But in a departure from practice, a formal meeting of Pakistani corps commanders in Rawalpindi on May 5, blamed India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), for “whipping up” terrorism in Pakistan.”Even the news report in Dawn mentioned,“it’s unusual for a corps commanders’ conference to directly point fingers at the hostile intelligence outfit.” In its editorial of May 11, 2015, The Hindu noted:“Usually, the Pakistan Army does not play the blame game directly. Pakistan army’s specific mention of India’s intelligence agency was unusual. Isn’t it ironical that Pakistan army’s prodigious expenditure to ‘defend’ the nation against a non-existent ‘existential enemy’ is actually bankrupting the country?But then, Rawalpindi knows very well that in order to continue enjoying a lavish budget outlay, freebies and absolute power, the army has to create an illusion of insecurity, even if it is by tilting at windmills.This became obvious in 2015, when the army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations, statement issued after the corps commander conference presided over by Pakistan’s army chief, read-“The Conference also took serious notice of RAW’s involvement in whipping up terrorism in Pakistan.” In his report the newspaper’s economic correspondent Shahbaz Rana warns that “The federal government’s spending on interest payments on debt and the defence jumped to nearly Rs4.1 trillion in the last fiscal year – which was Rs538 billion more than its net revenues, pushing the country deeper into the debt trap.”As one would have expected, this grim reminder of the harsh reality facing Pakistan has gone unnoticed. Yet, coming at a time when Pakistan’s already tottering economy is further shrinking due to covid pandemic, the current USD 8.78 billion defence budget has got people talking. Nevertheless, since the army in Pakistan has always enjoyed a ‘holy cow’status,any criticism of its inordinately high budget allocation has always been more or less muted.
Rawalpindi’s allotment for Financial Year 2021-22 has increased by 6.2 percent from the previous year, and accounts to a whopping 16 percent of overall government expenditure. However, since Pakistan’sso called ‘existential enemy’hasn’t never initiated military against any country, leave alone Pakistan, fear psychosis of an ever-looming invasion by India being fueled by Rawalpindi has generated a lot of resentment within domestic intelligentsia. So, the army has been working overtime to portray India as an “existential enemy” and sell the narrative of Pakistan army being the solebulwark that has withstood a ‘hegemonistic’ India and prevented it from realising its avowed objective of annihilating Pakistan.
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Secondly, an anti-India environment prevailing in Pakistan helps Rawalpindi in grabbing the lion’s share of the country’s meagre budget as well as exercising extraconstitutional powers and enjoying a host of perks and privileges like free land allotments. So, it’s not at all surprising that despite India’s indubitable secular credentials, Islamabad has consciously been misleading its own people and the resultant indoctrination has helped those in power to divert public attention from their own failings and incompetence by blaming anything going wrong in Pakistan on New Delhi’s devious machinations.
One, by portraying its Eastern neighbour as a ‘Hindu nation’,it becomes very easy to arouse communal passions and ingrain the idea of it being a grave threat to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Ever since its creation, Pakistan has found a convenient ‘whipping boy’ in India for two reasons.
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