Are India and
Pakistan at war? If we take a pragmatic view, then there has never been peace
between the two nations. Does this translate into war? Should crossing the
border, killing soldiers, infiltrating be treated as war during peacetime?
On January 8,
the Pakistani army killed two Indian jawans, Lance-Naik Sudhakar Singh and
Lance-Naik Hemraj. It was made out to be as though they ambled across, fired at
the two, beheaded one and took away the head as trophy or proof. But this
wasn’t a random act. The mainstream media has largely been talking in terms of “giving
them a bloody nose” whether it is stated explicitly or implied.
Combat across
the Line of Control (LoC) where both countries are involved does not amount to “diversionary
manoeuvre to push infiltrators into J&K”, especially if the Intelligence
Bureau was aware of it.
Winters in Jammu and Kashmir were generally considered as downtime for infiltration, the snow
making it difficult for such incursion. If the IB had tipped off the Army, why
were there no adequate pre-emptive steps taken? This is where it gets
interesting.
False
peace
Pakistan has,
expectedly, denied any such killings. But what has the Indian government done?
It termed it “provocative action”. The Indian Army also called it “grave
provocation”. If the ceasefire is not respected, it is beyond provocation. This
is not some game.
Foreign minister
Salman Khurshid said:
“I think it is important in the long term that what has happened should not be escalated…We have to be careful that forces ... attempting to derail all the good work that's been done towards normalisation (of relations) should not be successful.”
Who are these abstract
forces that want to derail the peace process? Unlike in most countries that
have a dispute, here peace is the Damocles Sword that hangs over the heads of
India and Pakistan. It is ridiculously forced and caters primarily to the
commercial and elite classes that gain points at seminars and encourage
exchange of artistes to uphold a common heritage. If the heritage is common,
why do we need clones?
Has any treaty
been signed without ho-humming about the Kashmir issue? No. So, let us accept
that the two governments are not interested in peace or a solution to Kashmir.
We treat such casualties as collateral damage for a non-existent détente.
The two sides
have taken position – away from the border – and ironically both are using the
same excuse: non-state actors. This is particularly perplexing, for after the
26/11 attacks in Mumbai India had categorically blamed the Pakistani government
and finally its ‘non-state actor’ Ajmal Kasab was hanged to death. This time,
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has suggested that the mastermind behind
those attacks, Hafiz Saeed, was seen having a chat with people across the LoC
and therefore the Lashkar-e-Toiba could well be responsible.
How, then, can
we blame the Pakistani government for being in denial? If this is an act of
terror, then no government will accept the blame, even if there is complicity
and jihad training camps.
Besides, between
different versions of truth and lies, facts become the casualties. According to
a Reuters report:
“The body of one of the soldiers was found mutilated in a forested area on the side controlled by India, Rajesh K. Kalia, spokesman for the Indian army's Northern Command, said. However, he denied Indian media reports that one body had been decapitated and another had its throat slit.”
The theory of
provocation assumes that needling is part of our respective foreign policies.
