Business Recorder Editorial March 9, 2019

Sycophants and good sense

Prime Minister Imran Khan appears much sobered after the recent crisis on the eastern border, when Pakistan and India were on the brink of war. Now details are emerging of the Indian plan, with Israeli help, to conduct attacks, including the use of missiles, along the international frontier between the two countries as far away from the Line of Control (LoC) as the Bahawalpur salient. When our intelligence agencies became aware of the plan, reportedly Washington was informed and the Trump administration intervened to ask India to abort the plan. That it seems was the prelude to the bombing in Balakot and the aerial dogfight that concluded with two Indian jets being shot down, one falling inside Indian controlled territory and the other’s pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, captured and then released as a goodwill gesture to de-escalate the crisis. Although artillery duels continue on the LoC since, the people in Pakistan and India as much as the rest of the world heaved a sigh of relief that the conflict did not explode in everyone’s face as it threatened to do for a while. The mature, restrained and wise manner in which Pakistan’s government, particularly Prime Minister Imran Khan, handled the crisis was certainly praiseworthy. What has followed is a campaign on social media and through online petitions garnering thousands of supporters calling for Prime Minister Imran Khan to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing an all-out war and helping to relatively cool matters by offering India an olive branch after demonstrating Pakistan’s defence capability. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry introduced a resolution in the National Assembly on the same lines as the social media campaign. It goes to the credit of Prime Minister Imran Khan therefore to have responded with humility in rejecting the suggestion and saying he did not deserve the award. Only someone who resolved the Kashmir conflict according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people and paved the way for peace and human development in the Subcontinent would be deserving of such an honour, he tweeted.

Why this episode deserves notice is the culture of sycophancy that more often than not encircles those in power and in many instances leads such rulers to lose sight of reality and be led down disastrous paths. To keep your head when all around you are losing theirs is the hallmark of wise people. Despite much criticism of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government’s performance in office in the first six months of its stint in power, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sober and wise demeanour during and after the heat of the Pakistan-India crisis certainly deserves appreciation and praise. However, our sycophantic culture needs to be curbed as a negative phenomenon that can turn lighter heads and produce undesirable trends and outcomes. As to the Nobel Peace Prize, only the Swedish academy can decide who is deserving of it. Prime Minister Imran Khan’s modesty and humility will no doubt go down well here and abroad, and that is perhaps where matters should be left to rest.