MV Kamath
THERE are now three classes of people in India who have been voicing their concern over Pakistan, but a clear plan of action on how to deal with our recalcitrant neighbour has yet to emerge. One chattering class wants peace with Pakistan at any cost, betraying a cowardice that has become part of India’s national psyche. A second wants some action. The point made is that “appeasement of Pakistan reaps bitter harvest”. The third wants India to apply “the carrot and stick” approach, with the added advice that the stick must be “controlled and proportional”. The media is arguing back and forth.
There are peaceniks aplenty in the country who will never learn from history. It was Jawaharlal Nehru, the greatest of them all, who took the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council, when the Indian Army was about to take not only all of Jammu & Kashmir, but, in addition both Rawalpindi and Lahore as well, to put Pakistan in its place. And India has paid heavily for that monumental folly. The same approach is now being proposed by a whole lot of chattering class, forgetting that time and again we have allowed ourselves to be fooled. No wonder that Justice Markandey Khatju thinks that 90 per cent of Indians are idiots. That seems to be true especially of our rulers. We are told that exchange of visits by scholars and artistes, business and pilgrims can help create an atmosphere of peace! How often haven’t we heard that bit of nonsense before! The Pakistan Army is not run by scholars and artistes. It is run by a set of arrogant jihadis bent on destroying India and nothing is going to change their mindset. They understand only one thing: power. To think that the Pakistan Army will agree to peace is only to fool ourselves.
One view is that General Kayani and three other senior Corps Commanders are due to retire in September this year. They want to stay in power and the best way to do so is to incite India into taking on Pakistan, so the soon-to-retire Generals can stay on. As a well-known diplomat Brahma Chellaney recently noted, for more than two decades now every Pakistani aggression against India – covert or overt – has been greeted with Indian inaction which the Pakistan military establishment has construed as a clear sign of weakness. As another well-known commentator also has noted, Pakistan’s Army has concluded that if it could get away with the Mumbai attacks it can get away with anything. The Indian reaction to receiving the beheaded body of an Indian soldier, tortured, killed, mutilated and beheaded with offers of peace clearly shows that India can be attacked, hurt, insulted and humiliated with total ease. There are too many Nehrus among our ruling class. And they need to be checked. But then, what should we do?
Is Pakistan serious about peace, is one question frequently asked. The answer is: It is NOT. It never was and never will be. The other point made is that using terror as a tool of police towards India in the end will only hurt Pakistan. As if the Pakistan Army cares! Even if it is true, the Pakistani Army is not going to abide by it, even if it costs the country some 6,000 lives. Another advice given to the UPA government – if there is one – is that it must “turn the heat on Pakistan’s political establishment” as if such an establishment exists. The very thought is illusory. A sillier suggestion made is that India should not play with fire but “it should ensure that the bad blood created by the decapitation of an Indian soldier’s head should not “affect the progress, howsoever meager, in other areas of bilateral relations”.
But isn’t that we have been doing all these years with no success? None whatsoever? We have only been fooled again and again. Yet another advice given to Pakistan by our over-rated intelligentsia is that “the political class in Pakistan must unite against all jihadi groups threatening to turn that country into an Islamic Caliphate”. But is there a political class? If there is one, it is at the Army’s mercy. Yet another advice given is that “war with Pakistan is no option” and “persistent dialogue” with Pakistan is the only way to peace.
A leading paper’s advice is that “the potential cost of war and the risk of nuclear confrontation, far outways those of the low-grade conflict India now faces”. That is Pakistan’s thesis and it is counting on Indian fears to keep thrashing us. As one newspaper correctly analysed, “the editorial class in the English language press barring a few exceptions – finds several reasons why India should move on”.
Think of what Pakistan has been doing all these years. There were 57 cross-border violations by Pakistan in 2010, sixty in 2011 and 119 in 2012. As one commentator has noted, “Delhi’s response has been a private and sometimes public campaign to reduce our forces on the border”. Can anything be more ridiculous and cowardly? The question then arises: But what else can we do? We can do the following: One, minimise the release of Indus River water to Pakistan as permitted under the Indus Water Treaty. Two, ruthlessly exploit Pakistan’s faultlines in Baluchistan as has been suggested by Satish Chandra, a former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan. It is important to remember that in any matter pertaining to Pakistan, the United States will never be with us. It will stand by its subaltern ally.
As matters stand, US Secretary of State John Kerry wants to continue financial and other aid to Pakistan, even if it hurts India. this is an old story. But India now must publicly declare that another Pakistani effort to destabilise India, whether through incursions into Indian territory – prior to the Kargil adventure, Pakistan’s President General Musharraf had done that openly – or through infiltration of jihadis into Kashmir will be met by instant armed forces reaction at whatever time or place and India should not be blamed for that. An open and much-publicised warning or armed invasion should alert to US government in particular, that India is fed up wth never-ending Pakistani provocation and will no longer allow itself to be taken for granted. It is the duty of the United States to tell Pakistan to behave itself.
And it wouldn’t be too bad an idea for India to limit its diplomatic relations with Pakistan. Seven decades is long enough a period to suffer Pakistani insolence and intrusive attacks with studied silence. It has to be taught a lesson it can never forget, even at a high cost. Enough is enough.
