India has driven its point home

THE dust is still settling on the latest round of India-Pakistan hostilities. The barbaric terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22, in which 26 innocent civilians lost their lives, was particularly horrific as the victims were asked about their religion before being slaughtered. They were mostly tourists to Jammu and Kashmir from almost every part of India — north, south, east and west. The Union Government shared the anger and rage felt by Indian citizens at this attempt to wreak havoc on peace and calm in Kashmir and ruin the tourism-dependent economy of the UT.

After the Uri and Pulwama terror incidents of 2016 and 2019, when India had retaliated with force, it was clear that kinetic action would follow in future as well. It was apparent this time that measures such as cancelling visas of Pakistan nationals and holding in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty were a precursor to the assault on Pakistan-based terror outfits.

The precision strikes at nine locations, carried out under Operation Sindoor in the wee hours of May 7, hit their targets despite the Pakistan military being on high alert after the Pahalgam massacre. The fact that Bahawalpur and Muridke — the headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, respectively — were hit in Pakistan’s Punjab province underlined India’s resolve to take out Pak-based terrorists wherever they may be located.

This is an important principle that has now been established in the India-Pakistan lexicon. India will view any terror attack on its territory as an act of war and respond to it by targeting terror outfits on Pakistani soil. Most influential countries in the world condemned the Pahalgam attack and stated that it would be understandable if India took retaliatory action against terrorists. It would not be wrong to name this principle the Modi doctrine.

All clear-eyed Indians must understand and accept that in the current dust-up between India and Pakistan, the crux of the actions was the terror attack and our response to it. This is the crucial action-reaction sequence. All that followed was part of the escalation matrix by the Pakistani establishment, which was enraged that India had succeeded in retaliating and bringing Pak-sponsored terrorists to justice. This is now laid down as a principle that will apply to any future terror attacks on Indian soil by Pakistani actors.

Many armchair critics of the government have contended that India should have continued with the hostilities till much more damage had been inflicted on Pakistan. What they fail to see is that India’s original aim and objective were to underline and reiterate the all-important message. We have succeeded in doing so. Hence, it was now time to end the hostilities and refocus on our economic growth.

The current faceoff must also be studied carefully by our military experts. We must draw the right conclusions from this experience. To a layman, it looked as if Indian military superiority was exerted on the enemy. Our air defence systems seem to have worked very well, while we were able to penetrate those of Pakistan. All this happened even as we kept our calm and ensured a proportionate response that was non-escalatory. It also seems that the level of integration of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force was of a kind never seen or experienced before. This augurs well for our armed forces as the wars of the future will be fought in an integrated manner rather than in silos. Obviously, our Chief of Defence Staff has been doing a fine job in integrating our forces.

While our armed forces were ready for action, the government was also clear about our response and objectives. There was a steely resolve about the action-reaction chain of events and the expected escalation by Pakistan. There was also a certain coolness and calmness in the government’s statements, decision-making and articulation that would not have been lost on Pakistan or other nations and their governments.

In sum, India performed well during this recent round of hostilities with Pakistan. We must continue to look for and draw the correct lessons as we can be sure that Pakistan will not give up its addiction to terrorism.

India must continue to exert non-military pressure on Pakistan where trans-border rivers are concerned and make strenuous efforts to put Pakistan on the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) grey list again. Ratcheting up such pressure on Pakistan even if there are no open hostilities will be key to keeping the neighbour in line. Raising our counter-terrorism game will be equally critical as we must ensure that cross-border terrorism is slowly snuffed out.

While we can be satisfied with the way we have tackled the current crisis with Pakistan, we must prepare ourselves for the next one that may happen in a few years.

Gautam Bambawale is former High Commissioner to Pakistan and Trustee, Pune International Centre.

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