The sabre-rattling in India and Pakistan is going on without much of a break. This is ominous for both nations in particular and the region in general. India would be given a befitting reply for aggression at the border, Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif said in the National Assembly Friday.
“If we pick one body, they will pick three,” he said, upping the ante in the face-off between the hostile neighbours.
India’s defence minister, Manohar Parrikar too did not hesitate to retort. The government has the strength to gouge out the eyes of the country’s enemies and put them in their hands, he said at an election rally Saturday.
The former Goa Chief Minister also indulged in jingoism by saying that Goans should be proud of the fact that one of their own had slapped the enemy across the cheeks. By this he indicated that he was the one who got the ‘surgical strike’ organised against Pakistan.
The aggressive stance taken by Asif is in line with the statements made a day earlier by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the chiefs of the three wings of Pakistan’s military. Sharif had said that Pakistan cannot tolerate the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians, particularly children and women, ambulances and civilian transport.
Pakistan Army chief General Raheel Sharif was far more belligerent. If India conducts a surgical strike, Pakistan would teach it a lesson that would be taught in Indian Army courses,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by the Pakistan Chief of Air Staff and the Naval Chief. Unfortunately, India’s belligerence at this juncture could imply foolhardiness.
Such nakedly aggressive postures only create a situation of imminent and grave danger for the region.
With both countries having a nuclear weapon stockpile of more than 100 each, according to reports, the fallout of a conflict can only be catastrophic.
Earlier, Parrikar had said that India should abandon the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons and adopt, instead, the position that it will use them responsibly. Parrikar had said that the statement was made in his personal capacity.
However, this did little to clear the confusion over India’s policy on nuclear weapons. Talk of a nuclear attack by any country against any other is no more the done thing globally. Thus the Indian Defense Minister’s ‘personal’ quip could prove very harmful to the nation’s interest.
Parrikar’s statement is one of the latest in the long list of aggressive postures taken by India. This started after the surgical strike on terror launch pads across the Line of Control. That took place after militants attacked an Army camp in Uri leaving several Indian soldiers dead.
Unfortunately, it is the common man who is caught in the crossfire of this hostility between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The killings in Kashmir by militants have not stopped. Neither has the cross-border firing. One of the latest incidents to make headlines in India is the killing of three Indian soldiers and the mutilation of the body of one.
Following this, India had responded with a massive offensive on Pakistani positions along the LoC, in which, according to Pakistani officials, 10 officials have been killed and an ambulance and bus had been hit.
This is not the first time that Asif has taken a nakedly aggressive stance against India. Two months ago, he had threatened nuclear strikes against India. Asif’s threat to eliminate India was made in the context of India’s intention at that time to carry out a surgical strike following the terrorist attack in Uri.
This statement, as that of Parrikar, shows that those in positions of influence on both sides of the border are jumpy and nervous. This is a highly volatile situation and calls for the intervention of saner minds to draw the two nations back from the brink of disaster.
It is one thing to have deterrents in the arsenal as was exemplified by India’s no-first-use policy with regard to nuclear weapons. It is quite another to either use them or have itchy fingers in that context.
National interests must be protected. No country can be expected to sit back and see assaults on its territory without reacting. However, nations must try their utmost to avoid going to war. Neither Pakistan nor India can afford a war.
A conventional war will be disastrous for both, while the use of nuclear weapons will certainly lead to unprecedented devastation which could engulf the whole world.
Finally, it must be taken for granted that if hostilities break out between the two South Asian neighbours, China and a few other Moslem nations (along with the full might of global Islamic terror organizations) would be eager to assist Pakistan, most likely than not and no country would opt to stand by India. All defense preparedness for India must, therefore, be made keeping this in mind.
