Just when we had put behind us the breakdown in Indo-Pak dialogue after the 26/11 gruesome and murderous terrorist attacks in Mumbai and, more important, the breach in trust in anything to do with Pakistan, India has been shocked once again by the barbarity from our neighbour.
The killing of two Indian soldiers — one of whom was beheaded — and the mutilation of their bodies by the Pakistani troops has expectedly caused outrage in India. Amidst growing anger, the situation is getting worse with the LoC seeing frequent firing.
Indian Army Chief General Bikram Singh on Monday termed the killing and mutilation “a gruesome and an unpardonable act… and against the ethics of soldiering. Beheading of soldiers is not acceptable”. He asserted that his forces “reserve the right to retaliate at the time and place of our choosing.”
Indo-Pak tension
The tension at the Indo-Pak border has risen sharply since January 6, when a Pakistani soldier was killed by Indian forces along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Two days later two, Indian soldiers — identified as Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh and Lance Naik Hemraj of Rajputana Rifles — were killed. Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and his cronies were detected in the area prior to the barbaric killing.
While each country is blaming the other for the violation of cease fire, the outraged Indian Defence forces have said that if Pakistan doesn’t stop indulging in such dirty and gruesome tricks, India may be “forced” to take more severe measures.
The Defence honchos have stopped with such warnings, but within the country, jingoism is increasing on how “Pakistan can never be trusted and should be taught a lesson.”
The underlying, and rather frightening message, is that if it means another Indo-Pak war to “avenge” the brutality and regain our “honour”, so be it.
How it began
But let’s take a look at the background. In an exclusive report, The Hindu traced these incidents to the Indian forces constructing observation bunkers around the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, following the crossing over of the Indian border by a “runaway grandma” keen to spend her last days with her children across the border in Pakistan.
“The construction work — barred by the terms of the Line of Control ceasefire which India and Pakistan agreed on in 2003 — provoked furious protests from Pakistani troops.” The report quoted an unnamed Indian military source conceding that the construction was “in violation of the ceasefire,” but added that these booths faced Indian villages and presented no danger to Pakistan.
When Pakistan’s demand, made over a public address system, to stop the construction went unheeded, its troops fired shells in which three Indian villagers were killed.
Obviously India retaliated and the exchange of fire left one Pakistani soldier dead and another critically injured. In the next round, the gruesome beheading of an Indian soldier, against all international military norms, followed.
Media frenzy
A section of the Indian media, particularly electronic media, is adding fuel to fire by giving prime-time broadcast space to jingoism. On one such show that I watched following the beheading of the Indian soldier, two Pakistani guests — one an academician — were warned by the anchor that they should be “prepared to face dire consequences”.
The TV host shook his finger at them, threatened them and ordered them to “apologise”. Predictably, the Pakistanis, who were on the back-foot at the beginning and said, rather apologetically, that if such an incident had indeed occurred, it was highly condemnable, turned aggressive and told him to back off. The academic was both shocked and belligerent: This is an inquisition and not a TV show, and we are not used to being questioned/threatened like this.
It was amusing to watch this, particularly because in India, no prominent politicians, social scientists or other worthies, who regularly straddle across different TV channels, would dare to speak thus to our famous TV anchors. For most channels are run by prominent media houses and the hapless guests on our TV shows can barely afford to take on powerful media chains.
But this doesn’t take away from the seriousness of the incident and is yet another reminder of how fragile all Indo-Pak peace efforts are. It is the legitimate right of the Opposition to haul the government of the day over the coals for any lapses or shortcomings.
So this incident has been grabbed by the BJP to lambast the UPA Government for its inaction, for being “soft” on Pakistan, for the Prime Minister’s “perennial silence”, and so on.
The Congress, on its part, is playing politics too and has responded sharply by asking who was in power when the Indian bus rode into Lahore, referring to A. B. Vajpayee’s famous bus journey to Lahore during the National Democratic Alliance regime. Pakistan had soon followed this gesture with Kargil!
During Kargil, as well as after the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, Indo-Pak ties had hit the nadir , and it has taken a lot of laborious work to take the Indo-Pak dialogue to a level of more liberal visa, trade and other norms.
Warmongers on both sides would love to see an end to this and, hence, questions are being asked on cricket and hockey matches, collaborations in the entertainment industry, and so on.
Listen to saner counsel
But the saner elements on either side of the border, particularly in India, are only too aware of the dangers of escalating the border crisis. Sure, by all means, let India use all the options at its command to make Pakistan behave.
In the international arena, we command enough respect and our western allies such as the US and the UK only know too well the reality of today’s Pakistan.
The whole world knows the desperation of the Pakistan army to get back into the saddle in Islamabad and the ISI’s proximity and bonhomie with the terror groups within Pakistan when it comes to hurting India.
That some of those terrorists are now launching attacks on the Pakistan army itself is an excellent illustration of letting the genie out of the bottle and exposing yourself to being devoured by the monster.
The civilian government in Pakistan is as fragile as ever and a military adventure with India at this time will only help the Pakistan army to make yet another shy at military rule.
Keeping all these factors in mind, India’s response needs to be firm, but sane.
And… Which war has ever solved a problem without creating more?