A self-proclaimed, highly publicized and well-supported nationalist government on centre with a proud Prime Minister on its forefront and yet we wake-up on the second day of the New Year to a horrifying news of Terrorists attacking one of our highly guarded air-force base.
India of 2016 never expected this, certainly not after May 2014. One of the major election shouts that made us all Vote for the present government was undoubtedly the reverberating slogan of “Yeh Desh Nahi Jhukne Doonga”. Of course this nation is too strong to bow down to such cowardice attempts of terror s. We were, we are and we will always be a nation of brave enough individuals to always give a fortifying reply to all these acts of veiled guerrilla warfare of terrorism.
Yet somehow we were not ready for the acts unfolding today and the day before. Very well not after within ten days of our Prime Minister exchanging marriage sweets and breaking breads with the Prime Minister of a not very friendly neighbouring state.
So will we keep talking peace with terror on side-lines or shall we talk a sterner route to have a talk on terror?
Where exactly do we stand today on Terrorism and Peace?
Is peace that important to us that we will forget and forgive the lives laid by our brave soldiers on line of their duty within our borders? Can we actually see these martyrdom’s within our safely guarded lands as part of collateral damages?
Till when will we ignore these sacrifices as part of a higher cause? Undoubtedly we are extremely proud of our seven brave martyred souls who laid their lives to save honour of our proud nation and our sympathies and prayers stay with other 20 injured Indians. But somewhere down the line this ratio of collateral damage seems too shameful to boost off. Five to seven foreign nationals, infiltrating our free land, being careless enough to raise enough alarms yet somehow causing us much enough damage in form of lives lost. Is this our best strategy to deal with terrorism?
Ajit Doval no doubt is one of the best National Security Advisor that India can have. Rajnath Singh no doubt handles the Home Ministry portfolio to best of its capability. Firmness and Sternness of Manohar Parrikar as defense minister of sovereign India has always been a matter of pride to all of us Indian. And yet somehow today we stand at this juncture where there is a window to revisit and reform our foreign strategy towards our most hostile neighbour.
General Rahil Sharif’s reluctance to Modi-Nawaz bonhomie wasn’t hidden for long. Hafiz Saeed’s all-out message to Nawaz stating that we will see you and your attempts of cajoling with our enemy of Kashmir will be seen too, cannot be forgotten or ignored.
The prominent name of Terrorist organization that is coming behind this attack is of Jaish-E-Mohammed with Maulana Masood Azhar at its founder and prime force. Maulana Masood is the terrorist that India has to let off from its clutches in exchange of passengers of Kandhar Hijack.
It is significant to remember that organizations like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba very well operate from with-in Pakistan and are yet branded as non-state actors owing to absence of any official affiliations.
But do we need authentication of certificates when the blood being laid is very much real. The fight with Pakistan is very much on ground. The lives being lost are very much familiar. Isn’t it time we stop being blindfolded and do away with this game of hide and seek.
Shawls and Sarees are no more helping. They never actually did. With all our faith and conviction it has always been a fact that no single entity has ever controlled the overall functioning of our hostile neighbor. A talk with democratic authority sometimes offends the military establishment and even when both of these fall in line we always have ISI and other so called non-state players to play spoiler. No talk with Pakistan can ever be successful without their democracy being actually functional on the first place. Indeed this is too much to expect from a nation where even kids read a distorted history in their official text books. Nevertheless it’s a long fight with too much on stake.
There is a very fine line between being tolerant and becoming a victim. Hopefully we will mark it before it’s too late.
With 365 million 10-24 year old’s India not only has the world’s largest youth population but also have the people with not much patience and political correctness. Given the kind of emotion any Pakistan related activity generates it won’t be too far stretched to say that a well-defined and more populist Pakistan policy can actually play a very wide role in political terms as well.
With a lot on stake we just hope our government stays on the right track on this front as well!!!