By Brig. Arun Bajpai
The Pulwama massacre of Feb 14 last on the Jammu-Srinagar highway when a suicide bomber of Pakistani based jihadi organisation Jaish- e -Mohammad rammed his explosive laden SUV into the fifth bus of the CRPF convoy, martyring 40 CRPF constables, still rankles. Indian blood is on the boil. The aam aadmi are on the streets demanding revenge from the Modi Government for this dastardly act. PM Modi has publicly promised revenge; he also said that time for talks are over. Pakistan is in a panic. It has already shot down one of its own fighter planes mistaking it to be Indian. Its puppet PM Imran Khan and its generals are threatening India of a full-scale retaliation if India attacks Pakistan. To scare India, Pakistan is reportedly fitting its tactical nuclear warheads into its short-range missiles. So where do we go from here in this surcharged atmosphere?
A week ago PM Modi had said that the Indian Army has been told to teach Pakistan a lesson at a time and place of its own choosing. I am very sure that Indian Armed Forces are mulling all options, because it is not an easy task, besides the time that elapsed has alerted Pakistan and kept it in preparedness. The surprise factor is no longer available to India .We should also not forget that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers And India will not like to convert this limited action to full scale war leading to use of nuclear warheads in which Pakistan will definitely get wiped out from the face of earth, but India will also suffer collateral damage. So what are the options?
First and foremost, it is time Indian political masters of all hues understand that Pakistan is the only country in the world where instead of the country having an Army the Pakistani Army has a country by the name of Pakistan. Pakistani author Ayesha Siddiqqa in her book on the Pakistani Army named ‘The Military Incorporation’, the Pakistani Army runs a 20 billion dollar business in Pakistan. It survives and does all these activities by creating a fear psychosis that but for them India would have gobbled up Pakistan. In a recent survey carried out by PEW International Agency, more than 73% Pakistanis believe this. In other words, Pakistani Army and its intelligence agency ISI will never allow Pakistan to be a friend of India.
Indian political masters advised by their Police or National Security Advisors (so far no Army General in India has been made NSA) have till date no coherent Pakistan policy despite the fact that Pakistan has projected a proxy war on India in the shadow of its nuclear arsenal since 1988. Pakistani Army created and nurtured Jihadi organisations, Jaish- e- Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hijbul Mujahidin, all housed in Pakistan. From there they sally into India across the border; cause damage in India and again run back to Pakistan. The Pakistani Army is doing this openly today. It is pathetic that in the last 30 years our Indian political masters and their ‘babu’ advisors have not found a solution to this problem and we continue to suffer and lose the lives and limbs of our trained soldiers.
The truth is that basically India projects the image of a soft target, where anyone can hit us and go back and we do not show the guts to retaliate. Since the last 30 years we are killing these Jihadis coming from Pakistan, who are basically cannon fodder for the Pakistani Army. We tom-tom our achievements in the number of jihadis killed per year but we forget that our trained soldiers are also getting killed and to whom we have to give monitory grants and family pensions too while Jihadis get nothing. Meanwhile the perpetrators of this crime, the Pakistani Army continue to laugh at us. Various governments in power in the last 30 years have evolved their own policies in dealing with Pakistan. There is no sustained thread which ensures a robust and sustained Pakistan policy. Compare this with Pakistan a country 1/8th the size of India, now on the verge of bankruptcy but carrying on with its India policy of the 60’s – ‘break India by imparting a thousand cuts.’ It is high time we in India specially our netas wake up and join hands to craft out a Pakistan policy which is stable and consistent.
Since the time Pakistan started this proxy war 30 years ago we have lost more than 5000 soldiers to these jihadis. Yes, we have also killed more than 20,000 jihadis but how many Pakistani army soldiers? Very few in comparison. Unless we kill Pakistani army soldiers in bulk, every time they send jihadis across the borders, this proxy war causing damage to us will carry on. Yes, we must start killing their regular army soldiers by attacking them, every time they launch jihadis. It will have a telling effect on them. We must remember that Pakistani Army is a political Army. They shun fighting while Indian Army is battle- hardened fighting these jihadis one to one for the last 30 years. Also, when fighting insurgency Pakistani Army uses f-16 fighter jets, tanks, heavy artillery, on their own people. See what they have done in Swat Valley and Tribal Areas of Pakistan. So, what stops us from doing the same on these jihadis coming from across the borders? Surely, they are not our people.
When Pakistan is steadfast in its policy of breaking India by a thousand cuts, why are we shy of plucking low hanging fruits like Sind and Baluchistan provinces of Pakistan? As it is Pakistan is blaming us for everything which goes wrong there? We must go all out to funnel money, weapons and what have you in these two provinces of Pakistan as Pakistan is doing in Kashmir Valley. We must not forget that it takes two to tango. When we keep on announcing to the world that J&K is part of India then why do we agree to talk to Pakistan on its status? Why cannot we tell Pakistan that J&K is part of India and there is nothing more to talk? We can only talk when Pakistan hands over POK to India.
We hope PM Modi has now realised that in foreign relations Koot Neeti and Rajneeti only works when you have backing of strong Armed Forces. A country cannot neglect its armed forces for 15 long years and then expect the world to listen to India. Ajit Doval the NSA must explain to our political masters why despite China keeping 20 lakh Muslims from its Xinxiang province in detention camps; not allowing Muslims to read their holy book, Quran; not allowing Muslim women to wear the burkha; not allowing Muslim males to keep beard etc., no Muslim country of the world numbering 50 including Pakistan are complaining?
We must divide J&K into three states of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir Valley and abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A, the root cause of alienation of J&K. Let the three states, be fully subsumed in India. Also, it is time India learns that there is no lasting friendship between nations; what is lasting of lasting value is national interest and for that a country has to depend on itself and not on friends.
(The author is a retired Brigadier and can be reached at [email protected])