Amid continuing provocations of a grave nature from the Pakistani side on Thursday, there is little hope that peace will now be given a chance. In the usual undignified style, Pakistan is chanting peace while acting in a provocative manner even after it took a hit from India in Balakot this week. India should stand its course and carry the engagement forward to ensure that Pakistan effectively puts a stop to the anti-India terror engagements from its soil by rogue elements. This is time for India to make sure Pakistan understands that its policy of promoting terror will not pay anymore.
This is not an advocacy for war; this is an advocacy for lasting peace on the subcontinent. Pakistan was given a long rope by successive governments in India, and it’s high time that the Pakistani establishment as a whole understands the need to change its style. Balakot proved how India is capable of breaching its defence systems. There is no guarantee now that India will not reach even up to Islamabad or Rawalpindi in the same quiet manner the Americans reached up to Abbottabad and pulled out Osama bin Laden during the Obama years.
India shot down a Pakistani fighter jet, and India lost one jet to Pakistani fire as well. It goes to show Pakistan is well-prepared even as India has a superior fighting capacity up in the sky. India can afford to have a few hits, but Pakistan would do well to check whether it can afford a war at a time when its economic resources are at breaking point. Its close ally, China, has proven in these trying times that the red dragon can be depended on only to an extent. The Russia-India-China trilateral meet this week in which external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj participated in China is a pointer. It condemned terror in the strongest terms through a joint communiqué at this precise hour. The Islamic nations are maintaining a studied silence, or looking the other way when Pakistan is faced with its most troubled times after Balakot. The OIC meet in Abu Dhabi will have India as chief guest, despite threats from Islamabad of a boycott. Pakistan stands diplomatically isolated.
What all these go to show is that Pakistan would be hurting itself if it failed to behave now. It’s understandable that some “bravado” is being performed by the Pakistani military along the LoC to save face. There too, there’s a limit. And, the sooner Wing Commander Abhinandan is returned safe, the better for Pakistan.