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Tears for fears

Cartoonists, if you stop to think about it, are the essence of any publication. If a picture spoke a thousand words, a good cartoon speaks much more than 1,000-odd word commentaries we pen-pushers routinely churn out. R K Laxman, in my opinion, says in that little cubicle on the front page of The Times of India much more than what that paper's entire edit page does. While brevity, alas, is inversely proportionate to the gravity of the idea the writer is trying to put across, it is just the other way round with cartoonists.

While R K Laxman, undoubtedly the king of his trade, caresses you with his wit, my personal favourite for a long time was the Express's Ravi Shankar who relied more on trenchancy. Also, the antics of Rajiv Gandhi in the late 1980s provided him with fresh fodder, and Ravi Shankar's box did more harm to the former prime minister than all of Arun Shourie's treatises on page 1 put together.

It is often said if you want to sample true creative talent in India -- or in any other multi-linguistic country -- you have to go vernacular. 'Vernac' may be a pejorative to us English-speaking elite, but just as true writing flourishes in the local milieu, so does cartooning. In Tamil, a language that I am at home in, Ananda Vikatan for instance owes its mindshare as much to Madan's humour as to the other key elements in it.

And a recent cartoon in it I came across last week echoed what the nation felt more than all the comments I read in other publications. It showed Vajpayee putting the phone down after a chat with Gen Pervez Musharraf, and the comment goes: 'He called about Gujarat. Won't it be better if he called about Kashmir?'...

Yes, it is touching that Pakistan has sent relief materials to the earthquake victims in Gujarat, that its chief executive saw it fit to call up Vajpayee to express his condolences -- even if Pakistan says it was our PM who dialled -- but should a sense of gratitude so fill our senses that we overlook the fact that Pakistan-based terrorists are still waging a war against us?

A cursory glance -- and a very very cursory one at that -- at the death dance in Kashmir since January 26, when the earth shook below Gujarat, at which Musharraf has shed tears, gives me these headlines, all from rediff.com:

Feb 3: Six Sikhs killed, five injured in Kashmir
Feb 9: 6 killed in attack on J&K armed police HQ
Feb 10: 15 of three families killed in J&K
Feb 10: Nine cops killed in Lashkar's suicide attack
Feb 13: STF camp attacked in J&K

Yes, it is truly touching that Musharraf has taken time off to extend a hand of friendship during India's hour of need, but one cannot help feeling that the gesture would have carried more weight if only his other hand were not unleashing the dogs of war into Kashmir at the same time.

That Pakistan is playing a mind game needs no repetition. Its rulers, unfettered by factors that inhibit a democracy like public opinion, fourth estate, judiciary, Opposition et al, are free to do just as they please, whereas India, where there are as many points of view as there are people, has to consider each and every one before arriving at a decision. As always happens, the only way you can make yourself heard in a crowd is by out-hollering the others, which is one reason the 'peaceniks' have gone into overdrive.

Peace is the greatest commodity on earth, and in India's case, seeing as we do the inhuman sums of money that is spent on defence preparedness thanks to our unstable borders, nothing can be a greater need of the hour. Peace alone will enable the diversion of funds that go into military projects, into providing the people with a quality of life that befits the civilisation.

But the peace that Pakistan seeks to impose on us is a chimera, a glib attempt at hoodwinking us by taking advantage of our yearning for peace. We could, of course, accept his gesture at face value and go ahead, and the road will surely lead us to another Kargil.

Everyone deserves a second chance, even those who engineered the misadventure on the Himalayan heights one-and-a-half years ago. But reposing faith should be preceded by a demonstration of bona fides. India has done the needful by continuing with its ceasefire in Kashmir, for whatever it is worth. Pakistan, on the other hand, has flooded us with protestations of its goodwill, even while having done nothing at all to improve the situation on the ground.

All its actions -- be it the goodwill gesture over the Gujarat tragedy, its desperation to resume sporting ties with India anywhere in the world -- are meant to score points with the international audience which has virtually converted it into a pariah. It is India's relentless case against Pakistan that has led to its loss of face, and it is India's hand of friendship that can overturn the stigma that Islamabad is currently facing.

Pakistan's rationale behind seeking détente with India thus is a limited one.

The terms of peace that are being spoken about are loaded in favour of Islamabad. But unmindful of this, the scenario would soon shift, thanks to the vocal peaceniks. As winter eases, the air will be filled once again with Ghalib, ghazals and the like. No one can deny the common culture that binds together the two nations. But of what use is commonality when the differences on the ground are real? An effort at easing these would take the peace process much further than an evening of Urdu couplets.

Saisuresh Sivaswamy