The tug of war between India and Pakistan is a bad joke. It is distasteful, redundant and almost painful in its attempts. Recent times have only made it worse. Modi, the supposedly transparent leader of the largest democracy in the world stays silent when 30 people die and hundreds get injured in a ghastly attack on a civilian population. However, the same esteemed Prime Minister stands atop the majestic red fort on the independence day of his nation and speaks about the human right violations in the province of Balochistan in Pakistan. Now the national Radio broadcast authority of India, the All India Radio will broadcast radio programmes for the people of Balochistan. This comes as a reaction to 2 letters sent by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, bringing to notice the routine human rights violations in Kashmir and urging him to stay true to the UN pledged plebiscite of 1948.

For either side, there can be no doubts, these are similar to chess moves. Do what hits the other bad until the moment of checkmate. Till then, just keep hitting. However, what these decision makers, civilians and armed alike, fail to understand is that human lives and emotions are at play here. The political games do little to bring about an actual solution to the problems at hand.

India insists that Pakistan is refusing to look at its own tainted hands and instead focuses on other countries. By using Balochistan rhetoric in its propaganda games, the country is just following the same path. Such a claim is not true. Such a claim, on the other hand, is not really false either.

Pakistan is a fertile ground for human rights violations; fertile because the said violations keep intensifying and spreading. Human rights violation at the expense of minorities, social classes, religions, political bias etc., are endemic. Any attempts at pointing them out and trying to bring them under control are highly discouraged in the worst of ways. Balochistan is Pakistan’s worst victim, second only to, maybe, the Ahmedi populace. A lot has been written about Balochistan in these pages before. Anyone and everyone can and should understand how, in the plain sight of history, we, the nation, have done much wrong to our Baloch brethren. Sadly, we continue.

The world is an ugly place and the game to survive is dirtier. It is rational to be selfish and biased as the state is towards the Baloch, or so it is argued. A nation as poor as Pakistan cannot afford equality and rights. Balochistan is not an investment worth making. It’s simply impractical. Even to the layman such arguments are sorely disgusting. They fall short from the expectations derived from the nation-state. Just as they fail to make any sense even at the lowest of humanist levels. Economically, the argument would have stood its grounds if we had priorities our right. The lifestyles of the elite in the country suggest otherwise.

And then there is the politics of the situation. The state does a good job at blinding the laymen of the facts that need to be heard. History books taught from the primary studies up to university level are laughable in their shamelessness. The indoctrination runs deeper still with parents and grandparents harping onto the same propaganda that has been internalised into them since their education. It’s a vicious running cycle, this obliviousness of a Pakistani. No apparent escape is in sight.

Those who are brave enough to point out the facts as they are, are silenced. Others take the silencing naturally. We as a nation are both cold and lazy when it comes to such things.

The fact is that the country does ignore internal human rights violations every chance it gets. India speaking about the Balochistan violations is not completely wrong. If the local voice fails to bring the discriminations under notice, maybe the international voices will. However, it is harping onto the same tune as Pakistan by ignoring the violations in Kashmir. This tit for tat game is unnecessary given that neither plans to budge on its stand. The fissure is exhausting and unnecessary. In a perfect world, the nations would understand that politics done at the expense of human life is the gravest of sins; sins that just cannot be forgiven.