The ongoing 2019 elections in India have initiated a winning countdown between the two prominent political parties – Congress and the BJP. PM Modi is campaigning hard to cover up his horrendous acts against inhuman killings of Muslims, igniting ethnicity under Hindutva ideology and remained involved in exporting terrorism. He is making sweeping statements without taking into consideration the long term implications. He made a statement in one of the election rallies that India would use the ‘mother of nuclear bombs’ and be ready to start a nuclear war in the region. This wholesome picture presents a wide imagination of BJP’s madness spell against peace for humanity.
Considering the 2019 BJP manifesto, the major highlight of the document states that Indian national security doctrine will oblige to ‘zero tolerance’ against terrorism. The BJP commits to giving a free hand to curb terrorism and extremism. This manifesto brings no surprises for India’s neighbouring states. Many historic events like Uri, Pathankot and Pulwama have exposed Modi’s belligerent and vicious policies against Pakistan.
In this context, three self-fabricated terrorist incidents have occurred in India, one at their Air Force Base in Pathankot and the other two at army base camps in Uri and Pulwama in India-eld Kashmir (IHK). Pakistan, as always, was swiftly blamed for these attacks. Apart from other reasons, these agenda driven attacks were mapped to malign Pakistan and suffered a huge blow back on exposing BJP’s political mindset to win public support at the cost of killing its own people!
For instance, in the backdrop of the Pathankot incident in Jan 2016, then director general of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) Sharad Kumar said: there is no evidence of Pakistan government’s involvement in the attack on Indian Air Force base in Pathankot.
The timings of this incident were made after two days to the PM Modi’s one day visit to Pakistan. Later, such acts of Indian belligerency were put on hold due to the approaching Indian participation at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SARRC) Summit in Pakistan. All in all, the BJP government’s dismissive approach towards dialogue with Pakistan became apparent with such kind of deliberate acts.
In the aftermath of this recent Pulwama attacks, Pakistan played a significant role in de-escalating the conflict against India. Furthermore, Israel’s involvement in providing military backup to India was exposed and further complicated the security dilemma for Pakistan
Further, the timing of the Uri incident coincided with the former PM Nawaz Sharif’s speech at United Nations General Assembly’s regular session in Sep 2016, where Pakistan had planned to highlight the Indian atrocities and its inhuman killings in IHK. India attempted to distract the international community’s attention from Indian violations in IHK towards defaming Pakistan, nonetheless, remained unsuccessful. Additionally, the verbal war belligerence hinted by former Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar towards nuclear use and indicated the possible shift in Indian Nuclear First Use policy. As indicated in Joint Doctrine of the Indian Armed Forces (2017), the possible shift from threat-based to capability-based developments in the nuclear realm offers escalation dominance vis-à-vis Pakistan.
In the aftermath of this recent Pulwama attacks, Pakistan played a significant role in de-escalating the conflict against India. Furthermore, Israel’s involvement in providing military backup to India was exposed and further complicated the security dilemma for Pakistan. This incident has exposed the BJP government for bringing political instability and chaotic situation among media houses. It also exposed the failure of BJP’s unplanned long-term sustainable strategy against withholding the truth from the world.
Nonetheless, such self-initiated sub-conventional conflict by India and its attempt to escalate the conflict situation towards war was pre-empted through an effective conventional response at Line of Control (LoC) by Pakistan. Indian attempt to take advantage of its conventional superiority over Pakistan was responded immediately and failed India to exploit any conventional gap against Pakistan.
Therefore, such Indian mis-adventurism still remains insufficient in covering BJP’s track over several factors. Indian undeniable history of scourging terrorism in IHK and denying the UN recognized legitimate freedom struggle against illegal occupation in IHK remains condemnable internationally. Secondly, India is a hub of terrorism across the region. According to the South Asian Terrorism Portal, India has at least 23 active terrorist or insurgent groups working in India. Also, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the radical ideological parent group of India’s BJP, is a terrorist organization. Further, the increasing Maoist-Naxalite insurgencies in the Red Corridor and other parts of India pose a security threat to South Asia.
Moving on, the BJP’s explicit belligerent approach towards Pakistan has been exposed by Pakistan. Former Defence Secretary of U.S., Chuck Hagel once reportedly said that India had been using Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. Pakistan also caught the Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav who confessed of committing terrorism in Pakistan. Whereas, Indian aggressive behaviour at LoC is also condemnable. According to the ISPR, Indian forces committed at least 178 ceasefire violations along the LoC and Working Boundary in 2016. These numbers remain higher than in 2017 and 2018.
All in all, BJP’s madness spell should not be won at political, human and military cost. India should also not promote nuclear belligerence and needs to play a constructive role in deterrence stability in South Asia. Despite such acts, Pakistan still reiterates its peace efforts and offers dialogue to India for better future of this region. However, both sides should be willing to reach desired ends, one-sided efforts will be all in vain.
The writer is a Visiting Research Fellow at South Asian Strategic Stability Institute, Islamabad