- After recent war scare, mixed voices from across the border
Though the Pakistani armed forces and no doubt their Indian counterparts still remain on high alert, the looming threat of full scale war has hopefully receded, to a collective global sigh of relief. But the latest crisis had begun the deadly process of escalation, of raising the ante, that was fortunately reversed by intense international diplomacy, which is apparently more cognisant of Armageddon than ignorant, jingoistic, emotional warmongers of local hue. But it was a touch and go affair, a fraught situation too close for comfort. A permanent Indo-Pak mechanism is essential to avoid a fatal miscalculation and blundering into a nuclear exchange inside fifteen minutes.
The mass hysteria generated by Indian media since the February 14 Pulwama suicide bombing in Indian-occupied Kashmir was indeed frightening to behold. With its strident war cries, deliberate exaggerations and outright distortion of facts, it became a force-multiplier in moulding the basest vengeful instincts of the average Indian. Pakistan Air Force’s swift riposte to the Balakot misadventure the day before, was a much-needed reality check that dissipated premature Indian media euphoria.
Undoubtedly, Imran Khan’s announcement of repatriation of the captured pilot tilted the scales against Mars, against the god of war, as Indian public opinion had widely come to regard the downed airman as a national hero and his release was a good omen that cooled media-heated tempers. The election-fixated BJP leader Amit Shah gloatingly twisted Imran Khan’s ‘goodwill gesture’ as an Indian diplomatic triumph, attributed to BJP government’s zero tolerance for terrorism and isolation of Pakistan, but 22 combined opposition parties, including Congress, thought otherwise. It is obvious that the ill-advised and perilous war-mongering was a ploy for making election gains. Former RAW chief AS Daulat made a realistic appraisal emphasising political settlement in Kashmir, of the ‘reality’ of Pakistan and dialogue, and terming Imran Khan ‘a good guy to do business with’. The UN and western human rights ‘monopolists’ must force India to end its barbarities against the Kashmiri people, as they breed militancy among youth and are the real cause of present day terrorism in the disputed territory. The grim alternative is more Pulwamas, more chauvinism, even more dangerous standoffs.
