Unlike two years ago, he doesn’t have the Tahir-ul-Qadri’s hordes but may again be acting at the Pakistan Army’s behest to destabilise the polity as Gen. Raheel Sharif’s term ends late November, to force Mr Sharif to grant him an extension. By the end of September and after the exchange of India-Pakistan diatribes at the UN General Assembly, India rallied Saarc members to boycott the planned November summit in Pakistan over Pakistan’s sponsorship of terror.Where are India-Pakistan ties headed After disrupting the Pakistan-hosted Saarc summit and excluding Pakistan from the Brics summit by inviting Bimstec and not Saarc members, India now says Pakistan is welcome to the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan in Amritsar on December 4. Diwali ushers in seasonal cheer, lit homes and prayers.The writer is a former secretary in the external affairs ministry. The challenge is their enforcement and imparting punishment when they are breached. He thought international pressure on India by vociferously raking up Kashmir at the United Nations would restore political strength at home and force India back to the negotiating table. China’s objections to the Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal are ominous. The Indian Army, being a professional one, must eschew aping Pakistan despite the extreme provocation. The multi-crore “settlement” sullied Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ reputation as the Army and public opinion derided it. The tension has worsened after an attack, jointly claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, on the Quetta Police Training College that killed 62 people.The spillover to other fields was immediate. The tit-for-tat reaction by Pakistan stifles already limited cultural links which counter the toxic jihadi narrative about India. Never have two nations possessing nuclear weapons tested deterrence via calibrated punishment. This year, it’s also a dark Diwali for the families of martyred servicemen and families living within range of Pakistani weaponry in Jammu and Kashmir.The Indian retaliation on September 29 was characterised by the government as “surgical strikes”. Enfeebled by the Panama Papers allegations on his family’s bank accounts abroad, he yielded to the stoke-fire-in-Kashmir game. Raj Thackeray singled out Pakistani filmstars in Indian films as Karan Johar’s movie Ae Dil Hai Mushkil prepared for its Diwali release.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has further consolidated his power and is now a “core” leader like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.Indian security agencies, meanwhile, uncovered a spy ring operated by Pakistan high commission staffer Mehmood Akhtar. The aim should be to contain Pakistan, not outgun it despite, to vary Karan Johar, “Ae Aman Hai Mushkil”. The attack by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, that recently held a funeral service for eliminated fidayeen, at Uri mid-September killing 19 Indian soldiers, undercut the Nawaz gambit as the international focus shifted to Pakistan-sponsored terror and away from Indian security forces’ handling of the Valley unrest. His expulsion invited Pakistani copycat action.The ceasefire negotiated in 2003 is, in effect, over. He tweets at @ambkcsingh. Raheel Sharif’s successor when he retires on November 30.Diwali ushers in seasonal cheer, lit homes and prayers. While military and diplomatic officials underplayed it as action “along the LoC” and an “anti-terrorist” operation, not targeting the Pakistani Army, political leaders, starting with I&B minister of state Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, were less restrained. Subsequent posters in election-bound Uttar Pradesh claiming political credit revealed the BJP’s duality.This hybrid approach is designed to create new red lines. In two decades of Saarc’s existence never before has almost the entire membership rallied to India’s side on this issue. India needs a smarter defence against cross-border terror, political outreach in Kashmir and open doors with Pakistan instead of artillery duels and medieval eye-for-an-eye approach. On the positive side, it questions Pakistan’s assumption of unlimited immunity from Indian retaliatory strikes. It also brings fireworks, terrifying animals, birds and humans, besides worsening pollution levels in Delhi and other big cities. There have been regular exchanges of fire, with the BBC estimating 43 and rising ceasefire violations.
