Opinion | India Needs To Avenge Pahalgam Decisively, But Avoid Geopolitical Landmines
India needs to strike at the heart of the enemy with disproportionately high force and with a strong element of surprise to cripple it permanently
Blood usually comes with an unputdownable urgency.
When it flows from a wound, it has to be immediately attended to; when from an inverted bottle, quickly pushed through the patient’s veins; and when spilled by terrorists, instantly avenged.
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Indians and their friends around the world are not wrong in thinking after Tuesday’s Pahalgam massacre that revenge should come within hours, and at a magnitude much higher than the Islamist barbarity.
There is, however, the question of what Shri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita calls ‘stithpragya’. Loosely translated, it is steady wisdom…the quality of someone who is not swayed by external circumstances while making crucial decisions.
Because Pahalgam is most likely a carefully placed geopolitical landmine. The timing is too loaded to believe that it is an unconnected, local act of terror.
It comes at a time when US Vice-President JD Vance is visiting India with his family to give shape to a bilateral trade deal and deepen Indo-US security relations in the region.
It comes at a time when PM Narendra Modi was visiting Saudi Arabia, one of India’s closest allies.
It comes at a time when Pakistan is ravaged by economic collapse and terrorism.
It comes at a time when China’s interests in insurgency-torn Balochistan are taking severe blows.
It comes at a time when Bangladesh is in turmoil and so is West Bengal on India’s side of the border.
So, whichever entity planned the Pahalgam attack, wanted India to be drawn into a skirmish which destabilised not just the region but India’s relationship with its allies like the US and Saudi. The 2019 Pulwama attack was carried out when US President Donald Trump was about to visit.
Also, it could be a decoy to keep India busy in Kashmir while a much more sinister attack is launched on the eastern or north-eastern front from turbulent Bangladesh. China has been bringing in leaders of Bangladesh’s notorious Islamist outfits like Jamaat, Hefazat, and Khelafat by the planeloads, pampering them, and sending them back. ISI has already set up several training and indoctrination camps across Bangladesh.
In such a situation, it is important to choose the time, place, and extent of response. It cannot be just a symbolic target to assuage domestic outrage. It needs to strike at the heart of the enemy with disproportionately high force and with a strong element of surprise to cripple it permanently. For that, it needs to convince and mobilise its global allies to limit the backlash, if any.
If India plays well, it can convert this terrible tragedy into an opportunity to deal its enemies a blow hard to recover from, expand its military and diplomatic influence in the region.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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