Building on Balakot

Not surprisingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided that it would make the air strikes against Pakistan a key electoral plank as it goes before the electorate seeking a second term. The Opposition, only too aware of the repercussions, has asked for proof that the strikes did indeed eliminate a large number of terror operatives as claimed by the government.

In the midst of this back and forth, what cannot be denied is the collective sigh of relief that the nation took when the Indian Air Force (IAF) hit targets across the Line of Control in the wee hours of February 26. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to call this event the making of a new India, a moniker clearly aimed at voters, but something deeper was certainly afoot that morning, something that happened to assuage the national psyche.

It isn’t that Indians are not used to Pakistani acts of aggression. Even when such acts have verged on the diabolical, as during 26/11, there is a renewed sense of fatalism when it comes to Pakistan. We inherently recognise that this decades-old conflict is not going away any time soon.

As true as the Opposition’s charge is, though, it is equally true that Modi can claim a definitive shift in India’s Pakistan policy with the two surprise strikes during his term. Photo: Reuters

What changed after Pulwama? Partly it was the memory of the surgical strikes that kept hopes alive that some action would be taken. For too long, and on reasonable grounds, the prospect of a conflict with Pakistan has been mired in the nuclear question. The political class’s consensus had us believe that our hands were tied and we had no option but to continue facing terror because if we acted and it escalated, who knows what Armageddon we might face.

Which is why when we woke up to news of the IAF having struck Jaish targets across the border, there was a feeling of just retribution, sure, but more importantly, of relief, of a break from the past, as if by hitting terror targets we were finally sending out a message not just to Pakistan and to the international community, but to ourselves and to our deeply ingrained inertia on Pakistan. 

Nobody wants war, and if one were to happen, it would be tragic. But the zeal with which some propagate peace does not get us anywhere either. At any rate, if the argument against war is the cost it extracts on human life, then Pakistan’s decades-long proxy war, with its killing of both civilians and military personnel, has destroyed that premise. 

There is also this. When IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured, there was the fear that things would quickly escalate. Pakistan’s decision to return him was a tactical move to curry favour with an increasingly hostile international community, yet tales of his captivity and the state of his injuries told a familiar story. His return was a triumph but it brought little headway in the ongoing question of how to deal with the problem called Pakistan.

On the bright side, it brought the nation together. Varthaman’s return was reminiscent of the valour shown by, say, Captain Vikram Batra during the Kargil war. It was also symbolic of a higher standard in these deeply riven times. There is some truth to the Opposition’s complaint that the government is politicising the soldier’s return as well as the entire operation surrounding and preceding it. What Varthaman did was admittedly different, nobler than the ugly machinations of statecraft that first brought about his captivity and then ensured his return.

As true as the Opposition’s charge is, though, it is equally true that Modi can claim a definitive shift in India’s Pakistan policy with the two surprise strikes during his term. It is a measure of the distance his government has walked on the issue that he is ending his term on this hawkish stance when he started it with an extravagant peace offering by inviting the Pakistani prime minister of the time to his swearing in. 

Those who criticised the government for its failure to contain Pakistan in the early part of its term will no longer have those misgivings, even if the contours of this new policy are still being chalked out. The Prime Minister has promised more action against the neighbour, and the only thing that can be said for certain is that such action will continue to retain an element of surprise. 

As for that all-important question, there is little doubt that Modi will benefit from the air strikes against Pakistan. It is curious that the Prime Minister maintained a statesman-like persona through his term, distancing himself from Candidate Modi who was not above sly barbs and direct slights against opponents. But in election season, he seems to have reverted to form, dissing his rivals, openly mocking his adversaries, and basking in a convergence of circumstances propitious to his return to office. 

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