The Big Story: Huff and puff

To understand Narendra Modi’s original stance on Pakistan, one needs to watch an interview he gave to TV journalist Rajat Sharma in 2011. In it, Modi raged about our neighbour, calling it an “enemy country” and a nation of “expert liars”. He ridiculed the United Progressive Alliance government’s policy of trying to talk peace with Pakistan and hinted that if it were up to him, he would use force to respond to the 26/11 attack on Mumbai and other terror operations emanating from Pakistan. “A neighbour hits you and in response you go to America!” he said. “Why don’t you go to Pakistan instead? It needs to be replied back in its own coin. Stop writing love letters to Pakistan.”

This was not new for Modi. In 2008, while the attacks on Mumbai were on, he had held a press conference criticising the government for inaction.

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Modi won a historic mandate in May 2014 and was elected prime minister for precisely such rhetoric. And then, of course the fact that rhetoric is not governance hit home.

Since Modi has come to power, militants, allegedly backed by the Pakistan establishment, have targeted India again and again. On Sunday, a group of militants attacked an army base in Uri. Earlier, in January, militants launched an assault on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. In July 2015, even a police station in Gurdaspur was attacked.

The fact that Pakistan-backed militant can so easily hit at hard targets such as army bases is an abysmal failure of the government.

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Meanwhile, for all practical purposes, the Modi government has fallen back on the Manmohan Singh government’s policy of strategic restrain. On Wednesday, India asked Pakistan to act against terror and offered to share information on the Uri attack.

Of course, this policy of the Modi government is practical and level-headed. War in nuclear South Asia is a terrifying prospect. However, the other option of simply sitting by as Pakistan’s deep state hits India at will also does not exist. Uri, for example, points to glaring lapses in security: militants simply walked the 150 metres from the Line of Control unchallenged. Why were there weaknesses not foreseen?

Instead of grandstanding on Pakistan, the BJP-led government should concentrate on the real work of protecting India, her borders and the lives of her peoples. It is unglamorous work and it is far easier to simply talk war. But given how impractical war actually is, constantly making threats that India can’t keep ends up making the country look weak.

The Big Scroll

  1. The Indian challenge is to march on for peace amid the rising drumbeat of war
  2. It’s time to beat Pakistan at its own game – but India must keep its own hands clean
  3. If India is serious about making Pakistan pay, it can’t go back to business as usual

Political Picks

  1. The Karnataka state government is making moves to defy the orders of the Supreme Court on the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
  2. Days after a court sets free Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez, Mehbooba Mufti government books him under the draconian Public Safety Act, which allows a person to be detained without trial for up to six months.
  3. At the United Nations, India accuses Pakistan of war crimes, calls it a “terrorist state”.
  4. Mulayam Singh Yadav is not ready to fade away just yet.

Punditry

  1. Why India doesn’t have an Israeli option when it comes to Pakistan, argues Pramit Pal Chaudhuri in the Hindustan Times.
  2. In the Telegraph, Shubhashish Gangopadhyay explains what the problem is with India’s private universities.

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Cauvery dispute: The Congress in Karnataka is caught in a political whirlpool, says Sruthisagar Yamunan.

That an elected government has decided to brazenly violate the order of the Supreme Court showed how the issue has become thorn in the flesh of ruling party in Karnataka.

The Cauvery crisis could not have come at a worse time for the Congress. The Assembly elections are scheduled for 2018 and the party has seen a steady decline in its electoral fortunes since it stormed back to power in 2013.