It would be wrong to dismiss nasty utterances of Pakistan's Defence Minister, Khwaja Asif lightly that Pakistan would use nuclear weapons against India. He has been airing such nuclear threats repeatedly but we should not take these as empty rhetoric and misplace bluster.
These threats sounded like the ranting of a mad man who is oblivious of the consequences of such action, Asif said in a television interview: “We have not made atomic device to display in a showcase. If India dares to impose war on Pakistan, we will use it (nuclear weapons) and eliminate India.”
‘Surgical strikes' that Indian special forces undertook to raze to the ground eight terrorist training camps in which over 40 potential terrorists and nine soldiers — evidently their trainers and benefactors — were killed, the Pakistan political leadership and army personnel are in a state of paranoia which belies reason and logic. There is no mistaking the fact that Pakistan is like a wounded tiger, itching to strike back after it failed to hit back at the special commando force for the four hours that the operation lasted. If the Pakistanis think that they can pulverise India in a nuclear attack they must know that while India is too big to be so destroyed, Indian retaliatory attacks can decimate Pakistan comprehensively.
There is indeed no denying that at no time in post-independence history has India been in such a distinctly advantageous position vis-à-vis Pakistan as it is today. The Pakistanis are fighting with their backs to the wall against an India that has been at the receiving end of State-sponsored terror emanating from across the border for decades.
Sadly, we have been utterly ineffective in the past and we have consequently been taken for granted. But the sooner the Pakistanis realise that the Narendra Modi government is not one that could be pushed around and bullied the better it would be for them. What is even more heartening was that there was a diplomatic offensive by India to explain Pakistan's Uri misadventure in which they treacherously mowed down 18 Indian soldiers in an army camp.
For the Indian forces to have come home safely from the PoK anti-terror operation without a single casualty is indeed mind-boggling. The manner in which India liberated Bangladesh in 1971 leading to the unprecedented surrender of 93,000 Pakistani troops to the Indian army, the clearing of Pakistan aggressors from the difficult Siachin heights in 1984 after the Pakistani soldiers had occupied the heights through stealth and deceit and now the ‘surgical strikes' on terror camps in Pak-occupied Kashmir should now convince Pakistan that the Indian armed forces are second to none in the world.
All that they require to do a thoroughly professional job is a clear direction from the political establishment which was lacking in the past except in 1971 and which the Modi government has demonstrated it is capable of in no small measure. That the Indian establishment was also able to keep the planning of the midnight strikes under wraps is a tribute to the superior planning of the operation under difficult circumstances.
That the response to the terror attacks in Pathankot in Punjab and then Uri in Jammu and Kashmir was well-calibrated is now a matter of record. This time around, the Modi government was proactive in putting forth the Indian case to countries around the world. Both Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj deserve commendation, besides the Foreign Secretary and many others down the line, for the manner in which they painstakingly carried forward the Indian position that Pakistan was the epicentre of terror which had been doing everything possible to destabilise India.
Both at the United Nations, in the corridors of power in the South Asian countries that form part of SAARC and with the US, Europe, Russia and even China, among others, India lobbied hard. It was helped by the fact that the Pakistan establishment was plagued by the army calling the shots in actual practice while the Nawaz Sharif government was the puppet on a string. It is not wrong to say that Pakistan was left virtually friendless in the comity of nations.
The Chinese did make some feeble gestures of support but when it came to the crucial stage Beijing caved in by merely calling for both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint after India resorted to surgical strikes. Clearly, China's eyes are fixed on quickly completing the China-Pak economic corridor which will not only boost Chinese trade but also contribute to establishing their hegemony over international waters in the Arabian Sea. At any cost, they do not want an Indo-Pak war to be a roadblock to the completion of the corridor and would be wary of stepping into the explosive situation. All in all, it is Advantage India at present but this country can ill afford to be complacent. The enemy is like a desperado who can go to any lengths in its paranoia.
