- Talk of war!
Quite suddenly the torrent of accusations and threats from India has raised the very real prospect of some sort of limited adventurism, most likely over the Line of Control, by India. So much so that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had to issue a not so veiled counter-threat at the UNGA – that any action that violates Pakistan’s sovereignty in any way will meet a very fitting response. Already the brief window of opportunity, when the Indian external affairs ministry agreed to limited talks in New York, already seems a story from another lifetime.
Since then, of course, the Indians have accused Pakistan of carrying out cross-border activity, said Imran Khan had revealed his ‘true face’ and ‘evil designs’, the Indian army chief has threatened action, no less, against Pakistan, they have celebrated a so-called surgical strike day and, to top it off, their home minister has claimed some sort of action against Pakistan, in the last few days, the details of which he did not care to divulge. Seen together, these actions reveal a pretty crude strategy to cast Pakistan in a bad light – both at home and abroad – especially since Islamabad scored important points by reaching out for peace.
Yet while Modi’s compulsions about playing to the gallery are understandable – he did build much of his ideology on getting everybody to hate Pakistan, after all – this policy’s ingress into the military is of much concern. For the army chief to threaten war is serious business indeed. And the stakes are raised, naturally, when both sides are nuclear armed. That means, in simple words, that no matter who takes the initiative in the attack, the result will be mutually assured destruction, no less. So far the Pakistani side, civilian and military, has appeared the more pragmatic. The government offered peace a chance at every turn and the military has been very measured in its response. The Indian army, government and media, on the other hand, are playing a very different tune altogether. And therefore they must take the blame for turning the subcontinent’s environment from one where peace and commerce was being weighed to one where war is being discussed. The Indians must immediately deescalate from their aggressive position lest what is left of peace and order in the subcontinent is also destroyed.
