One more border incident. One more attack on
Indian soldiers. One more raucous political debate on India’s “soft” foreign
policy. One more round of Pakistan bashing, against rightfully. One more demand
for calling off of talks. One more round of TRP-boosting TV jingoism. Even one
more wasted session of Parliament maybe. None of this is necessary really. Border
skirmishes should be handled by the army in a routine way. Pakistani army got
into Indian territory and killed five soldiers. Indian army must find its own
ways to retaliate and avenge this. Keep politics and media out of it.
The Army is well capable of doing this. But
is our media and politics capable of staying out? For an opposition looking for
a fight every day, and now for excuses to stall the working of Parliament, this
incident has come as a god-sent. This incident allows yet more pouring out of
fake vitriol, of showing “deep concern” (Ravi Shankar Prasad’s favorite words)
for our Army, of calling the government ineffective. But in terms of
constructive ideas, there is nothing to offer. The only solution to every
border skirmish is “India should stop talks”, as if that is the solution for
world peace. Stop talks with Pakistan. Stop talks with China. Stop talks with
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan….even Nepal. And then wring your hands in pity
when China grabs all our neighbors.
Thanks to the BJP’s “muscular” brand of
diplomacy, relations with Bangladesh are at a sorry low. Bangladesh’s
government has been a friend of India’s for the last five years. It has helped
curb terrorism from its soil. In return, India was expected to behave like the
big brother, indulging a small, friendly neighbor. This is how diplomacy works
right? But no, thanks to Mamata’s juvenile brain, and very importantly, thanks
to the BJP’s support to Mamata, and their constant mocking of the Congress, India
couldn’t sign the Teesta waters deal with that country. Relations with
Bangladesh have thus plummeted. As if Mamata was not enough, the BJP had more
silly politics of its own to conduct. It opposed the government’s plan to swap
colonies on either side of the border, on the specious argument that we were
giving away a little more than we were getting back. This is not the way you
handle a neighbor. The same thing happened in Sri Lanka when yet another
opposition party, the AIADMK raised the pitch so high that the government was
forced to do what it did on the UN resolution against that country. In the
highly competitive politics that prevails in that state, the DMK raised the
pitch even further and quit the UPA. Why all this politics over foreign relations?
So we now have a hostile neighborhood, mostly
of our own creation. We can mend relations with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
immediately, by just pulling diplomacy out of the hands of regional parties. We
can amend relations with Pakistan by continuing to talk with them, even as our
army gives an appropriate localized response to their attacks. The BJP may
demand that we stop talks, but they should remember that even at the height of
the Cold War, when the Soviet and Western nations were engaged in a virtual
war, talks between the two sides were not stopped. Even when there is a real
war between Israel and its neighbors, talks are not talked. The only place
where talks are not being held – between the two Koreas – the situation is at
breaking point. Even here, efforts are being made to engage in dialogue. The
only way out of a messy situation is via talks.
The problem with saturation media coverage of
every border incident is that it raises the nationalistic pitch so high that
one feels compelled to take a belligerant stand. We feel like saying “Lets
attack Pakistan and pummel them”. This is low-level intellect. This kind of
attack is merely verbal. This kind of verbal attack is consumed only by the
lowest levels of our society, the fiery-with-words-cowardly-in-action brigade
of TV-studio-debate-specialists. None of them have the guts to advocate strong restraint.
Or push for localized action, but maintenance of talks.
The brief to the Army should be to repulse such
attacks so strongly that it brings the enemy to the discussion table with
folded hands. But come to the table, they must. Come to the table, and agree to
make amends. Promise to leave us alone. But when the Army doesn’t do that, then
the enemy becomes more brazen with each passing incident. In any case, the PM
of Pakistan hardly has any control over his country’s turf. What kind of a
country allows terrorists to merrily walk into a jail and release hundreds of
dreaded fellow-buddies? Now we know why Obama had to send his own troops deep
inside Pakistani territory to nab and kill Osama. Our Army has to respond in a
similar way. Our Army must provide the leverage that our diplomats require to
break Pakistan’s back.
If our government has held the Army back from
this, then it’s unacceptable. And it must be attacked. But to attack the
Defence Minister for his choice of words – whether he said “Pakistani Armymen”
or “people in Pakistani Army uniforms” hardly matters. It doesn’t give Pakistan
an escape route, no matter what Arun Jaitley says. Pakistan would have denied its
involvement in any case. They did so after the Mumbai attacks in a most brazen
manner too. The Defence Minister doesn’t need to be attacked because of his
poor English. He might need to be attacked if he has indeed gone soft in his directions
to the Army. But does anyone in the BJP care for this little nuance? Does
anyone in the media care for that matter?
The real truth is that talks must continue. But border
skirmishes must be rebuffed locally with requisite aggression. If the
government has stopped the Army from doing this, it is wrong. But if the
opposition believes that we must stop talks, it is wrong too….
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