Need for restraint

With firing and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir escalating and showing no signs of halting, the India-Pakistan ceasefire is in grave danger. Hopes that a brigadier-level flag meeting would provide a breakthrough were dashed when it ended without agreement.

Tensions are rising and the two countries are fuelling it by engaging in a war of words. The statements are increasingly bellicose. Instead of sorting out issues quietly through the diplomatic channel, India and Pakistan are engaging in megaphone diplomacy and conducting it through the media. Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar trashed all diplomatic etiquette, even basic human niceties in her insensitive response to India’s call for Pakistan to explain the brutal decapitation of a jawan and the mutilation of the body of another. She dismissed the anguished cries of Indian people as not meriting a response from Pakistan.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh, who was credited with trying to improve relations with our neighbour, joined the bellicosity by saying that “it can’t be business as usual with Pakistan” and  deciding to suspend all people-to-people contacts. The UPA government’s sudden upping of ante with the familiar enemy may have to do with a desire to sideline the debate on deteriorating law and order and unending corruption. Unfortunately, Army chief Bikram Singh and Air chief N A K Browne have been dragged into sabre-rattling. Parliamentarians and politicians too have joined the war of words. Sushma Swaraj’s demand for ‘ten heads from Pakistan’ if the head of the decapitated jawan was not returned is hardly befitting of a leader. Neither belligerent action nor pugnacious rhetoric is of use to India’s long-term goals of building a peaceful South Asia. Unlike Pakistan, which indulges in barbaric behaviour to further its foreign policy goals, India is a responsible and civilised country. It must not sink to Pakistan’s level - even in its verbal exchanges - whatever the provocation.

The vicious manner in which two jawans were killed has understandably generated deep outrage in India. However, war with Pakistan is not an option, especially since the two countries are armed with nuclear weapons. In the circumstances, verbal exchanges serve no purpose but to raise the temperature. It is not our argument that India should be soft on Pakistan, especially in the light of the brutal treatment meted out to our soldiers. However, it is only through persistent dialogue that India can hope to nudge Pakistan towards responsible conduct.