Saber or Sober?

This week has seen immense Sabre rattling from the two nuclear neighbours in South East Asia, both Indian and Pakistan Media and some sections of the society in general baying for each others blood. Some quarters even emphasizing on the Nuke card and dooms day scenario.

1) The silver lining in the clouds seems to be the fact that both the GOVT's have shown remarkable restraint. Considering that the National elections are round the corner in India in summer, the restraint shown by all political parties is commendable, it is very important that we do not get jingoistic at this delicate hour. Yes agreed our restraint has its limitations, and we wont allow our motherland to be raped every once in a while by Islamic/Hindu Jihadists or extremist of any other hue. We should at least show to the world that we would support the Pakistani civilian government in cracking down genuinely on these extremist groups in Pakistani soil and help in any way possible. At the same time, we need to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure, and make the world known that we have all options open on the table.

2) Pakistani and Indian media have escalated the situation a bit, this time around it seems its the media playing to the gallery rather than the politicians. Both need to observe restraint, action has to be on the ground not on the TV studios. :)

3) India needs to decide strongly on some issues. India needs to understand that it can not afford to fight inside its own territory, it needs to move the war to an external theatre so that the collateral damage that we might need to take is more related to the Armed forces and civilian interests are protected and at the same time we must not openly state that we are at war. Seems confusing right? Well the point I am trying to make is , we would not officially go to war, no use of "Shock and Awe", if we do that Pakistan surely will blackmail the world on a nuclear catastrophe. We would lose the existing support of international community for flaring up the region. We can not afford a nuclear war, which ever sides argument we deem fit, Pakistanis believe they have the right to first use and they would use the nukes if India shows signs of aggression and believes that this right would protect it, and from an Indian perspective, hardliners assume that If India is nuked Pakistan would also be wiped out, well both are extremist scenarios. We do not need to go to that extent, we need to keep the diplomatic channel alive and pay Pakistan back in some of its own coin.

4) India needs to assure its minority community that helping stabilize Afghanistan is not undermining Islam, and then, we have a base in Tajikistan if I am not wrong, so lets move the theatre of conflict to western Pakistan. Pakistan has been trying to blackmail the US that it would have to move its forces to eastern front, and that would leave USA on one leg, so lets make USA strong, get our Army into Afghanistan, we have interests there, we can say we want to protect the infrastructure and men that India has provided to help Afghanistan. Yes Pakistan would sure cry wolf and accuse the Indian missions of fermenting trouble but that should be fine, as long as our regulars do not cross Afghanistan, we can always get away, if any one is caught in Pakistan destroying these terror infrastructure, we would also say they are "non-state" actors and give a rousing speech about how we are also victims and how it is it in the interest of both countries to sort the mess out :P

5) It is time we drop the so called "Gujral Doctrine" and restart covert operations in Pakistani territory, it is a point to note that we did have some capability before, and the Baluchis have always had a soft corner for India, The Bugti who was assassinated this year by the Pakistan army was probably the most secular voice in Pakistan, we need to make sure we have some assets inside Pakistan and that would also give us the moral high point that we are showing restraint against the civilian government of Pakistan but at the same time protecting our strategic interests.

6) Its time we understand the problem of religious extremism be it of the SIMI kind or the VHP kind, we need to rise and condemn both forms. Also, lets not give stupid theories about poverty and oppression. If poverty was the reason, then the misguided Muslim youth should have joined the Maoists not the jihadis. Take this example, say india has 100 people, out of which say 60% is below poverty line, this means approximately 10 muslim and 45 non muslim youth are below poverty line, not well educated, not having good access to governance, so how does it so happen that relatively less numbers of the non muslim groups end up in religious extremism of the kind perpetuated by Muslim extremism? The root cause is not poverty or education as the recent arrests have indicated, even highly educated youth are getting attracted to this wrong idea of Islam propagated by the Mullahs of certain organizations. Islam stands for peace, and India allows any Muslim to practice Islam without any interference, and I think the only solution that will bring peace should and can come only from the Mullahs. They can only save India, they need to declare that Jihad against India is not permissible.

7) We would sure see some remarkable improvement in governance now, some politicians have behaved in a more admirable manner in the past week, so lets hope we achieve our ends without having to go to war, which is not in the interest of any one. I would like to appeal to the people of Pakistan that no Indian dislikes them, but yes, they can not afford to be in denial, extremism and militant Islam would not help them also in any case, I hope they wake up sooner than later and save the Islamic Republic Of Pakistan from stagnation and destruction. Do they really believe that their Qaid-e- Azam formed Pakistan for what it is today?

8) War need not be fought with fighter planes and Tanks, lets fight it, but in a more subtle way, lets strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan and hit at the extremists.

Would the saber win or would sober have the honors of the day?:)