MARGINALIA

A phrase post the Balakot air-strikes repeatedly used by prime minister Narendra Modi and his man Friday Amit Shah, “Hamne Dushman ko Ghar mein ghuss kar mara hai” (We have beaten up the Enemy by entering his house), is worrisome. Everything is fair in love and war, it is said. If this were a war declared by one country on another, perhaps the import of these words would be different. The official position on the air strikes is that they were pre-emptive strikes against terror infrastructure, not Pakistan. The explanation being given was that it wasn’t war against Pakistan but against terrorist camps.
The celebratory tone of the air strikes is blunted by the concerns of strategic experts, other than the war-drum beating generals of the news room studios. They have questioned whether the strikes achieved anything and whether it was pragmatic to use air power for a target that is purported to have been soft. The peaceniks have questioned the wisdom of the strikes that have imposed the threat of war in South Asian region. Inspired by similar concerns the international powers have found a foothold of space for prodding not only Pakistan but also India to mend their fences and deal with Kashmir.
Forgetting all this, even if the air strikes and the way they happened were to be argued as potentially wise and successful and that it was singularly aimed against terrorists and not Pakistan, the jarring tone of ‘beating someone after entering their house’ belies such an assurance. There is a huge mismatch between the official claims of using the explanation of ‘defence’ and ‘deterrence’ as opposed to the political slogans of launching an offensive. That lines between Pakistan and terrorists are being obliterated for political expediency through such rhetoric of beating the enemy in his house obviously has a political import.
The political tone of the language goes beyond the elections and resonates with the Hindutva project of converting India into a Hindu Rashtra. Officially and internationally, his government uses another language but as an election campaigner, Narendra Modi is essentially addressing his core constituency. The evident aim is seeking votes on the basis of the machismo of strikes and the appeal of being an ultra-power. All this is done at the cost of appropriating the Indian Air Force, which belongs to the entire country, not one party. The covert ambition is to inject the poison of hatred and divisiveness and inspire more lawlessness than exists. In a country where difference between Muslim, terrorist, Pakistani is blurred and where targeting of Muslims by mobs inspired by Hindutva frenzy has become routine, such messages have the capacity of not only legitimizing what is already happening but of accelerating the spiral of mob violence. In the last five years, the country has shockingly witnessed rise in incidents of mob lynchings and a political cover-up for such heinous crimes. Frenzied mobs have been silencing minorities and dissenters with their fiery words and also through violence. In the last one month, since the Pulwama attacks, the Kashmiri Muslims have become the prime target. Kashmiri students were recently beaten up and attacked in various parts of the country, shunted out of educational institutions solely on suspicion or allegations of the mobs without giving them a fair hearing. Such incidents leave the secular character of the country in tatters and also impede its economic growth and development which is based on the model of inter-dependence. It endangers the country in multiple ways.
The prime minister recently spoke about a pilot project. The obvious inference was not just air strikes but this entire landscape of hatred, intolerance and mob-violence in which the most likely victim is the Muslim and Kashmiris have become the tool to perpetuate a narrative of hatred that legitimizes that process of victimisation. The impact of creating such an atmosphere has deeper ramifications. A recent report in The Print revealed that Muslim school children in primary schools were being targeted by the children of majority community with taunts like ‘Osama’, ‘Baghdadi’, ‘Mullah’ and ‘Go to Pakistan’. The communal poison has begun to be injected at an age when children are not even conscious of their religion. Was this the ‘pilot project’ Modi was talking about? To what extent is this going to be enlarged.
The air-strikes were a violation of Pakistan’s sovereign air-space. But when that action becomes a petty vote-bank tool and enters the election campaign rally with the machismo of entering people’s house and beating them, in the back-drop of the blurred public perceptions of Pakistani, terrorist and Muslims, such words play an enabling role in lending greater legitimacy to beat up anyone and spread the existing lawlessness horizontally and vertically. Entering ordinary homes and beating up targets in public perception will start becoming a heroic virtue – an idea endorsed and stamped by none less than a prime minister. The words have been carefully picked up not only for their triumphant appeal but for their dualism that serves a long cherished agenda, the pilot project of which has been witnessed in the last five years.
The choice of words which even B-grade Bollywood film-makers would desist from using are being thrown about as some kind of a symbol of high moral conduct. That the prime minister should resort to use of such a vocabulary is itself strikingly appalling. In any civilized culture, the idea of entering homes to beat up its inmates is unacceptable. It amounts to bullying and would be deemed an unlawful activity. Does it behove the head of a civilized nation to use such a language?

source: Kashmir Times

It’s the Rapid Fire Round of the political quiz show, and we’re glued to the idiot box. Faced with a fusillade of questions over the truth of the Balakot attack, the C-in-C has been battling it out with a mix of text-book tactics: fitting response, pre-emptive strike and offence-is-the-best-defence manoeuvre perfected over the years by parties and their spokespersons on TV. Then, at last Sunday’s Patna rally, he launched his most audacious counter-offensive: the BJP’s brahmastra, ‘anti-national’. So now, those who ask what really happened have joined the ranks of Kanhaiya Kumar, anti-lynchers, non-godi journos, pacifists, liberals, Vande Mataram nay-singers and forwarders of satirical cartoons. As Mark Antony didn’t say, ‘Ah sedition, thou art fled to brutish interpretations, and men have found their treason.’

The dust raised by the bombast has obscured the fact that, in asking for proof about Balakot, what’s being questioned is not the valour of our air force, only the veracity of the government’s chest thumping. But then no one can doubt Force Modi’s superiority in turning every attack on its head.

So, the nation watches in non-shock and awe General Modi’s blitzkrieg against ‘C-in-C’ becoming ‘Congress in Command’. Rahul has trained his anti-aircraft guns on the PM’s ‘slip’ over the ‘lack of Rafales’ which would have given Pakistan the bloody nose he said we did. Gandhi III could take a missile or 10 from Ram Jethmalani who famously fired his daily deca of Bofors-related questions at Gandhi II. But can he shoot and scoot considering General Mo’s formidable stockpile of ripostes?

Btw, questioning had featured in last month’s proxy war on the sidelines of the ballot-field. Congress cried foul when the ED began re-grilling Robert Vadra just when Comet Priyanka Gandhi flashed across the electoral sky. Mamata screamed ‘Bhendetta’ when the CBI did the same to the Kolkata police commissioner soon after her spectacular opposition rally.

This season’s Con Banega Joothpati also has multiple-choice questions. But, since asking them is ‘anti-national’, the quizmaster won’t say ‘LoC kiya jai?’ And we may never know if the Balakot Redemption succeeded with a Mirage – or was one.

source: Time Of India

Arfa Khanum Sherwani, senior editor at The Wire, discusses what happened in the 24 hours after India’s airstrikes on Pakistan.

New Delhi: After India officially confirmed that one Indian pilot is “missing in action” after an aerial skirmish with Pakistani fighter jets on Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called for “better sense [to] prevail” and renewed his offer for dialogue with India.

source: The Wire

Prime Minister Imran Khan makes surprise announcement to a joint session of Parliament.

source: The Hindu

India struck Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) biggest camp in Pakistan early Tuesday in a major “non-military pre-emptive” action, killing a large number of terrorists and trainers of the Pakistan-based terror group which, a top official said, was preparing to carry out suicide attacks in this country.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said credible intelligence was received that the JeM was planning to carry out more suicide attacks in India after the Pulwama bombing on a CRPF convoy that killed 40 jawans. “In an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated,” Mr. Gokhale said.

What will be the stand of both governments now? The Hindu’s Diplomatic Affairs Editor Suhasini Haidar explains.

source: The Hindu

As news of the air strikes by India at the terror camps in Pakistan started trickling in, spokespersons of the BJP were asked to strictly adhere to the government’s line that they were pre-emptive in nature to neutralise terrorists.

BJP spokespersons, after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, were briefed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about this being a pre-emptive strike.

Party chief Amit Shah tweeted his reactions by 1.30 p.m., congratulating the armed forces, adding that “today’s action further demonstrates that India is safe and secure under the strong and decisive leadership of Prime Minister Modi.”

Party general secretary Ram Madhav too issued a statement echoing the same sentiment, that the nation acted on security impulses rather than revenge.

“Country is in safe hands. The willpower of the Prime Minister has led to the action today. We had political leadership in the Prime Minister which decided this time to act. We acted in a responsible manner, protected India’s interest and ensured we didn’t violate international norms,” he said.

Sources in the party said the briefing that spokespersons received included explanations on why Balakot was chosen.

The RSS, in its statement, however, did mention Tuesday’s action as part of a payback. The organisation’s second-in-command, Suresh “Bhaiyyaji” Joshi, said: “The whole nation was upset and angry in the wake of the terror attack by the ‘Jaish-e-Mohammad’ in Pulwama. Today, the Indian Air Force demolished JeM’s Pakistan-based bases by specifically targeting them. This was translating into action the feelings of millions of Indians.”

source: The Hindu