doubt when addressing from a
platform, as, one can get carried away by the rhetoric, and say what
may be incorrect. But as stated earlier, he who muses, gives his inner
self away!
My question to Aitizaz is: Is the Oneness of India , which he calls
"Centripetal Pull of India" , pulling him to India? I can assure him,
a vast majority will never support him, on his, this aspect, when
known to them, as to what his actual intentions are! In disguise of an
agitation on such an innocent agenda as, the restoration of Judiciary
and rights of the people, a noble venture indeed. But is Aitizaz, the
Indian Trojan Horse, in our lands, is the second question which
crosses my mind.
And the final nail, an extract of his book and I quote(INDUS SAGA:Pg
XII), in which Aitizaz grieves," Six decades on, there is hardly an
Indian, even the most accomodating and rational, who does not
privately resent the partition of 1947.Even the most congenial Indian,
hindus and muslims will say with love and affection," How much better
it might have been if...........".
By IF, the partition would not have taken place, one is tempted to ask
the learned writer and counsel?
Looking briefly at Aitizaz's political sojourns, a man who has
changed his bandwagons more than once, when Zulfikar Ali bhutto had
been arrested, Aitizaz had left Gujrat and his seat because of the
fear of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. He shifted his politics to Lahore and
other areas. He then joined Tehreek-e-Isteqlal on whose platform he
was part of MRD. Later when winds changed in favour of PPP ie 1986, he
rejoined PPP. Even till now, he was using the PPP platform and the
party in his struggle to gain prominence in our political history.
The role of a chameleon, has always been very dubious, is all I can say!
YASMEEN ALI
LAWYER& EDUCATIONIST
PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN FRONTIER POST 27TH DECEMBER 2007
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Subject: AITZAZ AHSAN:THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN! 
Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:14 am