Within two months of gaining independence in August 1947, India and Pakistan fought their first war in October. That war was over Kashmir. Since then, India and Pakistan have fought four wars in a row after Kargil. India has taught Pakistan a lesson in each war. Yet Pakistan’s tradition of conspiring against India continues unabated.
Kargil to Pahalgam is not a sudden event. Just as Pakistan has been waging a shadow war in this country for a long time to snatch Kashmir from India. Not only in Kashmir. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are active in every nook and cranny of the country. The 1993 Mumbai blasts have shown us how Pakistani agents have entered the very backyard of the country.
Pakistan troops retreated in Kargil too. India captured the occupied peaks one after the other. Yet, the fact that Pakistan has not moved a hair from its unfinished program of snatching Kashmir has been proven once again in the undeclared war between India and Pakistan after Pahalgam.
Pakistan has repeatedly stabbed India like a coward. When our Prime Minister went to Lahore on a bus ride with a message of peace, the Pakistani soldiers tried to make a new attack on Kashmir by throwing dust in our eyes. As soon as the Indian soldiers came to know about it, it was an adventurous expedition in the icy mountains like Siberia at an altitude of 18 thousand feet. When the Indian soldiers captured one peak after another in that mountain war that lasted for almost two months – Tiger Hill, Tololing – it became clear to our people that Kargil was not an isolated incident. It was a part of Pakistan’s overall plan of anti-India terrorism. Apart from the Pakistani spy agency ISI, there were Osama bin Laden and Dawood Ibrahim. Now Laden is gone. But from Taliban, IS to Jamaat, various militant organizations are active on various fronts.
No war can be compared to any other war. The 1971 war was a full-scale war. And that war was not just against Pakistan. It was a huge explosion of Bengali nationalism under the leadership of Mujibur Rahman against Urdu nationalism in the territory of East Pakistan. The Bengali people formed the sovereign Bangladesh state. The entity of language stood bigger than the Islamic entity. This time, however, the war is completely different. The world has changed. That cold war is gone. The Soviet Union is gone. In 1971, both America and China were with Pakistan at the same time. Today, that situation is no more. Again, new technologies have come in the field of defense. Drones and various types of missiles are terrifyingly powerful. The most important thing is that both Pakistan and India are nuclear-powered states. And anyway, it can never happen that the common man will forget about his bread, clothes and house and become a warmonger.
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Sending my child to school, giving him nutritious food, educating him, making him a human being is certainly less important than the priority of a common man, violence, war, and bloody success. But what if someone attacks me, like Pakistan attacked ordinary tourists in Pahalgam? India has given a befitting reply to that. India has targeted attacks not only along the Line of Control but also on the international border. Terrorist camps have been targeted. Terrorists have been eliminated. India has not attacked innocent people. On the contrary, Pakistan tried to attack several Indian cities with drones. It wanted to attack ordinary people’s settlements. Indian soldiers have thwarted it with valor and courage.
Now the main question is, what did India get after this temporary war, and what did it not get? India’s former National Security Advisor, the late JN Dixit, once said that the relationship between India and Pakistan is like the movement of a monkey on an oiled bamboo pole. That is, sometimes terror, sometimes talks. Sometimes an attempt at understanding, sometimes a war. But we still haven’t found a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem!
However, Narendra Modi also invited all the heads of state of SAARC to his swearing-in ceremony after coming to power in 2014. Many say that he had arranged it mainly keeping Nawaz Sharif in mind. There was a separate meeting with Nawaz. Breaking the tradition, Modi suddenly appeared at Nawaz’s house wedding. Despite these diplomatic efforts, the Pakistan army did not stop terrorism. It continued terrorism in Kashmir through militants. On the contrary, the BJP, following its party’s political program, abolished Article 370 with the power of majority. Modi did not want to send a message that he did not want peace. And that is why Islamabad hosted the last SAARC conference. India did not boycott that SAARC conference. It sent the Foreign Secretary. Although it did not hold a bilateral meeting, it did not render the multilateral platform useless. For example, after the Kargil war, Atal Bihari Vajpayee canceled the SAARC summit by not accepting Islamabad’s hospitality. The SAARC summit was not held for a year. There is a rule in the SAARC summit, if any country cancels it, then the SAARC summit is not held. India was the host of the last G20 summit. Before that, India was also the host of the SCO summit! China, Pakistan and even Afghanistan are members of that organization. But India did not cancel that summit in Delhi. The then Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal, Benazir Bhutto’s son, also came. So, although it was not a bilateral meeting, it was a multilateral meeting.
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The biggest aspect of India-Pakistan relations that has been revealed through Operation Sindoor is a new benchmark. A new normal chapter has begun in India-Pakistan relations. And that is the biggest gain from India’s side. Because if Pakistan talks with India this time, the terms of engagement have changed. But now India will not want to go for talks without the condition of returning Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Prime Minister has said in unequivocal terms that India cannot be intimidated by showing nuclear blasts. And that is why so much propaganda, so much untrue fake news was created by Pakistan, but Pakistan did not budge. On the contrary, after Operation Sindoor, Operation Keller was launched in Shopian, Kashmir. India made it clear that even if the external war stops, India will now keep a much closer watch on the shadow war that destroys internal security.
I remember another thing that the late JN Dixit said. He said that about China. There is an axis between China and Pakistan. We are all aware of that diplomatic axis. Dixit said, ‘It is said about China that there are many beautiful trees and flowers in the garden. The gardener there knows that there are also dangerous poisonous snakes in that garden. And so he does not take care of the trees in the garden with a stick in his hand. The trees have to be taken care of as well. The diplomacy of dialogue will also continue, but again, one has to be careful with the stick in his hand. So that if he sees a snake, he can kill it with that stick. We have to be much more vigilant and aware not only about China, but also about Pakistan.
Agencies
