The latest flare-up and consequences for India

Pakistan-backed Islamic terrorists killed a tourist in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, India, in front of her wife. 25 other tourists were also killed in the attack.  

Mukesh Devrari 

There are a few things every Indian national must keep in mind. Not everything we have been told about our military strength, weapons, and technological capabilities to defeat Pakistan in a military confrontation is true. It is true that India has the advantage of having a large population and can sustain the conflict for a longer duration. That means, in a boxing ring, we can take a beating for longer. We can tolerate large casualties and afford to lose more equipment than Pakistan. In no way are we in a position to inflict injury on Pakistan as Israel does on Palestine after the terror attacks.

If the courage to trigger conflict is concerned. India has no match for Pakistan's motivation. Pakistan knows it cannot launch a traditional war with India. Hence, it attacks India by using proxy organizations and successfully destabilizes India. Consider for a moment: the entire nation of India was debating how to capitalize on the rising tariffs on China imposed by the Trump Administration. The entire debate centered on whether India could attract foreign direct investment and develop a robust manufacturing sector. The entire media was focused on this. Similar to 2008, India was peaceful, and tourism was increasing slowly and gradually. India was trying to develop its economy and bring social justice. Pakistan invaded Bombay by sending 10 terrorists, and one was caught alive. Pakistan never punished other perpetrators. 

Anyway, let me come to the point. The Pakistani military used Islamic terrorists in Kashmir to attack tourists. The result was panic all over the place, and now no one is talking about the economy, but 1.5 billion Indians are discussing Pakistan, an irrelevant country from an economic standpoint, whose existence is irrelevant or inconsequential for India, as most Indians claim. Then, they strike at the heart of India. There are a few points to note. It achieves all its strategic objectives by preparing Jihad against India. Pakistani military's policy of radicalizing Kashmiri Muslims and weaponizing Islam as a weapon, providing them weapons and military training and using them to launch attacks on Indian security forces, Hindus, and Sikhs delivered remarkable dividends for Pakistan. 

Despite losing half of the country in 1971, Pakistan has successfully internationalized the Kashmir conflict. It has successfully projected, with the help of China and like-minded Muslim countries, to frame the Kashmir conflict as a result of the assault on Muslims by Hindus. The entire global media supports Pakistan's position on Kashmir. In Western universities, you cannot utter a word in favor of Jammu and Kashmir as an inalienable territory of India line you hear quite often.  

Even after this latest attack, the Washington Post (controlled by American billionaire Jeff Bezos) supports Pakistan and refuses to use words like terrorists. They describe gunmen attacking tourists but hide all details like the Hindus, and asked some of them to remove their pants before shooting them on point blank range. Many news outlets, including state broadcaster of Singapore and Al Jazeera, ran a Pakistani story that India attacked itself and killed its people to defame Pakistan. Even many global leaders consistently refrain from describing Kashmir as Indian territory. That is irrelevant if India ensures the maintenance of law and order as China does in Tibet or the Xinxiang province. Pakistan has successfully ensured this by providing weapons to Kashmiri Muslims and using Islam to lure them and indulge in anti-national activities. 

 

What are our options? 

The enemy must have the fear. Just imagine if India starts providing military training to Tibets and uses them to attack Chinese security forces in Tibet. What do you think China will do to India? Most probably, it will teach us some bitter lessons that we would not dare to do it again. India must retaliate. The retaliation should be so fierce and must inflict heavy injury of men and material on the Pakistan military that before sending another Islamic militant to Kashmir, they would think twice. 

What are the dangers? Pakistani retaliation and full-fledged war. Indian analysts fear. Do you think Pakistani feared Indian reaction and retaliation before they captured Kargil Heights or received hijackers of IC814 in Pakistan, or openly gave a heroic welcome and treatment to founders of Jaish e Mohammad and Lashkar e Taiba or before attacking Mumbai, or before attacking Pulwama or before sending F16 to target four locations in India including the military headquarters in Srinagar. I say this, Pakistan has remarkable grit, power, courage, and interest in confronting India militarily than Indian babus have shown. 

The Pakistani experts are constantly repeating that India has attacked itself in Pahalgam. It is a false flag operation. It's the same thing they said about Pulwama, Mumbai attacks, parliament attacks, and J&K assembly attacks. They throw Indian concerns into the rubbish bins. They don't care what the Indian govt tells its domestic population. To be fair, they are not wrong in their assessment of Hindus. India lacks the fighting spirit, ability, and courage to act against the enemy as one unit. BJP reacted in Congress style, crying in front of Western leaders, telling them to look how we are beaten black and blue by Pakistanis; we are helpless, and please consider Pakistan a terror state. The sign of weakness. Have you seen Israel's PM running for foreign ambassadors, crying in front of them, and telling them how poor, fragile, and weak they are? Indians are like this; India is a poor country. Our rulers also suffer from a poverty of ideas, poverty of resources, and most ironically, the poverty of courage. 

Pakistanis know India will launch some symbolic bombing at best. Last time, India killed some crows, and this time, maybe some cows as well; Indian jets are mostly flying coffins and are at least 35 years old, except Rafale, which was developed in the late 1990s. We have only 30, the rest are useless. Half of them would crash on their own, even if the Pakistani F16 did not target them. Pakistanis know that all tourists from India would run away; all foreign investors would feel their money would be at risk if they invest in India; it is unstable. What is the solution? Finish the enemy once and for all. Japan reemerged even after the nuclear attacks. Then, focus on building the economy without distraction.

Otherwise, once Modi is gone, any weaker government will come to power, and Kashmir will burn again. The Pakistani military will use proxies to attack Bangalore next. It is coming. If your fear of Pakistan is discouraging you from retaliating, then you can rest assured, Pakistan has already defeated India.

(The author is an independent commentator.)