The whole world watched a horrifically rattled Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at an emergency meeting with the executive and top military leaders discussing next moves in the wake of the IAF attack on terrorist training camps in the mainland territory of Pakistan harbouring militant outfits and facilitating terror-tactic training to misguided youths to cause harm in India. Imran looked so sheepish that he forgot to put on an attire befitting a PM’s dignity. Clad in a leather jacket and a scarf
hanging down from the shoulders, he kept oscillating like a clock pendulum in his swivel chair, an act that clearly showed he had gone witless. The Pakistani military, which is the de facto ruling class, was forced to remain mum for having failed miserably to sniff the danger in time.
Most interestingly, Pakistan first went on a denial mode saying India did not have the courage or skills to strike any part of mainland Pakistan. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad would take international media to the area of the strikes to prove nothing eventful has ever happened! Earlier, in a series of Tweets, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Asif Ghafoor had claimed that no infrastructure of any kind was damaged! A Pakistan journalist too claimed that nobody was killed in the airstrike!
To top up the bluff sheet, a Pakistani strategic expert drooped to the shameful extent of blaming the Indian authorities for having offended the Paris agreement. He accused the Indian Air Force of not respecting the climate change precautions because the airstrike did happen but deep inside the country away from habitation or military establishments, resulting in some trees having been knocked down. Damaging or destroying trees in a forestland is an international crime as per the ‘Paris agreement on climate change’. So, they might knock international environment tribunals to have India penalised.
But by now, the international fora had begun taking notice of the airstrike by India on Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp at Balakot in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. Pretentious acts by Pakistan kept unfolding after the airstrike notwithstanding, people across the world became doubly certain that the IAF had done some job to put a big scare across the Pakistani establishment.
Back home in India, revelry was at its peak as the masses went crazy over the long-overdue act of invasion. After ages, the IAF got an opportunity to display its power and skills in enemy territory. Even during the Kargil fireworks, the IAF was never considered critically necessary. What was most certainly lacking all this time was a strong political will. Despite countless acts of terror by Pak-backed militant outfits, India never hit back fittingly. The failed state of Pakistan, now a degenerate one, is still a military regime with uniformed rulers calling all shots and rendering the elected political executive a pack of puppets to dance to weird tunes as composed by the arms-wielding generals. Although Tuesday’s events represent India’s most significant airstrike, to be precise the most serious escalation in decades, experts caution that the two countries are still very far away from that frightening scenario of a nuke misadventure. Imaran Khan, a cricket warrior of repute, did manage to occupy the make-believe hot seat of power but without much skill in statecraft.
The airstrike was conducted 12 days after the terrorist group JEM killed 40 Indian soldiers in a suicide bombing in Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir. In a statement, Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert with the Wilson Center, has said it was more likely that the conflict would play out in words than in actions. “Look for each side to vent and blow off steam for a while so that angry constituencies are appeased. And then, we can assume the smoke will clear,” he said.
Lately, Pakistan’s response so far suggests that it may be trying to deescalate things. The failed state with an immature Prime Minister and a frightened military has eventually confessed to have been struck hard though they still keep saying ‘not much damage to property' and absolutely no loss of life. India, however, has organised robust proof about extermination of at least 300 terrorists including several masterminds who had been causing headache to mankind for decades. The Kandahar blunder has been made good in a way though at a very high cost.
After being put to shame on several scores, Imran Khan has promised to act, which means there is a chance of things continuing to escalate. “If India decides to stage another strike in quick succession then all bets would be off and some type of Pakistani retaliation could follow,” Kugelman says. “Also if there’s another terrorist attack in Kashmir claimed by a Pakistan-based group, that could lead to escalation in a hurry.”
All said and done, Indians have every reason to rejoice. The ever-rusting military hardware including the sophisticated fighter aircrafts have been put to noble use they were acquired for. Indians have proven no less capable than the Israeli combat team that rescued brethren from Entebe in Uganda decades ago in the dead of night or the American troopers that swooped in on the cozy abode of Osama bin Laden to kill the terrorist in Abottabad virtually in the suburbs of the capital region of Pakistan. They also had flown in stealthily in the dead of night and completed the mission without the super military brains of Pakistan being able to sense anything. Indian fighter pilots did exactly the same. They made their kill at 3.30 am much before the Sun beamed the halo of predawn brightness.
Lastly, the realty check on the possible poll advantage to the ruling Modi regime: It so appears that Modi has bagged quite some fame as a leader with guts, particularly in matters of dealing with cross-border terrorism fuelled by Pakistan. Indians had been frantic to see action. So, laurels are due to the Prime Minister anyway. All the same, it is still not so much action to toss all votes into his box. The major issue lurking strongly at the back the ordinary Indian’s mind is the fact that Modi has done precious little about the contentious Articles 370 and 35A that give Kashmir to treat rest of Indians alien. Modi had promised to scrap the two but hasn’t had the guts to do so now. Article 370 makes Kashmir people so special to get unusual benefits including a Constitution of their own! They, therefore, have a six-year Assembly tenure. Article 35A which is perpetually considered unconstitutional gives them the right not to permit outside State citizens to buy land and set up home. The Muslim-heavy State is, therefore, becoming hyper-Islamic and the Hindus and other minorities are dwindling down to a miniscule number. Scrapping of 35A can only let in all other communities and lead to a balanced demographic profile which will most certainly restore communal harmony and the resultant ideological integration with the Union of India. Needless to say the insurgency craving is boosted by the fundamentalist Islamic class of Pakistan that captures the imagination of the Kashmiri youths easily and indoctrinates them into the militancy ideologies. Very shockingly, young Shah Faesal, who quit the IAS in January this year, had said that his resignation was to protest against ‘unabated civil killings in Kashmir and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union Government; the marginalisation of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens; insidious attacks on the special identity of J&K and growing culture of intolerance and hate in mainland India in the name of hyper nationalism.’ He condemned the Pulwama killings without mincing words. But when the Indian strike has happened, he derided government officials, saying, “Strange is it that the mourners at Pulwama killings are rejoicing over the devastation of life in Pakistan!”
This indicates India has to strike even more furiously, both on the warfront and having to dispel the insurgency and separatist psyche of the local youths who dread and hate civil killings without ever realising that militancy in any form is anti-human. The Kashmiri youths have to be exposed to vigorous de-learning exercises.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)
