Pakistan’s current motormouth Defence Minister Khwaja Asif—a dynastic politician—was awarded an honorary doctorate in international relations by the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations in 2017. That institution must be wondering how to withdraw that ‘honour’ given his recent statements, including saying on Friday that Pakistan “no option left other than full a blown war" in response to India’s supposedly increasingly aggressive posture.

His bizarre statements such as citing social media posts as proof of shooting down Indian warplanes and admitting Pakistan had been “doing dirty work for the US" for 30 years, could be ascribed to dementia—or plain stupidity, belying his LSE degree. But the blame for his barrage of unguided missiles must also be blamed on an inadequate idea about India. He and much of Pakistan suffer from Acute Historical Deficiency Syndrome (AHDS), leading to repeated bloody noses.

That Asif could stand up in the federal assembly on Friday with India’s Operation Sindoor retaliation in full tilt and blandly talk about madarsa students being Pakistan’s “second line of defence" bespeaks his profound ignorance about his country’s eastern bete noire. He may have finished the Pakistan segment of his education by the time the first indigenously produced history books were inducted into the school syllabi, but he has clearly imbibed its principal contention.

A prolonged epidemic of AHDS has led to a brain bug that has left Khwaja and his compatriots labouring under the delusion that India and Indians are no match for Pakistan and its doughty Muslim qaum because the latter had ruled over the subcontinent and its majority Hindu population for centuries. They have been taught to believe that one Pakistani can take on 10 Indians, or maybe even 100, but are left in the dark about historical events which thoroughly debunk it.

And it is all because unlike the never-ending........

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