Revenge Means Zilch

India is fighting a civilizational battle of survival against Islamic jihad.We are a status -quoist country and a stable civilisation.For the past one thousand years,we have been locked in a war of attrition against this pernicious  ideology which doesn’t believe in coexistence or reconciliation .Its either their Faith,or death for the others .Our  aim is to survive,live well and thrive . The fundamental decency and goodness of our objectives shall ensure that we  prevail in this timeless war foisted upon us . Jihad will eventually lose its meaning and charm  .

As such ,the talk of revenge rings quite hollow . Vengeance is anyways a personal persuit,and can be satisfied only if it is directed by the one who has suffered against the perpetrator of the imjustice himself.Else it degenerates into bloodlust and petty politics .And yet, evil should not be allowed to operate with  impunity.With the violation of Pakistani airspace India has increased future costs of following the policy of proxy war ,and this is an acceptable result. ‘#Unavenged’ loses its meaning when viewed from this perspective.

There can be counterviews.It can be argued if India has been tamed,checkmated,straightjacketed or defanged ? The situation has still not descalated.Last word has not yet been written.Someone might still be thinking of avenging himself.

 

Few Undisputable Facts

Maybe ,a terrorist has  no religion.A Jihadi definitely has.

Jihadis,for sure,have a sanctuary and an enabler in the form of Pakistan.Not even their own governments now deny it,just Navjot Singh Siddhu does.

Paki authorities dare not wash their hands off mujahideens even publicly.They are accountable for the Saudi money they ingest.

Global Jihad has one  benefactor-the House of Ibn Saud.

Jihad knows no accommodation,nor compromise.The Book cannot lie.You cannot question what is written therein.

What we face in Kashmir and outside India is jihad.It can only be contained,and never conclusively defeated.This is a war we have chosen to fight,rather than converting to jihadis’ faiths ,or getting slain.

India can not afford gift Kashmir to Pakistan.We have no choice but to defend it.

These are undisputable facts.

 

Not Our Enemy ?

For the  past two weeks,we have been listening to Liberal voices saying that Pakistan is not our enemy,terrorism is.This is  quite a perverse line of argument  .How can a country which has fought four wars against us,and has been bleeding us by a policy of thousands cuts since late 1980s not be our enemy ? Pakistan breeds,feeds,trains and exports jihadis ,not just to Kashmir and India,but also to Iran and Afganistan.How can this rogue nation  be considered anything except a sworn enemy by Indians  ? How do people of Pakistan who are strong and vocal supporters of such a regime be considered our friends ? Or are the  left-liberals implying that Pakistanis are ‘occupied’ people ? Are they calling for regime change in Pakistan ?

Holy Molly.What have I said !

This is not what these leeches feel or want at all.

Imran Khan is their new hero.Earlier it was Musharraf,and before him Zulfi and Benazir Bhutto were .Bilawal is as much a wet dream as our own scion is.Im the Dim has suddenly acquired statemanly proportions in their eyes by mouthing some hollow words against war and for peace.Imran is an Army puppet,and  was cornered and pressured into handing over our captured pilot back to us.There was a real threat of war,Geneva Conventions left no elbow room for mischief and Saudi-UAE-USA pressure was too strong to ignore.Yet for these left-libs, Imran is a statesman and Modi is a manipulative warmonger.He is a puppet when it comes to linking him with state support to jihad and culpability for Pulwama,but is considered a prophet of peace when he is forced to release Abhinandan. It is conveniently ignored that Imran has ordered his troops to indulge in heavy shelling across the border,and threw tantrums at India being invited to the OIC.

Hence regime change is not being called for,and our left-liberal elite is actually of the opinion that the civilian-military jugalbandi is working fine.So much so that India must jump the bus and not let go of  this opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with this rogue nation.

 

The Timeless War

Pakistan was carved on religious lines.Islam is what caused its genesis,and has been responsible for keeping the nation together.This original sin manifests itself in two ways- its continued hatred for (what it perceives as) the Hindu India,and fostering of Islamic jihad in Kashmir in the garb of local insurgency.

The zero-sum worldview of Islamic Jihad leaves no scope for any doubt.The perpetrators of violence in its name understand it well.Onus is on its victims to appreciate the inflexible,inevitable logic of choice between  death or conversion,voluntary or forced.

Hindustan has been grappling with Islamic Jihad for more than a millennium now.If we are still unaware or in denial of its true nature,a lot must be wrong with us.How difficult is it to appreciate that as long as there is Pakistan,it would be hostile towards India and wish the death of our secular fabric.

 

Meek,Weak Hindu

Is a Hindu (one who lives beyond Indus) a  meek,weak,lazy ,servile,hypocrital,and indecisive  speciman of human creation  ? The impressionable among us wish we had effective agenices like Mossad who follow a policy of targeted assassinations.Israel is the utopia of  many Hindu dreams. But Jews lost 6 million of their people between 1933-45.In about 800 years of slavery ,we coopted (very few honourable exceptions) with the Muslims and the British and did not face sustained,large scale violence and misery.We live in denial.We turn the other cheek to avoid confrontation.We want to forget ,and move on.We do not have the capacity to embrace sufferings like Jews did.Who is talking about Pulwama since Abhinandan’s capture ? We are in a hurry for this show to get over,and for the next,possibly the elections, to begin.

 

Quintessential Hindu middle class ,left-liberals and closet Paki lovers are raising their voices in favour of #saynotowar.Even after the dastardly Pulwama attack,we have not seen any social media campaigns which promote #saynotojihad. This betrays their intentions. Servility is their trait,and self –interest lets them collaborate with the enemy. After every jihadi strike,its common to find motivated interpreters of the Book spring around us. Our people easily get manipulated,and the enemy is full of guile.It is an expert in psywar.Our quislings actively work with the enemy .Common people coopt with these crooks inadvertently.

In the past 20 years,we have lost 6700 soldiers and numerous civilians in Kashmir alone in what has essentially been peace time,what to talk of the terror attacks across the country.As such ,the clamour for peace is basically a voice in favour of appeasement.

One and a half day of captivity for a brave fighter pilot made  this country forget all about  war effort and  clamour for his release.Well,the Wing commander was not stranded in his school after missing his bus. But the fifth column exploited the situation well and raised public frenzy into a crescendo.This happened during Kandhar as well ,when Vajpayee was pressured into releasing the dreaded jihadis in exchange for the lives of aircraft passengers .That same devil has been bleeding us for the past two decades.Pulwama was his doing. We have paid a heavy price for excessive sentimentalism.

 

Tactical Results So Far

This standoff has neither seen India’s unequivocal victory, nor Pakistan’s unalloyed magnanimity.Reality is much more subtle,and boring.Pulwama was a provocation,infact a dare. Did we have any choice but to strike ?

With our airstrikes into POK and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa ,we have demonstrated our will to strike at terrorists hiding anywhere inside Pakistan. The dead count and actual destruction might remain a matter of speculation,but it doesn’t really matter.What matters is that we have established a new normal by giving up our voluntary restraint.

Pakistan cried hoarse about violation of its airspace and struck back.With this ,Pakistan has also sent a clear message that any violation by India shall merit an equal response in strategic terms. This is one thing Pakistan has always aimed at –strategic parity.

Does that mean that India’s elbow room,gained by Feb 26 airstrikes has been filled up by Pakistan ? Far from it.The exchanges on 26-27^th Feb only prove that jihadi strikes can lead to a full scale war,because India would not remain a mute spectator and Pakistan would be left with no choice but to retaliate . Things can escalate quickly from there.Rules of engagement have changed for sure.

Given its economic clout and morally strong position ,India can be expected to influence global opinion in its favour.For Pakistan,escalation of such a conflict in a large scale war,or even medium scale one is a bigger risk. Again,like 1965,it can be said that this standoff has resulted in a strategic stalemate. It is this that leads me to predict that it is not all over yet.

A lot is being said about India having called Pakistan’s Nuclear bluff.Again,this is a mixed bag.In response to India’s non-military pre-emtive military strikes,Pakistan did retaliate but did not exercise the Nuclear option as it has always threatened to.This is second time in two years that Pakistan’s empty nuclear threats have been exposed.But Pakistan’s violation of Indian airspace might also be interpreted as having called India’s bluff on setting the new normal.

Now what are the options that India is left with ? What would we do if ,god forbid,the terrorists strike  next time ? Of course,India is free to choose from a variety of options,and has displayed its will in this regard,but Pakistan has also made it clear that it shall defend the jihadis at whatever costs it might take.This is a bit of a strategic tangle here.

 

PsyWar-India’s Bane

India must have learnt a valuable lesson from these events as far as information flow is concerned .In PSYWAR,Pakistan scored some valuable points over us.They were the ones who broke the news of our Airstrikes and tried to set the narrative from there.It was not before six-seven hours of speculation that India officially reacted.Then in the evening the PM did some rabblerousing in  a very political speech at an election rally.

Around the time of  Pak incursion,one of our helicopter also crashed in Budgam.In the absence of any official version ,lots of rumours flew around.The  Pakistani official version which claimed that two Migs had been shot down amd two pilots were under custody gained traction. Again,India’s response came quite late in the day and was quite brief to assuage anxious Indians.This was media management at its worst. It was even left to the PAF spokesperson to clarify regarding the Bugga chopper.

All this while,fifth columnists were busy spreading pessimism on social media and quite succeeded in dampening the mood of the nation.Not one word was uttered by any top functionary about WC Abhinandan or Geneva Conventions,and this let the #BringBackAbhinandan ,#SayNoToWar gain huge traction without any credible counter-narrative.

Imran Khan,a stooge really,projected himself as a man of peace ,a decisive leader and  a magnanimous man.Modi,in contrast,let himself be caricatured as an unprepared PM,a vote-hungry politician,a warmonger and an insensitive elder with regard for the captured boy .This was how India played PSYWAR at its worst.Thank God for Pakistan’s poor credibility ,India’s economic and democratic credentials and global fatigue with jihad that we managed to salvage the situation .

 

The Final Word

It is to be noted that the Pakis have not allowed access to the foreign media to the Balakote site as yet.Neither have the Indians released any credible evidence that they did actually manage to kill any jihadis.

If the situation doesn’t escalate further,these last three days of February shall be remembered for exemplary personal courage  of one fighter pilot ,beauty and efficacy of one old jet aircraft,decisiveness and guile  of one Pathan ka bachcha and unquestioned solidity and intent of one National Leader.Rest everything  is under clouds of suspicion , most of the media’s role is under question and a lot of water might have to flow through the  Indus system before dust actually settles down.

Who wont be remembered after this climbdown is the martyred Pakistani fighter pilot,another addition  in a long list of unclaimed ,unaccepted casualties .The  rogue nation has  too many ghosts of its own creation whose corpses it cant count on its own soil  ,hence  exports them to becomes azadi martyrs on the neighbouring territories just so they can be counted.