When the functioning of every anti-India entity is examined, it is hard to deny that they are under tremendous pressure today. What is even harder to deny is the fact they seem to have consolidated their efforts and function with a renewed sense of purpose. Be it Pakistan, the Kashmiri separatists, the Maoists, or the handful in India’s metropolitan cities serving as the enemy’s back-office, they function with a newfound vigor.
With a government at the helm of affairs that supposedly wouldn’t take their crap, this was fated. Their reactionary instincts were bound to kick in. Many live under the illusion that India will eventually emerge triumphant, that these entities can be beaten back. They are right. These entities can be beaten back, at least theoretically. But is India doing enough to beat them back? And even if it is, at what cost will they be beaten back?
That the crackdown on such entities has been harsher than usual is a fact. It is quite unfair to think that Prime Minister Modi conducted himself with a business-as-usual temperament. Pakistan was isolated on global platforms. A surgical strike took place. The plight of Balochistan was raised. A wedge was driven between Pakistan’s civilian and military establishment. Despite the recent attack on CRPF personnel, Maoist terror has been on the decline. Burhan Wani was bumped off. Stone-pelting hoodlums in the valley were shot dead. The government might not have lived up to the expectations of many, but the accusation that it has been a silent spectator is untrue.
India’s enemies have been treated with kid gloves in the past.
Some even believe that any government capable of peddling a narrative as ridiculous as ‘saffron terror’ was hands in glove with India’s enemies. The treatment meted out to the enemy today is hardly adequate, but clearly, this is something they aren’t used to.
Mooching off India and breaking it simultaneously, without resistance, has been their way. The entire intolerance farce and the unrest in Kashmir are examples of their taking the fight to those who have rattled their smooth functioning. That the sudden uprising of red terror, capital punishment for an Indian prisoner across the border and the mutilation of our soldiers come at a time when the BJP strengthens itself politically, is no coincidence.
The least the Indian government can do now is to give the enemy a reason to hate India. This is where the government seems to be lacking. The minor jolts they have made are surely an upgrade in comparison to their predecessors, but they are minor jolts nonetheless. India needs to give them a real reason to hate her.
The battle will keep getting murkier. Each of India’s enemies can be overcome, which makes them much more vulnerable than it makes India. The closer they are to annihilation, the higher their stakes in the game become. Each blow India lands will be met with a more vigorous and consolidated response. This is what we see at play today, and India is at an interval wherein she cannot afford to be weak.
Each time the enemy raises the stake, India must go all in. India must make it costlier for them each time. India must make them pay each time. The damage India inflicts upon them must be grossly disproportionate.
Most of us are happy that the government has shown spine on occasion. We are happy, but not satisfied. We are happy about one surgical strike, but not satisfied about the hundred times a certain minister condoles. We are happy about how boldly the army has destroyed Pakistani posts and killed their Rangers, but not satisfied about its lack of leadership
That a country like India has no full-time defense minister is unacceptable. The CRPF too was without a head when the Maoists attacked, and such strategic blunders can be avoided.
It’s time the government gets real about the biggest strategic weakness of India.
There is no need to tread as softly in Kashmir as the government is. Why the sections of media, intelligentsia and academia which serve as the enemy’s back-office continue to sit pretty, and continue to remain immune to the establishment’s wrath, is beyond us. The likes of Erdogan visiting India and offering us nothing but sanctimony in the context of Pakistan, is avoidable.
After the last Maoist attack and the mutilation of Indian soldiers by Pakistan, it is time for India to strike back. It is time for India to show some people their rightful places. The enemy expects just that, and it’s paranoia that drives them presently. Let us give them what they want.