Ashok Bhan
Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday, which left at least 40 CRPF soldiers dead and five others critically wounded
This heinous act has outraged the collective conscience of the Indian nation.
India’s relations with Pakistan have been defined by the Partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir conundrum and military conflicts fought between the two countries.
The relations have always been plagued by conflicts, hostilities and mutual suspicion, despite the fact that the two South Asian nations share common linguistic, cultural, geographical and economic linkages.
Pakistan’s use of terrorist groups as part of its security and foreign policy is function of its obsession with India, which it perceives as an existential threat.
The ideology of Pakistan is built on the twin pillars of Islam and antagonism towards India. It has never realised that as a nation state, it needs to create a history of its own and move forward. It has preferred to live with historical appropriation and distortions of the past.
Pakistan could acknowledge its Indian heritage, as well as the Muslim majority character of its population. Instead, successive Pakistani leaders and its intelligentsia have preferred to build the idea of Pakistan on the pillars of Islam and antagonism towards India.
Pakistan’s paranoia regarding India is unfounded. There have been military engagements, an ongoing undeclared war, numerous skirmishes and stand offs.
Many successful attempts to improve relations through the Shimla agreement, Agra and Lahore summits, among others, have fallen apart.
Relations soured after the Siachen conflict of 1980, the Kashmir insurgency of 1989 and the Kargil war of 1999.
The terror attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 almost brought the two nuclear nations to the brink of war.
The Mumbai attack of 2008 by Pakistan-based terrorists and killing of hundreds and continuing support to terrorists in Kashmir to delegitimise the idea of India, continues.
Pakistan is on notice from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and China has removed its objections to put Islamabad on the `grey list’by FATF.
Pakistan, on the global terrorist financing list from June 2018 onwards, risks endangering its handful of remaining banking links with the out side world, causing financial distress to its economy. Saudi Arabia, too, also removed its objection and now only Turkey stands in support of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s temper tantrums and petulant responses are not convincing. Islamabad has to take a hard look at its options. It has to effectively shutdown terror factories being nurtured in its backyard.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received unconditional support from the opposition parties and the citizenry to deal with Pakistan sternly and flush out terrorists from Kashmir and else where in the country.
The country is resolutely standing behind India and the Prime Minister in this critical hour.
India does not buy any formula on Kashmir, as it firmly believes terror and talks cannot go together,until Pakistan brings to book the perpetrators of 26/11 Mumbai terrorists killings and accounts for other terror acts executed. The territorial status of Kashmir is clearly not negotiable.
As part of its comprehensive strategy, India is resorting to aggressive diplomatic offensive against Pakistan by mobilising its resources and pressurising the world to declare Pakistan as `terroristan’.
India needs an appropriate and calibrated modus operandi to deal boldly with Pakistan. The nation and the global community is anxiously waiting and watching.
(The author is Senior Advocate Supreme Court of India)
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