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What am I ashamed of as an Indian!

shreya
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What am I ashamed of as an Indian!

My fellow Indians,

Never in my life I’ve been ashamed of my fellow Indians as I am today. Our brave Wing Commander Abhinandan is all set to return to India tomorrow. Pakistan released a statement stating his return owing to heavy diplomatic pressure built by India and its clear intimidation to Pakistan.

It is no “gesture of peace”. 

It is no goodwill on the part of Pakistan.

It is no gracious gift from Pakistan.

It’s a straight and simple following of Geneva Conventions by Pakistan after India’s warning of heavy repercussions on failing to follow the same.

Despite everything and clearly forgetting the Pulwana attack and the ongoing ceasefire violations by Pakistan, several pseudo intellectual Indians are dissing their own nation for fighting against terrorism and blindly accepting this farcical gesture of peace. They are praising Imran Khan for his kind heart and considering him as an epitome of a perfect leader. What’s painful to see is Indians getting trapped in the Pakistani propaganda over social media so easily and not standing up for their country in its most important time. Several journalists who though don’t deserve to be called one are going all out hailing Imran Khan as a hero. If India is divided in itself, how can we expect it to stand tall and strong against any nation harming it through the most dangerous means of terrorism?

Pakistani media and citizens are standing united at this moment to propagate Pakistan’s image of one wanting peace and India’s as one waging war. It’s understandable. Any country would do anything in its merit to serve its interest. What’s disappointing and shameful is that they are clearly successful in doing the same.

And, why?

Because it is us, Indians helping them do so. Social Media is filled with Indians spreading the same lies as Pakistan and bashing India. Many of us, entrapped in their agenda are questioning are own government for standing against a nation fueling terrorism. Self-proclaimed diplomacy experts are all over social media suggesting the government to take actions in accordance with those suggested by Pakistan. Because for them, suddenly Pakistan has washed all of its previous sins and is a country wanting only peace. If they really wanted peace at this moment, why are ceasefire violations still going on? There have been over 32 ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the last two days as revealed by Indian Army Chief in the press conference held today.

People are quick to jump to the conclusion that Pakistan wants peace but what really needs to be assessed is, are they really walking the talk?

We may win several battles and war but will forever fail as a nation if we do not stand united. India at this moment, is a nation filled with citizens who are failing to back it, in its most crucial time. And absolutely nothing can be more shameful than this!

I urge my fellow Indians to be more responsible while using social media to express their opinions. In our attempt to sound liberal and intellectual, let’s not forget the larger national interest.

-Shreya Agrawal

Say #YesToJustice for our Abhinandans!

Anupam
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Say #YesToJustice for our Abhinandans!

On 14th Feb, 44 Abhinandans boarded on their convoy to move from a location to another. One Jehadi mind became a little religious and that concluded into a blast – India lost 44 Abhinandans in a moment. Only task remaining was, for us, to identify and collect their body parts and to give back to their families. All notion of ‘body wrapped in Tiranga’, ‘national anthem’ and ‘people shouting Bharat mata ki Jay’ are just the meaningless tantrum so that we can replace the word ‘Murdered’ with ‘Martyred’ and move on without any sense of guilt and responsibility.

Yes, 44 Abhinandans were not martyred but murdered mercilessly on Valentine’s day and then murder of those Abhinandans were celebrated as well in some parts of India. And all we do is finding excuses to move on with our lives without guilt. #SayNoToWar without demanding justice is one such nice and tested method to come out of our own sense of guilt!

An Army man does his job for his livelihood, to get the respect in life and a better times for his family, very same as we do. Let’s not get emotional on the desh-bhakti quotient. But as their job is to secure the land and the people and so it’s tough but ‘you have to die’ is nowhere written in their job profile, too. None wants to get killed for a job and so our Jawans too. When they secure us, it’s our Dharma to make policies such that they stay secure. Their murder can’t be a ‘normal’ for a healthy society.

It’s really a big deal when they get murdered and even bigger than the captivity of pilot Abhinandan. It’s great to know people’s concern on seeing his bleeding nose but we couldn’t even find the body parts of our other 44 Abhinandas. Justice needs to served here too. If you feel their murders is a ‘normal’ then you have a warmongering mind with a slight difference that you want to listen the news of fewer deaths per day.

To me, each one of them are very important. yes, Indian govt must bring back Abhinandan but If I could, I would have also started #BringBack40Abhinandans tag on twitter for those 40 as well. Unfortunately, No! But It’s time to tell the murderers to stop else We will neutralise them for the sake of protecting our people and our system.

Am I looking for revenge! Yes, I get into reaction sometimes but then I realise Peace must be given a chance if there is even .0001% chance of getting my killer transformed into a human being. If there is even a probability of one out of Lakhs that killers of my abhinandan can be changed for good, I am for it.

But if my repeated efforts of changing Jehadi mind don’t yield and I accept that as a normal , all I am doing is asking more abhinandans to die.

I have no hatred for Pakistan. why should I have? I have no enmity with civilians for Pak despite they failed to justify the term civility by not questioning their own govt’s policy on terrorism. May be they are afraid of their lives too. But I can’t let terrorists to come at will and kill my Abhinandans.

I am not emotional at all. People die in conflicts at both side. My heart goes to people of both side but justice must happen for innocents killings. War is not a solution, will never be! But Hitler must be neutralised if he doesn’t stop killing jews. Its plain and simple logic and not warmongering.

Say No to Cowardice! Say No to Terrorism! Say Yes to Justice for our own Abhinandans!

Here is why India’s answer to Pakistan is perfectly a befitting one

Janay Jain
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Here is why India’s answer to Pakistan is perfectly a befitting one

‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ After the devastating attack in Pulwama, no other quote seemed to be more apt in lieu of India’s position in the current situation. India harboured responsibility on its shoulders for it to not carry out a knee jerk reaction which could have been detrimental to the future of the nation, simultaneously it was also necessary that a befitting answer was given to the perpetrators of the attack. There was a palpable anger on the streets and the nation was in a somber mood. Our generation did not want to mourn yet another terrorist attack be it 26/11, Uri, Pathankot, the most recent Pulwama attacks or see soldiers- some our age or younger- unfairly losing their lives nor did it wish to take out yet another candle march lamenting the unfair loss of lives due to these heinous acts of terror.

In the wake of the most recent attack on the convoy in Pulwama, the question was what type of a response would have worked. There were a host of measures which lay in front of the government. The Indian Army had the capabilities to go ahead with another bout of surgical strikes, similar to the ones conducted in 2016 where terror camps were destroyed and terrorists were killed across Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The usage of missiles and aerial strikes by the Indian Air Force targeting terrorist launch pads was an alternative as well. On the other hand, the government could have opted for economic or strategic measures such as reworking the Indus water treaty owing to India’s much more dominant position with the World Bank as compared to several decades ago, when the Indus water treaty was signed. Lastly another alternative for India was to isolate Pakistan economically owing to India’s impressive economic growth along with support received from the international community in the aftermath of the attack.

After every attack on Indian soil, these measures were discussed time and time in detail. Often a SWOT was analysis made of each of them but in the midst of all this however what was lost was action at the end of it, unlike this time. The Prime Minister’s proactive approach has been successful. Unlike his predecessors, there was a change in approach and the army was given a free hand to decide the time and place of response to the terror attack.

In such an atmosphere, the Indian Armed Forces carried out air strikes on terror camps in Balakot. India’s decision to go ahead with these strikes is a fitting response in more than one way. After the recent reports from Pokhran where the Indian Air Force had showcased it’s all weather operational capability, a stone throw from the India Pakistan border, the might of the air force has been highlighted yet again. Several factors are indicative of the success of these strikes. After 1971, this is the first instance of the Indian Air Force entering Pakistan’s airspace. These strikes were not just limited to Pakistan occupied Kashmir but were carried out in Balakot as well, a town in the heartland of Pakistan. With the use of thousand kilograms of bombs, these strikes are estimated to have killed approximately 300 militants. Most importantly, this signals the end of India maintaining restraint which it did even after the 26/11 or Parliament attacks.

Subsequent to the action of the Indian Air Force, the ball is now in Pakistan’s court. The strikes carried out by India were only non military and preemptive in nature as there was credible intelligence that terror groups were planning yet another suicide terror attacks in various parts of India. If Pakistan chooses to retaliate, their attack options would either be civilian or armed forces, both in gross violation of international law, leaving Pakistan in a catch-22 situation.

After the Pulwama attack there was a stirring call asking for action to be undertaken to send a stern message to the perpetrators of this attack. The Indian Air Force’s actions have provided a resounding answer to the entire nation and have affirmed their belief that today’s India would not simply sit idle while terrorists harbored in Pakistan shamelessly attacked India with indemnity.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee had once said, you can change friends but not neighbors. In the wake of these airstrikes, the nation’s belief has been reaffirmed once again that if there is any government which can undertake action making our neighbors change their way, it is the Modi government.

The Kashmir problem as I see it

Prasenjeet Kumar
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The Kashmir problem as I see it

I have lived in Kashmir for a good seventeen years of my life. My parents were both in the Jammu and Kashmir cadre of the Indian Administrative Service serving the nooks and crannies of J&K for over 37 years. Starting from the time Sheikh Abdullah was the chief minister (and when I was not born!) we think we have seen it all. That’s why, whenever there were instances of hartals, stone-pelting, shouting of azaadi slogans, which were all too frequent in the Valley regardless of who was in power, we used to wonder—What if the angels made these wishes come true?

Now to be practical, everyone knows that no amount of stone throwing or causing mayhem on the streets of Srinagar can help Kashmiris get freedom. Nor can any number of military manoeuvres, including nuclear sabre rattling by Pakistan, make that ‘pipe dream’ come true. But what if India on its own walks out of Kashmir and makes Kashmir FREE?

A lot has been written about the Kashmir problem since 1947. This article is about exposing those myths based on an interview that I and my co-author gave to a prominent J&K newspaper some time back regarding our book ‘Kashmir is Free’.  Spread over 70,000 words in 48 chapters, Kashmir is Free is that, what-if peep, in to a not-too-distant fictional future when Kashmir attains freedom from India.

But let’s get back to what kind of freedom will it be if India ever lets Kashmir go its own way? Will that be freedom like Bhutan’s or Nepal’s with free movement of people and trade; or like what Pakistan has with severe restrictions on both? If it is indeed like Bhutan, would the Indian Army be defending the borders of Kashmir? Especially when we know how much Kashmiris hate the army and AFSPA? Obviously, not!

But then, if their freedom be like Pakistan’s, will it be business-as-usual? Would Indian flights or Indian mobile companies continue to operate as they do now? Would Banihal be open for visa-free traffic? Would Indian railways still run trains in Kashmir? Would the Kashmiris continue to get their rations, medicines, electricity, gas, petrol, spares for cars, and what not like before? So, if this be a total break-away, as many elements on the streets seem to demand, then let the saner elements in Kashmir think coolly about the full implications of such a free status.

Now I know some politicians, Lutyen’s media journalists, and even guest speakers on prime-time TV debates love to label Kashmir as a ‘political problem’. But nobody cares to explain what that means? On the ground, I’ve only seen the problem described as political till you become the chief minister! So, if tomorrow Mirwaiz becomes the CM, the masalay Kashmir will be NOT be a political problem for the Mirwaiz but only for the Abdullahs and the Muftis till they remain out of power. And so on.

Then there are these other fancy words like ‘autonomy’ or ‘self-rule’ and every party has its own favourite litany and formulation. While people may joke about they all wanting self-rule in perpetuity for their families in some form or another, what is more interesting is that they all want their newer status with the Government of India still footing the bill!

What is also interesting is that every party has a different take about ‘special status’. One party wishes to go back to the pre-1953 position, with just defence, currency, and communications left to be managed by the centre. But why concede even defence when you hate the army and AFSPA so much? Why leave out currency too when you want a dual currency system in Kashmir? Without understanding the confusion it will create in the marketplace where in value one Indian Rupee may be worth two Pakistani Rupees?

And then, the question arises: why stop at 1953? Why not go to 1947? Or, even the stone age that your stone pelters, if not checked, will someday take Kashmir to?

Then what is the Kashmir problem? Is it alienation, joblessness, electoral malpractices, or excessive use of force by the state machinery?

Now certainly all these grievances are real, but tell me, don’t they exist in other states, too? Don’t you have unemployed youth elsewhere? In fact, if unemployment was leading to alienation you shouldn’t have government servants, assistant professors, and Ph.D. scholars picking up the gun in Kashmir.

Before EVMs were introduced, capturing electoral booths was rampant in many states, but that didn’t lead to terrorism on the scale we see in J&K.

As for using excessive force, it’s often a vicious circle. One or two terrorists create mayhem somewhere. The police, para military or the military react, sometimes in panic, sometimes over zealously, and that then starts a chain reaction of killings and revenge killings.

So what is really the Kashmir Problem?

Ask the Pakistanis, and they will tell you point-blank. That it’s communal, the same Hindu-Muslim divide that created Pakistan in 1947.

Now if you say this divide affected only the British India and not the princely states who were given an instrument of accession with the choice to join either India or Pakistan, they will say you’re just being technical.

So, forget the history and ask those, the likes of Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa, azaadi ka matlab kya? And the unabashed answer, as you know, would be La ilahi il-lil-lah. So, when you want the Caliphate and Shariat imposed on Kashmir, why are you hiding behind the veils of unemployment and alienation? To fool the secular brigade of India? To get the Lutyens’ media on your side?

These are some points we chose to discuss using the medium of fiction in the book Kashmir Is Free. We could have very well discussed this issue in an academic, non-fiction, work with footnotes and citations, but that would have been so boring. So we thought: why take things so seriously? Why not have a little fun?

Till then, our message to the Kashmiris is: You want to be free? So, go ahead first increasing your revenue base and then improving your governance? Why should all your PSUs be sick? Why should all your doctors and teachers be posted only in Srinagar or Jammu? Is it because you are not free?

The point is that there are so many things you could do, without getting in to the hassles of really becoming independent. So why not focus on those?

That’s the message, if there could be any message in a work of fiction… that we wanted to convey.

Take it or leave it, it’s your funeral after all.

War for peace – Once and for all

Arun Dash
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War for peace – Once and for all

Immediately after the #PulwamaAttack, the narrative from the so-called unbiased journalists (read, #pidi) and the agenda-driven Congress-led Opposition was around “Where is that 56-inch chest?”. To prove a blatant lie, they even try defaming the Ministry of Defence that has perhaps been the strongest after Modi’s ascent to the PM’s chair. As a calm and level-headed leader would do, Modi and his ruling party took the criticism in its stride and declared that the Defence forces have been taken off any restraints that used to hold them back in retaliation in all occasions earlier.

On the 13th day after the #PulwamaAttack, when the mighty IAF carried out a much-needed pre-emptive air strike on the training camp of the JeM in #Balakot (near Muzafarrabad in Pakistan), killing more than 250 JeM terrorists including 25 dreaded JeM commanders, those pigs took long hours to come out in the open and praise the action by our mighty air warriors. A day later, as the retaliation continued from the Pakistan side, our forces too gave them a befitting response nulling their all efforts to bring in casualties in our side. As ill luck would have it, Wing Commander #Abhinandan, flying a MIG (popularly known as a flying coffin), perhaps found it tough to manoeuvre it timely and had to land in the Pakistan side. And now he has been in the custody of the Pakistan Army and should be treated as a Prisoner of War (PoW).

As per Geneva Convention, #Abhinandan must be treated respectfully until he is handed over to India. As per latest reports, the government of India has already summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner perhaps to expedite the release of our brave pilot #Abhinandan.

But look at the shift in narrative now by those pigs! There are cries everywhere to stop the war (#SayNoToWar). First, was there a war at all? Had that been the case, why didn’t the IAF conduct air strikes directly on Islamabad? And why was it necessary for the IAF to choose a place that is away from the civilian population and that harbours only the terrorists? The common mass who still rely so heavily on the sold mainstream media is being misled to put pressure on a strong-willed government to bow down to a neighbouring terrorist state. At a critical situation like this, when the nation should be together to bring #Abhinandan back home safe and continue to strike at the terror establishments that Pakistan is stealthily supporting, the Congress-led opposition has chosen to be a bottleneck.

Let there be no two ways about this – the Modi-led Government will leave no stones unturned to bring Wing Commander #Abhinandan back home safe. But at the same time, let these in-house divisive forces be aware that there will be no compromise in the firm steps taken to rule out this nagging terrorism that they perhaps kept on fueling surreptitiously for a dirty selfish goal. No Indian soldier would choose to earn a badge of cowardice. Let their valour win our motherland the much-needed peace, once and for all.

Abhinandan, my hero

Desi Writer
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Abhinandan, my hero

I was forced to fly the jet I didn’t want to,
But what could I do, for I had promised to,
Never turn back, never step back,
The moment I am called by my flag

I knew I was in a flying coffin
Even knowing this I didn’t let my resolve soften,
I knew that I may never return
But that wasn’t even my concern

I was a sparrow compared to my enemy, who was lethal,
Never mind, I fought like an eagle,
I was hit, and so was my enemy,
I may have fallen, but not my integrity.

They found me, lynched me, took me away,
For the entire world, I was put on display,
They questioned me, interrogated me,
But I stood upright, without bending my knee.

Don’t be afraid for me,
For either way, a hero I’ll be,
I beg of you, please don’t demoralize me,
I fighting here for you, not for me.

If warmongering is responsible for my condition,
Was then, peace responsible for the 40 CRPF personnel?
Don’t use our name to advocate your thoughts,
For peacetime has seen more loss.

I may or may not return,
But wait, first play your political turn,
Nevertheless, do remember me,
Never forgive, never forget, you are their target, not me!

Don’t cry for Wing Commander Abhi, but be proud

navneet
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Don’t cry for Wing Commander Abhi, but be proud

Don’t cry for Wing Commander Abhinandan. Don’t weep for Wing Commander Abhinandan. Be angry, be very very angry but don’t insult his bravery.

Did you see how he was saying ,”I am not supposed to answer that” inside enemy captivity. Did you feel the courage, patriotism, professionalism in his attitude?

Oh yes, of course you did. Once you saw the lion ejected, blindfolded, handcuffed and after that you saw him saying , “I’m not supposed to say anything else”, didn’t it give you goosebumps and didn’t it make you feel proud?

Don’t insult that.

Be angry on the enemy and be proud of our hero. Don’t get disheartened, sad and then cry and insult the forces.

By trending the shit of peace, you’re propagating the enemie’s objectives intentionally or unintentionally. There is no peace with Pakistan. There never was. Only, at times, we refuse to accept.

What the conventional peace has given?:

Number of soldiers martyred:
1965 war: 3000
1971 war: 2500
1999 war: 527
Post 1999 (peace time): 4300+

“Peace time” is the time during war when some people make us refuse to accept that it’s a war.
With Pakistan, the choice is never between war and no war. Pak is always at war, killing our soldiers and at times, civilians. The options are fight back or watch them die.

1993 Mumbai Blasts.
2001 Parliament attack.
2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama and many more happened when we were in peace.

Don’t you think, had you asked those CRPF martyrs whether they want to die while fighting or die while sitting in a van by coward attack during so called peace time, they would have answered that they would rather happily die fighting in a war.

We’ve never initiated. We didn’t attack the civilians. We’ve targeted terror camps and if you think that peace will stop those bastards, either you’re very naive or politically driven.

If Pakistan really wanted peace, it would had demolished the terror camps long back. It would had handed over Masood Azhar, Hafeez Saeed long back or could have suppressed them. Laden was there, Dawood was given protection there. They make a suitable terror ecosystem and habitat where the bastards continue to operate.

Let’s make some things very clear:

  • JeM attacked (took responsibility) and 44 CRPF members martyred.
  • We attacked JeM camps and quarters.
  • Pakistan attacked on military establishment where we didn’t let them go easily and fought and finished their F-16 and during this, our Mig-21 got down and Wing Commander Abhi was captured.

According to Geneva convention, Pakistan has to release Wing Commander Abhi. Now, Diplomacy and foreign relations will also matter in the outcome.

I don’t know if #SayYesToWar should serve the purpose but I am sure that talking peace at this time and saying #SayNoToWar is non-sense. So, let the armed forces decide.

Stand with your forces. By crying and panicking, don’t bring their morale down and question their capabilities. Stand with your force, stay united, don’t cry, don’t get indulged in false propaganda. Stay strong.

And yes, our Wing commander will come back soon with a roaring smile on his face.

Jai Hind.

#MeraJawanSabseMajboot
#AbhinandanMyHero
#GiveBackAbhinandan
#SayNoToTerrorism

Section of Indian media tries to emasculate Indian response to terror

Akshay Saraswat
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Section of Indian media tries to emasculate Indian response to terror

One would have expected that the robust Indian response to the Pulwama terror attack would send a wave of self-confidence through the Indian people and the commentariat. For the longest time, the countrymen have asked for an aggressive response to acts of Pakistan-inspired terror attacks, only to settle for lame diplomatic gestures.

So, when the Indian forces finally gave our neighbors a taste of what they are capable of, through the air strikes on the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakote, it should have resulted in a unanimous approval and assertion of self-confidence.

Alas, how committed certain sections of the Indian intelligentsia are to the idea of a weak India, perpetually suffering excesses without having recourse to any kind of aggressive response, became clear in the aftermath of these spectacular operations.

On the very day – February 26th – when this action took place, some members of Indian media were busy trying to create a fear psychosis among the ordinary people about the possible reprisal from Pakistani side.

This sinister move was led by, who else, Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today. In a show featuring certain experts, he kept harping on the danger of ‘escalation’ from the other side. He was aided by some of these experts, one of whom suggested that the government had ignored strategic concerns in order to put on a big show with an eye on the upcoming elections – precisely what the likes of Imran Khan and Shah Mahmud Qureishi are claiming.

But it was only going to get worse. On Wednesday, when the Pakistanis tried to respond by sending their planes into Indian airspace, the chorus from Sardesai and co. got stronger. The capture of an Indian pilot and shooting down of a fighter jet led to even more fear-mongering by these people. They insisted that this ‘escalation’ is taking India down a dangerous path for which we are not ready.

What is shocking is the lack of strategic understanding lacked by these senior journalists whith decades of experience behind them. If India were to accept Imran Khan’s offer of a dialogue – which he made after the Pakistani authorities announced the capture of the IAF pilot, with an air of haughtiness – it would make India seem weak-kneed once again. The psychological gains of executing a successful strike in Pakistani territory would evaporate also.

The facts are crystal clear: Pakistani establishment and the Army were humiliated by the action of Indian Air Force. They needed a face-saver. War is not an option as the country is bankrupt and not capable of taking on the mighty Indian forces. So, they look for some sort of small gain that they can hold up as an assertion of their strength and their ability to match India.

Taking down an Indian jet and capturing an Indian fighter pilot is something they thought good enough to play with. Hence, after boasting about defending their airspace and shooting down an IAF fighter jet, they offered a resumption of dialogue – something that would suggest that their counter-aggression punctured Indian bravado and forced them to the dialogue table.

If India backs off, Pakistan would claim the same kind of ‘victory’ that they do for the 1965 war and their confidence would be higher than ever. India would end-up looking like a soft-state that can’t deal a decisive blow to Pakistani military might. This is precisely what the Pakistani state wants.

Yet, the Sardesais of this world would rather have the Indian government paranoid about ‘escalation’ and cease aggressive operations. They want the Indian people to cower due to the prospect of Pakistani retaliation. Despite unanimity of opinion among IAF veterans that India is fully capable of inflicting more damage on Pak and, despite the capture of an officer, give greater pain to the Islamic republic, this section of the media, and by extension, the intelligentsia, is hell bent on hurting Indian morale.

Their unstated assertion is: the costs of continuing hostilities with Pakistan is too high and the Indian nation can’t withstand it. They want us to believe that the Modi-led government is taking Indian down the road of destruction. So, step back and resume dialogue.

They wouldn’t mind the humiliation India would suffer due to this backtracking. They also don’t mind the message of weakness it would convey. These people would see India remain a soft nation getting bullied by a much smaller, weaker, poorer nation.

It’s time that other sections of the media, and people on social media, ensure that their attempt to generate fear among the Indian people fails and the nation remains undeterred. This opportunity shouldn’t be missed to prove India’s intolerance for terror – once and for all.

The cost of #SayNoToWar- A message to India’s “peacekeepers”

siddharthgoud
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The cost of #SayNoToWar- A message to India’s “peacekeepers”

Four words. Four noble words that any humanitarian is expected to endorse in order to save lives.

But add some context to these words and suddenly the cost of these four “noble” words is blood. Yes, you read that right. Blood. Blood of Indians; both soldiers and civilians.

We have not been at war only since the past 48 hours, but since the last 30 years. Our adversary, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has not been fighting this war conventionally with soldiers in uniforms. And neither do their victims wear uniforms. They have been fighting this war with proxy terrorists. Terrorists, who are bred, trained and funded by their military inside Pakistani territory, and who have, over a series of attacks in the past 30 years, killed innocent civilians and soldiers inside our home; the sovereign territory of India.

And it is a war they are winning because when Pakistan decided to #BleedIndiaWithAThousandCuts, you decided to #SayNoToWar.

  • When Pakistan decided to train and fund JKLF and Islamist insurgents in Kashmir, you decided to #SayNoToWar and more than 700,000 Kashmiri Hindu Pandits fled their homes in a mass exodus to become refugees (until date) in their own country.
  • When Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) attacked the Indian parliament in 2001, you decided to #SayNoToWar and an attack on the heart of the world’s largest democracy went un-avenged.
  • When Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) perpetrated the dastardly 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai claiming more than 170 civilian and security personnel lives, you (and our proxy Prime Minister of the time Manmohan Singh) decided to #SayNoToWar and Hafiz Saeed, the UN-designated terrorist leader of LeT roams freely as “political” leader and recently founded a journalism institute in “Naya Pakistan”.
  • When Pakistan-based terrorists decided to infiltrate the Indian border and kill our defence personnel in Uri (2016), Pathankot (2016), Pulwama (2019) and continue to blood bathe Kashmir, you decide to #SayNoToWar and keep the death toll of our soldiers ticking (which over the past 30 years has exceeded 10,000).

So when you, the urbanised, “woke” millennials, trend your hashtag on social media in aspiration for the “Malala” peace prize, what you do not realise is that your Pakistani counterpart (the “average” Pakistani citizen), who purports to not want (conventional) war with India is completely oblivious or in denial of the fact that:

  • their country not only harbours UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar (leader of JeM; mastermind of Pulwama and 2001 Indian Parliament attacks) but allows them to operate with absolute impunity within Pakistani territory;
  • their country houses terror launchpads across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir from where armed insurgents cause deaths of hundreds of security personnel in India every year;
  • their country was the retirement home for Osama Bin Laden, terrorist godfather, who was living in utmost comfort in Abottabad, just 120km away from the Pakistani army HQ in Rawalpindi; and
  • their country is foster home to the Taliban, Hizbul Mujahideen and various other terrorist organisations that export terror to the world.

But you continue to #SayNoToWar and encourage the Pakistani ostriches to bury their heads in the sand, instead of pushing them to clean up their backyard. Your misplaced sense of how peace can be achieved enables the status quo that will continue to result in the meaningless death of Indian soldiers on Indian soil.

But thankfully, you and your ilk are not (and will never be) responsible for India’s security and keeping the integrity of our sovereignty intact.

So why appeal to you then? Why do your actions matter?

Because your farcical hashtag that purports India to be a war mongering nation is the biggest disservice to our armed forces.

India has never been the aggressor. When the Indian Air Force destroyed the JeM terror camp in Balakot on 26 February (thus providing partial closure to the families of the Pulwama martyrs), it ensured that no harm was caused to any Pakistani civilian or military personnel. It was the Pakistani retaliatory attack on the Indian military, in defence of terrorists, which was the actual act of war legitimising Pakistan’s terror affiliations.

When the entire world is endorsing India’s right to self-defence and pressurising Pakistan to act against terror, your misguided activism undermines the war on terror and encourages Pakistan to continue with its unconventional war methods (i.e. terror).

A loss of even one soldier’s life is heart-wrenching for every Indian. Testament to that is the entire nation forgetting the success of the Balakot air strikes and praying for the safety of captured Wing Commander Abhinandan.

But the nation’s call for retribution is not “war mongering”. Pulwama martyr Ratan Thakur’s father demand for justice was not “war mongering”. Wing Commander Abhinandan’s act of preventing an attack on Indian military by chasing those Pakistani F-16s out of Indian air space was not “war mongering”.

Our armed forces were raised to protect us and themselves. Note that India has lost more soldiers in “peace” time than in actual war and our soldiers were not trained to stand by and watch your “Aman ki Asha” Tamasha. Let us allow them to do their jobs.

So #SayNoToTerror before you #SayNoToWarOnTerror, Phir aman hoga… Shanti bhi hogi.

Jai Hind.

Modi breaks the backbone of terror deep inside Pakistan

Naagesh Padmanaban
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Modi breaks the backbone of terror deep inside Pakistan

The Indian Air Force (IAF) strike in early hours of 26th February 2019 on terror training bases deep inside Pakistan that killed over 350 terrorists has made us all speechless.

It has certainly made the Pakistanis speechless because not even in their wildest dreams did they imagine India would attempt this. The continuous stream of rattled mumblings – from the official spokesperson and their defense minister- all point to a stunned and confused Pakistani establishment.

For almost three decades now, they have been bluffing the world about their nuclear capabilities and by inference, held out a nuclear blackmail on India. The IAF just shattered this self-created glass firewall that Pakistan was touting as an unbreachable threshold. That blackmail is in tatters in the cratered remains of Balakot in Mansera district in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa province of Pakistan.

For most Indians, the IAF precision strike executed with flawless perfection was too real to even comprehend initially. Like the Pakistanis, they too were expecting the Indian armed forces to conduct a surgical strike where a small special forces team would embark on a stealth mission to neutralize the terrorists. But the air strike was a different ball game altogether. No one expected the scale and dramatic results that looked too easy and perfect. But that betrayed the power and sophistication of a deadly air force that is arguably one of the best in the world.

Even as media reports flooded in with all the exhilarating details, some larger issues embedded in the air strike are worth noting.

It is not that India’s armed forces suddenly turned pro. The fact is that they were always a potent force to recon with, even before India got its Independence from Britain in 1947. No one doubted its capabilities. The fact that they have armed themselves to the teeth over the last decade only adds sheen to the valor and dignity of the forces.

As many have already pointed out, the deployment of the air force for the first time to neutralize terror camps deep inside Pakistan is a welcome change in the mindset of the mandarins in Delhi. Simultaneously, and more importantly, India seems to have called the nuclear bluff of Pakistan.

In many ways, India has de facto expounded a new doctrine in taking on cross border terrorism set against a nuclear blackmail. This will be hotly discussed and reviewed by military institutes the world over for some time to come.

More importantly, it has opened a window into the mind of Narendra Modi, a Prime Minister, the like of which India has not seen in seven decades. If anyone would have followed his speeches – even before he was elected to the high office in India – it would have been evident that he was determined to corral and defang Pakistan from day one. Hence it would indeed be juvenile to see the air strike as just a fallout and response to the killing of 40 soldiers in Pulwama on 14th of February 2019.

India’s armed forces have long warned the political leadership that it should adopt a punitive and proactive military strategy against Pakistan. But time and again this advice has fallen on the deaf ears of the political leadership, resulting in the deaths of thousands in the last two decades.

For decades the political leadership did not dare to confront the neighbor’s use of terror as a state policy head on. This pusillanimity in effect reduced the armed forces to being just a beat cop chasing the terrorists. In retrospect, India had voluntarily succumbed to the blackmail even without putting up a fight.

But Modi changed all this. In a very deliberate and studied evolution, he appears to have worked very hard, quietly and off the radar to evolve a strategy that will neuter Pakistan, and in effect also clear the biggest stumbling block in India’s road to rapid development.

Given Modi’s thoroughness and penchant for perfect execution, he must have indeed been at work for a very long time. He needed to have the right logistics in place so the right preparation can meet the right opportunity. From arming the forces with best he can get to the top in class satellite systems to keep a hawk’s eye on Pakistan, the task seemed to be done. He was only waiting for the right opportunity. The surgical strike carried out in September 2016 was but his first laboratory tests of the doctrine he had put together in his mind.

But then more needed to be done to prime the forces and logistics. The Armed forces must have been busy planning and exercising on the operational plans since then. The killing of the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans provided the right opportunity for India. Diplomatically, the killing provided the right narrative to take on Pakistan.

The mission, for its sheer daredevilry and perfection in penetrating the defenses of a nuclear power and obliterating over 350 terrorists gives one the goosebumps. The ease with which the IAF befuddled the enemy’s radars and air defense systems to deploy a formation of at least 12 fighter jets to carry out its deadly mission and safely return to base in just 21 minutes will be discussed endlessly by military strategists all over the world.

But then, one must realize that an extremely capable force worked in perfect unison with Modi the strategist par excellence, who was willing to take risks to wipe out terror from South Asia. It certainly appears that India has broken its backbone, although the vestiges may linger on for more time to come.

This operation indeed is a cause for celebration for every Indian. It is indeed the beginning of the unraveling of a rouge nation that has with gay abandon used terror as a state policy. For Pakistan, the writing on the wall is clear. It will face more audacious strikes from India in the coming days. It is difficult to see how Pakistan as country, in its current geographical bounds will last beyond a few years at best.

Reference

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/iaf-air-strike-pakistan-india-balakot-jaish-e-mohammad-mirage-5602259/

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