A small window on peace may still be open
Dr Jagdish Batra is a senior academic, currently working as Professor of English at O.P. Jindal Global University, India. He has nearly four decades of teaching and research experience. His area of specialization is Indian English Fiction on which he has presented papers at many international conferences in Europe and South East Asia. A Rotary Study Exchange Scholar to USA, Dr Batra has published eight books besides some sixty research papers and a number of general articles/blogs etc. LESS ... MORE
There is hardly any doubt that the dastardly act committed by terrorists at Pahalgam has the backing of Pakistan. If any iota of doubt remained, it was laid to rest by the Pakistani Defence Minister Khwaja Asif when he admitted that for the past three decades, his country had been backing, training and funding terrorists – doing the 'dirty work'.
Despite this acknowledgement by the Defence Minister, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has self-appraised his country as the 'world's frontline state against terrorism' which has 'endured immense loss'.
The plain reality is what age-old wisdom tells us – if you dig a ditch for others, you fall into it. Pakistan nourished terrorists who are now bleeding it in some cases. And yet it won't forsake that path! It would be naivety of the utmost order if anyone believes Pakistan's belated posture of innocence.
India is totally justified in aiming to defang the terror apparatus in its vicinity. In this, India has rightly got the support of an overwhelming majority of countries in the world which will definitely help her to deal with Pakistan with an iron hand which has become necessary considering that over decades, umpteen peaceful overtures by India have failed to bring Pakistan on to the right path. The spectre of war, therefore, is very real.
There is no doubt that the war will make a dent in the development efforts of both countries, more so in case of Pakistan due to its doddering economy. Besides, in a war, it is not merely the army men and women who lose their lives, but even the ordinary people staying away from the border suffer as the daily visuals of the two war zones in the world show us presently.
The non-invasive treatment of Pakistan in the form of suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty is already causing anxiety to Pakistan. It is a big, big blow as the three rivers course through entire landmass of Pakistan before merging with the Indus and then on with the Arabian sea. With water from the biggest river unavailable, agriculture activities will be hit, leading to famines and collapse of agro-based industries, etc. Even drinking water will become scarce for the people. How long will Pakistan be able to exist? The government and the army there have to seriously consider this scenario.
The people of Pakistan have been suffering due to economic problems and have been admiring India as a model of development. There is frustration in almost all parts of Pakistan — not only in Pak-occupied Kashmir and Baluchistan but also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. A small push by India can create existential problem for Pakistan. Therefore, it is in Pakistan's interest to seek peace and not conflict with India.
The ball is in Pakistan's court and time is running short. There is, however, a small window which offers hope. It must think of wiping off the blot of being a 'Terroristan', to use late Sushma Swaraj's term used for that country. For this, it needs to shun terror as the state policy and dismantle terror structure – training camps, launching pads, etc. – on its land. It must hand over terrorists wanted by India for their misdeeds directed at the people and state of India.
That will surely help defuse the highly tense situation prevailing now. Only that gesture will help Pakistan to prove its claim of fighting terrorism and be a respectable member of the comity of nations. India will then surely help Pakistan as an equal and worthy neighbour and assist it come out of the morass into which it has fallen.
This is easily said than done, considering the Pakistan army's vested interest in fomenting terror acts to keep its control over state finances and power. When the army generals there look at the peace and progress happening in Kashmir this side of the border, they fear a pushback.
But the Pakistani people, who are at the receiving end, recognise now the gameplan and have been voicing their distrust of the army. It is democratic countries that garner respect in the world.
Ultimately, it is the people's voice that will force the army to capitulate sooner than later.
Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author's own.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
20 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Diplomacy is about ‘incrementalism', says Congress leader Manish Tewari
In the face of questions raised by the Congress party on the 'political value' of the people that the multi-party delegations had met, and what they had 'actually accomplished' on the Centre's international diplomatic outreach after the recent India-Pakistan conflict, delegates said diplomacy was about 'incrementalism', and was not a '20-20 cricket match'. Ahead of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's meetings with two delegations, Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh had said on Wednesday (June 4, 2025) in a post on X that there needed to be an 'honest assessment of what was actually accomplished' and not what was 'spin doctored'. Mr. Jaishankar on Thursday (June 5, 2025) met the delegation headed by senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader K. Kanimozhi that visited Russia, Latvia, Slovenia, Greece, and Spain, and the delegation headed by senior Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sanjay K. Jha that visited Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. 'There are reliable reports that the welcome in some countries was very lukewarm — to put it mildly — and that the political value of the people the MPs met was below par. Videos of the MPs engaging in silly fun and frolic while on a serious national mission have also been surfacing,' Mr. Ramesh said. Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari, who was part the delegation led by Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) MP Supriya Sule to Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa, on the question of whether the tour succeeded in its aim, spoke of consolidation of gains. 'Diplomacy is about incrementalism and consolidating those gains,' Mr. Tewari said. The diplomatic outreach had ensured the Indian point of view was presented concurrently in 33 countries, he added. 'The hyphenation (India-Pak) is a temporary mirage. It is only natural that when two nuclear powers are in conflict the world gets concerned,' the Congress leader said. 'We live in a contested political space. But for now, exposing Pakistan's perfidy should be the national priority,' Mr. Tewari said on the question of criticism from his own party on the utility of such a tour. Other delegates also contested the Congress's claim. JD(U) leader Sanjay K. Jha said that his delegation had met the Japanese Foreign Minister, had breakfast with Ambassadors to Japan from various countries, and in Jakarta, met with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Ambassadors. 'To criticise an all-party delegation, which spoke in one voice on such an important issue, is a new low for the Congress,' Mr. Jha said. Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP John Brittas, who was part of Mr. Jha's delegation, said it had clarified India's viewpoint. 'We didn't go to play a 20-20 cricket match, for there to be winners or losers. Each person is entitled to their own opinion. Our delegation has laid down the foundation, clarifying India's viewpoint, and also underlined the dangers of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. It is for the government now to build over it,' Mr. Brittas said. The president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi, who was part of a delegation led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Baijayant Panda to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Algeria, said that it was 'subjective criticism' to claim that the delegation did not meet people of 'political value'. 'Out of the four countries we visited, one (Algeria) is currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC (United Nations Security Council), and another (Bahrain) will get a seat next year. They exert influence on Pakistan and will be crucial in India's efforts to put Pakistan on the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) grey list,' Mr. Owaisi said, adding that the delegation met top decision-making bodies in all the four countries, and also members of think tanks.
NDTV
20 minutes ago
- NDTV
"That Shouldn't Be Allowed": Shashi Tharoor's Quip After Son Asks Question In US
Shashi Tharoor made it clear at the outset that the person questioning him at the press conference in New York is his son, Ishan Tharoor, adding with a big smile that "it shouldn't be allowed". Mr Tharoor, leading the all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor, India's diplomatic effort launched to combat terrorism and disinformation following the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, is in the United States to brief key stakeholders on India's efforts following the deadly attack. It was during one such press conference at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York that Ishan Tharoor got up to ask a question. "You have to stand up. That shouldn't be allowed. This is my son," said Shashi Tharoor with a big smile. "Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post," the son replied, with a straight face. #WATCH | Washington DC: On a question asked by his son about whether any country had asked the delegation for evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the Pahalgam attack and about Pakistan's repeated denials of any role in the attack, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "I'm very glad… — ANI (@ANI) June 5, 2025 "Definitely asking a question in a personal capacity. And mostly to say hi before you go off to your next engagement," said the Junior Tharoor, who is a foreign affairs columnist at the Washington Post. The columnist son asked his father that as he has been touring countries in the western hemisphere as part of India's diplomatic outreach efforts, have any of your "government interlocutors asked you to show evidence of Pakistan's culpability in the initial attacks". "Well, I'm very glad you raised this, Ishan. I didn't plant it, I promise you. This guy does this to his dad," said the Senior Tharoor, before switching gears to answer the question. "Very simply, no one had any doubt and we were not asked for evidence. But the media have asked in two or three places. Let me say very clearly that India would not have done this without convincing evidence. But there were three particular reasons I want to draw your attention to all of you. The first is that we've had a 37-year pattern of repeated terror attacks from Pakistan, accompanied by repeated denials. I mean, Americans haven't forgotten that Pakistan didn't know, allegedly, where Osama bin Laden was until he was found in a Pakistani safe house right next to an army camp in a cantonment city. That's Pakistan. Mumbai attacks - they denied having anything to do with we know what Pakistan's all about. They will dispatch terrorists, they will deny they did so until they're actually caught with red hands..." said Mr Tharoor.
The Hindu
33 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Pakistan likes to dangle nuclear bogey to get the world excited, Tharoor says in Washington
There was no significant risk that the recent fighting between India and Pakistan, following the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, was approaching a nuclear threshold, according to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. 'I think what happened was so far short of anything remotely approaching a nuclear threshold that the proposition, frankly, is laughable,' he said at a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC on Thursday (June 5, 2025). Mr Tharoor, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, is leading a multi-party delegation of lawmakers and former Ambassadors on a diplomatic outreach tour of Guyana, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and the U.S. Seven such delegations have been dispatched around the world following the armed conflict between India and Pakistan in early May. 'Our Pakistani friends, I think, like to dangle this nuclear bogey to get all of you excited and anxious,' he said, when asked if the conflict came close to a nuclear war and if nuclear brinkmanship was to be expected in the future. 'We've got a nuclear power engaged in the war right now for two-and-a-half years in Europe, and no one has talked about nukes yet,' he said, asking why there was such a discussion just after a few days of fighting in India. [Mr. Tharoor was presumably referring to the Russia-Ukraine war which began in February 2022. There have been repeated discussions about and reporting on the risk of Russia using nuclear weapons]. Mr. Tharoor urged people not to worry about India using nuclear weapons, as he emphasised India's 'no first use' policy and Pakistan's lack of one. India's response via Operation Sindoor and the subsequent fighting with Pakistan was 'calibrated retribution' (for the attack in Pahalgam) and did not pose an existential threat to Pakistan, he said. 'Mediation not a term we will entertain' In his time in Washington so far, Mr. Tharoor has repeatedly pushed back against the prospect of U.S. mediation, a subject that has come up given U.S. President Donald Trump's claims that he brokered the May 10 ceasefire between the two countries and used trade with the U.S. as leverage to achieve it. 'I would never presume to tell the U.S. to stay the heck out of anything it wants to get involved in. But mediation is not a term that we are particularly willing to entertain,' he said, when asked if it was useful to have the U.S. as a mediator or broker or 'transmitter of signals'. 'Mediation' implied an equivalence, Mr. Tharoor said, arguing that there was no equivalence between terrorists and their victims. 'There is no equivalence between a country that provides safe haven to terrorism and a country that's a flourishing multi-party democracy that's trying to get on with its business,' he added. Acknowledging the calls between officials in the Trump administration and Modi government, while the conflict was under way, Mr. Tharoor said the Americans perhaps wanted to keep themselves informed. He guessed that perhaps U.S. officials persuaded the Pakistanis to stop fighting, as it was Islamabad that needed persuading to call off the confrontation. Mr. Tharoor hit out at Pakistan's Army chief, Asim Munir, for a speech he had made a few days before the April 22 attack, in which he had asserted that Hindus and Muslims are fundamentally different. Mr. Munir's assertion was 'astonishingly bigoted', Mr. Tharoor said. Mr. Tharoor was asked by his son, who is a journalist, if any of the delegation's interlocutors had asked for evidence of who had carried out the April 22 attack. 'Very simply, no one had any doubt, and we were not asked for evidence, but media have asked,' the senior Tharoor said. He listed Pakistan's history of ties to terror attacks, the fact that former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan before being killed by U.S. forces in 2011. He also said The Resistance Front had claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack initially and pointed to Pakistani military presence at the funerals of terrorists killed by India in counter-strikes. 'This showed all the hallmarks of a sophisticated, planned, deliberate operation,' Mr. Tharoor said.
