By Qudrat Ullah LIPR Ambassador Of Peace based in Pakistan
On 14 February 2019, Adil Ahmad Dar, a local Kashmiri, drove a vehicle packed with explosives into Indian paramilitary police in Pulwama. The attack inflicted a heavy loss by killing more than 40 soldiers. The television screens, social media and newspapers around the world were reporting the incident, but Indian media, within hours of the attack, started to blame Pakistan. This specific attack once again drew the attention that any minor miscalculation in the South Asian region and particularly between the two arch rivals and nuclear states can bring the whole world to a standstill.
While it was the month before India’s election for Lok Sabah, lower house of the parliament, the Indian opposition was trying to rein into BJP, the India’s ruling party, by exposing its economic policies. The attack give a new life to BJP as on 11 March 2019, The New York Times in a tweet wrote, “A month ago, Narendra Modi seemed vulnerable going into his re-election campaign. One explosion in Kashmir, and weeks of brinkmanship with Pakistan changed everything”. The tweet was later deleted after a hoopla by Indians.
The BJP by using the opportunity capitalized on the attack and triggered the issue of national sovereignty. PM Modi, while threating a strong response, said “the blood of the people is boiling”. Not only the politicians from BJP, the media persons who had a history of links with “Rightwing parties” also asked for revenge. Arnab Goswami, Editor in-chief of Republic TV, in a debate said, “We want revenge, not condemnation. It is time for blood, the enemy’s blood”.
Though it was evident that India can take an extreme step, but Balakot Strike which happened on 26 February was the misadventure by Indian Air Force. They miscalculated Pakistan’s preparedness and were on the run as Pakistan’s warplanes responded. The so-called attack, which never approved of any such presence of camps and terrorists was just to cool down the pressure on PM Modi for taking a revenge of Pulwama attack.
The attack was much celebrated but the statements of Indian politicians made the adventure questionable. The then Home Minister Rajnath Singh said “we had intelligence of 300 active mobile phones in the area of strike”. PM Modi and Amit Shah claimed that Indian Air Force (IAF) killed over 250 terrorists. The then IAF Chief BS Dhanoa said “IAF does not count the human casualties, we count what targets we have hit or not hit”. In March 2019, PM Modi while criticizing the Congress for not procuring Rafale Fighter Jets, said, “What all could have happened if we had Rafale”. Later in an interview, PM Modi claimed that he pushed for Balakot Strike, despite the cloud cover, assuming that the bad weather will prevent Pakistan from picking up IAF planes.
PM Modi’s ill-planned belligerence dented India’s so-called “Military Might” and IAF paid the price, as on 27 February, Pakistan shot down IAF jets and captured its pilot Varthaman Abhinandan alive. India while claiming that it also shot down a Pakistani F-16 jet, PM Modi later in April 2019, claimed that he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it did not return IAF pilot.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, while giving orders to release Indian Pilot, said it was a peace gesture. The Indian claims of downing F-16 jet fall flat when Foreign Policy, a US magazine, detailed that U.S. officials revealed that they counted Islamabad’s F-16’s and found none missing.
