Rameshwar Singh Jamwal
By the time, this Article goes for printing, there is every strong possibility that India would have destroyed much of Pakistan’s strike and defense capabilities and even ground offensive may begin soon, after it started to up the ante when India carried out surgical strike 3.0 against the perpetrators and their backers of Pahalgam massacre in Pakistan.
The policy of retaliation by Pakistan despite being guilty, the ambitions of few short sighted military and political heads in Pakistan has lead to a full-fledged war between India and Pakistan.
This is the second war going on due to terror policies being perused by few countries in the world, after Israel attacked Gaza and other Palestinian assets and Pakistan should have read Indian mind before deciding to indulge in massacre in Pahalgam.
Since UN had failed in its mandate to force such countries from defining terrorism and adopting policies to prevent it, India had all rights to carry out surgical strike for punishing the guilty but having failed to read the determination of Narendra Modi and the resolve of India, it made another mistake by trying to hit through drones in entire northern and some parts of western India, the country had to ensure that Pakistan is divested of powers from such misadventures in future.
The future of Pakistan is now at stake and many developments are in the realm of uncertainties but we have to be on guard at another level as well. The pessimists, the enemies of the country within India, the adversaries of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and many other international forces, who do not like the rise of India, may be lying low at the moment for fear of public reprisals, but are wishing and praying for India’s failure in continuing confrontation with Pakistan.
They must see that their support for such country has infact destroyed it. There are similar forces in Pakistan as well, in some parts of Pakistan that wish for disintegration of Pakistan, but their number is quite small and India has to face bigger threat from such forces, whose number may be in millions and it is these forces from which we have to be wary, besides imposing adequate costs on Pakistan. But as a political analyst, one could easily anticipate that it would be too risky for Narendra Modi and his government to go back on his promise of adequately punishing the guilty. This may be his second last or may be the last innings as Prime Minister and he would not have liked to fade into history with ignominy and lead his party to a situation where the opposition parties would be baying for blood of the entire top leadership of his party for doing nothing when even they had promised full support, where international opinion was in favour of India and Pakistan was at its weakest point in history.
Narendra Modi Government had no other option but to strike hard on Pakistan, there could not have been any doubt on this count but one could differ as to whether it has long term plan for disabling Pakistan for ever or for a short duration and will depend upon the thinking of Indian leadership about this crucial aspect for our future. We will have to think as to what is our final objective in this entire endeavor. Whether we want to simply punish the guilty and their backers or we want a permanent solution of this perennial pain being given by our neighbor, exacerbated by our long term adversary China.
We must think of long term perspective, devise strategies accordingly and then start acting on them, as a responsible emerging power on this globe. But one thing should be clear in our mind that any proposed action and the resultant situation and consequences will not be over in a short duration.
It will have very long term consequences for India and for the region as well. There is going to be a substantial change in the geo politics of the region, but whatever remnants’ of Pakistan and its mean machine survive, they would try their level best to harm India in the long run. Pakistan army and their arsenal in shape of Terrorists may become weakened and their ability to harm India may dwindle but their wish to harm India will be there and we have to remain vigilant for a long time to come. It is this context that we should think of long term plans, not only to counter such tendencies, across the borders and within the country but also take the country forward, on the path of progress.
We will have to forget that J&K will get its status back as a state so soon, for we do not have a leadership that can think about national goals, is parochial in thinking and may willingly or unwillingly harm national interests for future. There can be some physical and economic losses in initial stages of the conflict but India has the capacity to bear the shocks, provided we tread carefully. With normalcy returning and the focus shifting to development, the economy can pick up another 1-2% rise in GDP which can offset the initial losses. This can be possible only when J&K remains normal, we are able to check the religious bigots in the rest of the country, neutralize the adversaries, and plan for the next few hundred years. This may also invite the opposition and plans to destabilize the country from many international forces that do want to see India’s rise. The leadership of the country, which is to emerge for the next few decades should also be chosen by the Political parties who have the vision and capacity to take India forward with this mission in mind. The kind of statements being made by some political novices, in different political parties does not indicate that they have any futuristic vision. Instead of focusing on long term plans, we are still engaged in caste census, and religious bigotry, gender discrimination, language and regional one-upmanship, and fights for peanuts; power perks, security guards, beacon fitted vehicles and recognition to occupy front seats in functions. This is all, we are worried about, with no roadmap for future generations, no inkling as to how to fight Drug abuse, terrorism, fissiparous tendencies, waning interest of younger generation in our ethos, cultural values, philosophy and ways of life.
One Narendra Modi cannot fight on all these fronts, and if we have to survive these monumental adversaries, we will have to chart a course different from the one we are treading on at present, project a futuristic leadership, produce quintessential community torch bearers who have the will and the capacity to mould and shape public opinion, reform the political, social, educational and philosophical landscape of the country and present India to the rest of the world which has the capacity and vision to transform the lives of not only the suffering masses of this country, but of the whole world as well, as provided in our rich political thoughts.
(The author is a practicing Advocate of J&K High Court)
