I woke up to a heavy Kal Baisakhi downpour for the third day in succession.Inclement weather in the morning is anyway quite depressing ,on top of it  the realisation that one of our pilot is in the enemy custody dampened my spirits further  .Things could have gone better ,especially our handling of the advantage accrued on day one .

The tide did turn yesterday.Our chests ,bloated heavily after Tuesday’s air strikes ,got deflated somewhat  .Feeling of inordinate pride of the punisher  has given way to concern  for our boy . Indians are like that –overtly emotional ,over reactive and quite motherly.The mood in the country is sombre.Fifth columnists are working overtime  in putting pressure on the government by generating hysteria in the captured pilot’s name.

I m not despondent, because thank heavens,there is the  Geneva convention to fall back upon .But the euphoria of 26/02 has surely vanished.The grim reality of war has kicked in.

Pakistan has admitted they have our pilot in their custody.He is a POW.They are obliged to treat him well and return him to us in seven days.But are we really at war ? Our government has described airstrikes as non-military pre-emptive in nature.We have not hit their civilian or military installations.But Pakistan did target our military assets,although it failed.In any case,it would be difficult for Pakistan to either mistreat our pilot  or refuse to return him soon enough in the face of global pressure.In any case,howsoever concerned are we about him,a captured pilot is definitely not reason enough to accept Imran’s proposal for peace and begin talks.Not yet.Time in not yet opportune.

The events of yesterday raise a vital question – why did IAF pilots in Mig-21 Bison chase Pakistan’s F-16 across the LOC ? Were they authorised by the IAF to do so ? If yes,did they not take into account the Pakistani Air defence systems (missiles) ? Or did the captured pilot got carried away in the heat of the moment and crossed over by mistake ? Two former Air Chiefs Fali Homi Major and Krishnaswamy predicted the exact same scenario on the eve of 26/02 .Yet somehow we fell prey to the Pakistani strategy.The former Air Chiefs were unanimous in their opinion that in the event of Pakistani fighter jets crossing into our territory,our pilots wont cross the LOC while chasing them.And yet he did.IAF must explain this. More importantly,why were our Air Defence systems not deployed.Our Bison did engage one F-16,and shot it down using a short-range R73 missile.But why did we not trust out Surface –to-air missiles remains unanswered.

One can understand why Mig-21s and Sukhois were being used for CAP(combat air petrol) during the bright morning when intrusions are  least expected.In any case,Wing Commander Abhinandan displayed remarkable skills even while using the old and outdated manual control levers of Mig 21,and brought down their much superior F-16.Yet it is difficult to digest why S2A missiles were not used on all the three violating F16 who were headed towards military installations.

A lot of public discourse is directed against the irresponsible reporting by the media.But that is not a shock anymore.All they worry about is their TRPs ,personal interests and political affiliations.There might be a couple or two of honourable exceptions,but mainstream media has lost all its credibility.

Similarly irritating are the left-liberal mafia’s responses.As soon as the news of the capture of our pilot started circulating,anti-war,anti-Modi,pro-restraint tweets started doing rounds.They tried to generate hysteria in the name of the captured pilot as a means of putting pressure on the government to accept Imran Khan’s repeated offers of peace.This is a reprise of the Kandhar incident ,when humongous pressure was brought upon the Vajpayee government to release the hijackers in exchange for the lives of passengers.Left-liberals are reliable in maintaining their parasitic stand.They can be counted upon to bring in caste,religion,peace,elections,cow,Temple in every single discourse.But even then it was quite shocking to note that some of them had begun extolling Imran Khan as a statesman ,a messiah of peace rather than a lying ,conniving army puppet and jihadi apologist that he is.

Highly disgusting it is as well to watch the government top functionaries and the opoosition indulging in blatant partisanship.Bluster,self congratulatory tone,accusations and counter-accusations,gimmickry and politicisation of the Action taken on 26/02 is in full swing.We are a democracy with extremely low level of political discourse.Such things are expected.India cannot suddenly learn the virtues of grace.

Bull we must remember that this is a war of our own choosing. Pakistan was founded on a religious principle.The terrorists which it harbours hail from the same religion.These radical Islamic jihadis have a clearcut objective- death to all kafirs,or their conversions to their own Faith.Xinjiang,Kashmir,Chechenya are not about quest for political freedom,but are a part of global jihad. Indians have a choice- concede and convert.Jihadis would embrace us and stop attacking us.But we love our Hindu (trans-Indus) way of live too much to submit to them.Their Arabia-suited way of live doesn’t appeal to all of us.Hence we fight-for our nation’s independence,our own freedoms,culture of tolerance and perpetuation of Indian lifestyle. Thousands of our soldiers and civilians have been targeted by jihadis in Kashmir and across the country in the past 30 years.But we intend to fight this good fight,and win we will.

Our values are simple- we aim to survive,live and thrive as humans.We neither wish to convert anyone,nor shall succumb to any forcible conversions.We live in a secular country where everyone can coexist.We have faced huge reverses in Kashmir,but not anymore.India has decided to fight back decisively.This war shall be long,tiring and might bleed us and kill our children.But we shall prevail in the long run because of our simpler humanely values.

The middle class in every society is selfish. Slight inconveniences irk them.Minor taxes and cesses raise their heckles. They are quick to exult,and quicker to feel dejected .Of course,it’s the forces which fight (and sacrifice themselves) and poor who pay the price and bear the brunt (being on the margins),but lets also not forget that the martyrs come from every class. But that doesn’t mean that middle class’s emotions should hold a veto over the government policy.

As things stand ,Indian faultlines have been exposed. We come across as a divided nation which lacks the will to fight a decisive war.We are already bickering like crazies,and indulging in low-level mudslinging politics as if there is going to be no tomorrow.Our own have expressed doubts on the veracity and efficiacy of the claims by the government .There are a lot of unanswered questions.What about  the foiled bids on the Lashkar and the Jaish headquarters ? But all said and done ,we did strike .Pakistan’s Deterrence has been shattered.New normal and terms of engagement have been established. Then again ,India cannot back down now that Pakistan has chosen to violate our airspace and drop payload near our military installations.This is just not on.India reserves the right to reply.