Let New Delhi impose a war on Islamabad, how will it end that is going to be beyond its control. Should it begin as ‘Cold Start’ or a ‘Limited War’, the Indian generalship would repent its foolhardiness. And as for a ‘surgical strike’, as its army chief vows to carry out, there would be a lethal response. Maybe, all of it is mere posturing by the Modi establishment, as quite a few analysts think, to facilitate its two-pronged strategy - to win back the dwindling public support for the impending general election and divert world’s attention from its blood-soaked forced occupation of Held Kashmir. But, as it happens sometimes, a fake posturing can trigger an actual war, as was the Indian fire a day before on the helicopter of AJK Premier Raja Farooq Haider. Had it been hit there would have been a severe response, and probably on a much wider scale. How could they mistake the prime minister’s white-colour helicopter as an army plane under the bright high-noon sun? Yes, the Indians were not intimated about the premier’s flight plan, as required under an agreement between the two sides in case of army helicopters. But that was not needed in case of civilian helicopters, particularly when the same chopper often flew over that salient.
If India is really itching for a war with Pakistan then it should know, and so should the international community, that any such adventure has the inbuilt potential to explode into a nuclear clash. Only a few days ago, prominent Kashmiri leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq had sounded the warning that Kashmir “stands as a potential nuclear flashpoint” between Pakistan and India, and it “will consume the lives of millions of people in an instant”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was in New Delhi to participate in the Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary celebrations, is required to take stock of situation. The BJP government should celebrate Gandhi’s birth anniversary and it should receive the sponsorship of world’s First Pacifist – isn’t it a Kafkaesque? As the Secretary General of the United Nations it was only appropriate – and in line with his prime responsibility – that he should have taken a tour of Held Kashmir where Indian troops are killing and maiming innocent Kashmiris on a daily basis.
It is Pakistan that offered talks to India and still stands by it. However, India first agreed and then disagreed, a U-turn as much a sign of BJP hallmark of growing jingoism as its inability to confront ground realities. If the Narendra Modi’s blood-seeking hounds have killed thousands of Kashmiri freedom fighters, his government has miserably failed to fulfil its electoral pledges to improve the lot of millions of starving Indians. Now when election is due next year the Modi establishment has raised the banner of Hindu revivalism, replacing its pledge to improve his country’s economy and make his people’s lives livable. And this has started to take its toll. As to what is the BJP-RSS rule, the great human rights activist Arundhati Roy has the perspective: it’s for Brahiminsation of education, lynching of Muslims, attacks on Dalits, brutal suppression of Kashmiris and falsification of history. We in Pakistan must look at India under the BJP rule as was Germany under Hitler’s fascist thumb. Pakistan offered talks, India refused it. As an alternative, one of Pakistan’s most experienced diplomats and former ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, has advised the government to stop asking for a dialogue with India. Pakistan should talk to the international community, both at the United Nations and other international forums, and major capitals to “reveal the narrow motives for Indian hostility, illustrate the threat this poses to the regional and global security and secure political support from China and as many other countries as possible”.
