By
Sushil Kutty
Rest assured one of these days we’ll
wake up and be told the Indian Army has exacted revenge from Pakistan for
Pulwama. This Modi regime, which is on its last legs, will by then have also
extracted the last drop of electoral advantage out of Pulwama. In Pakistan,
television news channels are running video clips of Narendra Modi asking then
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh how terrorist attacks could take place when “our
forces have every inch of the borders tied up tight?”
Skeptics abound when it comes to Modi
statements. They’re more hot air than balloons can hold. And they, like the new
kid on the block says, go ‘tyan-tyan phus.’ After driving up war hysteria to
pitches higher than any drum can ever, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now
come down to challenging the “Pathan Ka Bachcha” and prominent Pakistanis are
talking of “Hindu cowards.” If nothing else, Modi has given Pakistanis puffed
up chests.
The Prime Minister of India doesn’t
realize that he’s already backing off. His statement “time for talks is over”
was another Modi-boast that has gone down the drain. It appears like there’s
still time for talks and but for Modi’s boast most everybody would have settled
for that. But by raising the war pitch at political rally after political rally
and then reminding the “Pathan Ka Bachcha” that the ball is in Imran Khan’s
court, Modi gives the impression that he has washed his hands off Pulwama.
In this battle of prime ministers, it
is the Prime Minister of Pakistan who has come out the more sane and stable
than the Prime Minister of India. By reiterating that Pakistan is ready for
talks, even “talks on terrorism”, Imran Khan is the dove to the Modi’s hawk.
And Pakistani political analysts are elated at this change in perception. So
much so, Modi getting the Seoul Peace Prize was lost in the jingoistic din
created by Modi himself. How can peace paragon Narendra Modi talk of war after
being hailed, feted and rewarded for being peace paragon?
The irony is, if not striking, biting!
In the current circumstances, it should have gone to Imran Khan!! Modi needs to
set clear his government’s stand on two questions: One, does it consider
Pulwama an “act of war?” Two, if so, why is the impression being given as if
the country is not at war? For all purposes, the idea we get is India is in
election mode and Pulwama is an election issue and nothing more. This is talk
not just in India but also in Pakistan, where the allegation is that Pulwama is
the handiwork of “India’s agencies.”
Of course, the country’s armed forces
have been given a “free hand to go ahead and retaliate”. But that was just an
“oral statement” not something issued in a written statement delivered to media
and which the opposition saw in writing. Making statements in thin air and then
letting them dissolve in hot air seems to be Modi’s style-statement. Washing
the feet of sanitation workers and taking the Kumbh dip does not spell
retaliation.
The overwhelming feeling we get is
that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reduced War & Peace to bombast and
electoral symbolism. It’s a rerun of cow vigilantism all over again: Drum up
emotions to a high pitch and then watch the countryside churn in chaos and
violence. Then, in the case of cow vigilantism, and now, in the case of attacks
on Kashmiris, it took an intervention of the Supreme Court, for Modi to issue a
lukewarm warning. The damage was already done in both cases.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stands
indicted in the eyes of millions of his countrymen of promising the moon and
then not delivering on the ground, whether it be “Achche Din” or Ram Mandir.
Now, it’s “payment for the big mistake.” Modi it seems specializes in making
empty statements. And every one of them is related to an election. Take stock
of the big statements made by the Modi-Shah combine and they were made post
this or that election, right from before general election 2014.
The bottom-line is if Prime Minister
Narendra Modi does not deliver on his government’s sworn statement that
Pakistan will be made to pay “a big cost” for its “big mistake” before General
Elections 2019, his bluff should be called and his government should be voted
out, if only to remind politicians that some promises ought not to be made and
if made should be kept. If Pakistan is to blame for Pulwama and a promise has
been made to teach it a lesson, the promise should be kept at any cost. (IPA Service)
The post Pulwama Is An Election Issue, Nothing More appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
