State of Pakistan: Till Destruction do us Apart !! Trigger Gurdaspur and Pathankot

In a direct reference to Pakistan, USA has really done excellent home work to come up with a new name for an entity called ’Af-pak’. Digging deep into it reveals that there is in existence a ‘barter system’, as a matter of fact, with so called ‘non-state players’. Just imagine, losing half of its limb called East Pakistan to the present Bangladesh did not cause emotional upheavals in Pakistan as much as the issue of Kashmir (J&K) has been doing for over six decades since independence. This too should be blamed on UN intervention or else the Indian Army was well on its course to evict the last of the intruders in 1947-48. It is said that nation states perish due to cocoon-like obsessions; it could be the case with Pakistan, which is simply carrying on with the issue of Kashmir with five high cost historical failures staring on its face. Pakistan must understand, with adequate experience by now, that India is neither USSR that could be pushed out of Afghanistan (read J&K) as was done by the Taliban in the 90s nor is it Afghanistan that could be subjugated by the ‘Taliban’ mercenaries of LeT and JeM variety. Pakistan having failed in all its endeavours, finally seems to have come down to T-20 style of terrorists matches.

The terrorists’ actions like the one in Pathankot and the earlier one in Gurdaspur, just go to prove very clearly the existence of a state within a state. While one meets our PM for peace talks; the other rebuffs it by Pakistan-based terrorist ‘T-20 team’ action of JeM. Whosoever still wants to believe that these are non-state players? Here one state conducts the raid, while the other from within condemns it. We must also take note of the fact that it no longer remains confined to the state of J&K, the so called disputed territory as perceived by Pakistan; is now trying to spread its wings beyond in the rest of the country. And in all this, China maintains its graceful silence as usual and USA routinely condemns the action but not those who have perpetrated the heinous crime of terror. So much for the world’s consensus for Global War on Terror (GWOT)!! It is no coincidence that at the same time Indian consulate in Afghanistan located at Mazar-e-sharif too is attacked by the gun men.

It appears rather unrealistic to link these attacks to Modi’s unscheduled visit to Pakistan on his way back from Afghanistan. Because it is just not possible to plan these actions in such a hurry and as a quick counter to the so called Peace talks! It seems to be all part of a well-planned strategy to keep India on the boil all the time, at regular intervals, for Pakistan to remain relevant to the rest of the world body much like a ‘naughty boy’ who keeps drawing attention to himself by his pranks!! Let us not bring in the nuclear angle here, which in todays connected world cannot really be used the way it is being talked about by Pakistan and that too against a nuclear neighbour. Could this be the new-found identity of Pakistan as a ‘Nuisance or a Rogue State’; since all other searches for its identities have been obliterated by its being the pawn among the other powerful instruments of the state within and outside its borders. It’s a beautiful illustration of losing oneself in search of an identity!!

Therefore, given this little background, the Indian establishments too must realize that Pakistan has neither any interest nor great compulsion to normalize its relations with India. So far it has been playing its cards well, due to the  geo-strategic location it is endowed with; in the soft underbelly of Russia and as a link to China’s interests in oil rich West Asia.And as if to balance out both, the Russian stakes sandwiched between the two. While on the surface it all looks very well but going by the logic that nothing comes for free, if Pakistan is willing to pay the price for these concessions to the ‘big and mighty’ friends by ‘bartering’ itself, so be it. Ironically, while short actions may give quick and handsome dividends, as a long term policy, they are bound to bounce back much the same way as tactical battles may not really come in line with operational art to contribute towards a grand strategy.

Let us also not forget that India is the third largest Muslim nation in the world. It is a well known fact that Pakistan has, once in a while, tried to stroke the fire from within the Indian state but that has not been successful. Indian Muslims have the highest acceptability the world over along with the core values of brotherhood and democratic understanding that they proliferate. This is only bound to improve and get reinforced further due to fast paced socio-economic growth indicators presently available as the time line moves on.  

Therefore now is the time to make the existence of Pakistan itself totally irrelevant to the  Indian state; in any case Pakistan has nothing to offer let alone peace, since they are themselves borrowing everything from others except peace? Surely, there is no reason to go to war on account of silly pinpricks like terrorists actions; for which India not only has enough capability to deal with, but harden itself to this threat. The plan of action needs to be simple; foolproof manning of the borders, be it international or the line of control with zero tolerance for infiltration by ‘mercenaries’. This would require better fencing backed up by superior technology with the existing manpower itself. It can be done very effectively as our LC experience in J&K already indicates; where infiltration levels have gone down appreciably and whatever little that takes place is aided by terrain and weather conditions for which technology has the answers.

When it comes to the hinterland, we need to equip ourselves with better analytical capabilities, of the information that is available through various sources including cyber domain. There is no dearth of intelligence resources available to the Nation; it just needs better coordination and full exploitation of its potential without any consideration for the turf wars. A national Intelligence and security grid needs to be structured with an equally robust connect with those that need to react to the actionable intelligence, nearly in a ‘sensor to shooter’ like capability. The bottom line is that the enemy has the initiative to strike and so will always be able to choose to surprise at the time and place of action. The most practical and viable option to counter this threat is quick reaction capability to ensure minimum damage and elimination of all mercenaries at the earliest possible to defeat their nefarious designs. Sooner than later the laws of diminishing returns will surely make better sense to the Pakistani establishment. Since one  cannot change one’s neighbours, at the same time, the dialogue process must continue with a hope that ‘democratic rationality’ will ultimately prevail for good neighbourly relations.

Views expressed by the Author are personal.