The Modi government’s decision to conduct surgical strikes against terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a cause for national pride and is a proud assertion of our determination and resolve to fight terrorism, which is a global menace today.
Successive governments before the present NDA government took decisions that put Pakistan’s interests ahead of India's interests. The Congress in particular helped Pakistan many a time. Nehru should not have taken the Kashmir issue to the United Nations and agreed to a ceasefire with Pakistan at a time when the Indian forces had gained control over Jammu and Kashmir, including PoK, the portion that he allowed Pakistan to occupy. By agreeing to the creation of a LoC, Nehru ensured that Pakistan enjoys the power of being a geographically strategic global stakeholder today.
When the Indian forces captured over one lakh Pakistani soldiers and large portions of land inside Pakistan during the Bangladesh war, Indira Gandhi failed to leverage this opportunity to negotiate with Pakistan and take control of PoK. This was owing to a lack of negotiating skills and competence.
The various instruments of bilateral engagement between India and Pakistan signed by the Nehru and the Gandhis such as the Most Favoured Nation status, the Indus water treaty and the cultural exchange activities are all heavily tilted in favour of Pakistan. India managed to address this issue during the NDA-1 tenure under Atalji. However, its attempts were faced with obstruction from within India. It is only during Narendra Modi’s tenure that a paradigm shift has been triggered as far as India’s Pak policy is concerned. By announcing the surgical strikes, the Modi government has demonstrated true statesmanship and leadership by taking responsibility for its actions.
Illustration: Bhaskaran
From a foreign policy point of view, India has succeeded in garnering support from countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to boycott the 2016 SAARC summit, which was to be hosted in Islamabad. This highlights Pakistan’s failure and the fact that it has made most of its neighbours its enemies. The Pak isolation across the world community is evident from the snub at the UN, and the fact that the European Union countries, the United States and France supported the surgical strikes. The Chinese character certificate to terrorist Masood Azhar has further added strength to the viewpoint that Pakistan is a terrorist nation.
In India, the narrative put across by the communist-controlled media has been skewed. The Pak fault lines have been kept under the wraps in any debate or discourse in these media outlets. The Indian communists, in many instances, have advocated the enemy point of view within our political and intellectual landscape, thereby providing necessary firepower to the enemy country to isolate India’s case on international platforms. Their student wings across our educational institutions such as JNU and Jadavpur University propagate anti-India rhetoric.
The Congress has claimed that the UPA government had conducted similar strikes against Pakistan in 2013 and 2014, but had kept them under the wraps. Why is the Congress announcing its ‘surgical strikes’ now? If the strikes in 2013 and 2014 did happen, it is possible that this was an action taken by the military because the UPA was incompetent to deal with terrorism from Pakistan. The fact that the Congress kept past surgical strikes under the wraps means that they do not have any right to demand proof of the recent surgical strikes.
As terrorist attacks against India continue post the surgical strikes, every Indian must join in support for our armed forces as they battle cross-border terrorism.
Many politicians do not wish to acknowledge Modi's growing popularity and stature. Thus, they remind me of a washing powder's advertisement: uski kameez meri kameez se safed kaise.
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