The terrorist attack at Uri marks the tipping point in our Pakistan policy. Having been bled by trans-border terrorism for over two and a half decades, India has finally demonstrated the political will to employ smart power (an imaginative mix of both soft and hard power) to coerce Pakistan to stop using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Focused efforts to diplomatically isolate Pakistan along with psychological operations to target Pakistani minds have already commenced. Options on the economic and military front are being mulled over at various levels of the government. However, while a demonstrative military action will follow at the ‘time and place of our choosing’, the fire assaults on the Line of Control, as per standard operating procedure, would have already taken a toll on the Pakistani military deployed in the forward zone.
There has been endless debate on the plausible options and many have questioned the absence of a national strategy to deal with Pakistan. While military contingency plans at the strategic, operational and tactical levels are very much in place, the changed political narrative will now provide a framework for the formulation of an assertive and aggressive multi-pronged strategy vis-à-vis Pakistan. How could such strategy exist, when repeatedly, much to the dismay of our nation, we had continued to embrace a policy of inaction even in the face of grave provocations? The clock has started ticking now and, given the wisdom of our national planners, a comprehensive strategy, entailing the whole-of-government approach, will soon get formulated.
Illustration: Bhaskaran
Some of the prongs of this all encompassing approach would entail diplomatic isolation, exploiting economic levers, overt and covert military operations to cause attrition on Pakistani military and their asymmetric assets, increasing Pakistani military’s employment in Balochistan, Sindh, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit, providing political, diplomatic and moral support to not just the Balochis but all secessionist tendencies along with credible psychological operations to shape minds of the target audience. Such strategy, owing to a number of imponderables and dynamic internal and external factors will have to be flexible and, to induce desired deterrence, it would necessitate some facets being placed in the public domain.
To achieve the ends sought, the strategy has to be enduring with consistency in its implementation. Intimate monitoring of various prongs is essential to not just meet the stipulated timelines but to also incorporate timely adjustments, where necessary. Furthermore, to ensure that an aggressive Pakistan-centric policy does not impinge on our internationally recognised stature of being a responsible nation that has abjured violence and played a constructive mainstream role, we will require in tandem, a credible information and perception management initiative. This would also be necessary to showcase the ground realities in Pakistan and the army’s atrocities to its people, besides the international community. For the strategy to be effective, its formulation, coordination and implementation should be monitored at the highest level—preferably, under the aegis of the PMO.
Asymmetric assets to enable realisation of various ends should be created across the border and not in India as over time, they become double-edged swords and law unto themselves. Pakistan is today a victim of this folly. Having created terrorist outfits for supporting anti-Soviet operations in Afghanistan and then for J&K, they are today at their mercy. The Pakistan army has to keep them cajoled, lest they start targeting its leadership and the rank and file.
It is time Pakistan and its army that have blatantly pursued asymmetric warfare against India were subjected to unbearable pain through an assertive and aggressive policy. Pakistani army, the brain behind Pakistan’s India policy, must be given a taste of its own medicine and made to bleed by a thousand cuts.
