Pulwama Attack opinion

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War

If you are an Indian and not living inside a cave, you would be knowing by now that 44 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have lost their lives in a dastardly terror attack in Pulwama on 14 February. At the time of writing, some of them have already been cremated.

The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber through an IED (some reports say RDX) laden car that rammed into a bus in a convoy carrying over 2500 soldiers. The impact radius of the blast was around 150 metres. A body of a jawan, some reports say, was found 80 metres away from the blast point. The ghastly attack was claimed by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) – a Pakistan-based terror group which is headed by Maulana Masood Azhar.

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JeM has its headquarters in Bahawalpur, just across India’s border with Pakistan at Rajasthan. Masood Ahar was the terrorist who was released in exchanged of the passengers of the hijacked IC-814 aircraft in 1999. He has since been living in Pakistan, enjoying the support of the government there and increasing his strength with the help of ISI.

Pulwama Attack
Hindustan Times

The attack raised many questions on the security of the country, the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling government’s defence policy, and India’s Pakistan policy. Reactions on Twitter have also exposed a very sorry reality – some of our own who work for renowned media houses, study in prestigious universities or are simply sympathetic to a fault for separatists, insulted the memory of martyrs by twisting “How’s the Josh?”, a war cry made popular by Bollywood movie Uri, with praise for JeM.

That Pulwama is the deadliest terror attack in the history of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the second deadliest for CRPF anywhere in India has made many numb and, rightly, outraged. That Pakistan has a clear hand in this attack makes many wonder what the government achieved with its display of braggadocio post the Surgical Strikes that avenged Uri.

Pakistan is a lost country whose economy is doddering. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out on Friday, Islamabad is roaming the world with a begging bowl in hand. So this makes many ask how a pathetic country which relies on donations from its masters – China and Saudi Arabia – for its daily expenses dare to repeatedly injure an economic powerhouse such as India.

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Everyone (at least everyone who is not a pro-Pakistani, ideologically-twisted, braindead liberal Indian preaching “peace”, “not to hate”, “love” etc.) is asking only one question: What is the right way to deal with Pakistan? That is a complex question and cannot have a straight answer. The right question can be: What are our problems and what we should do right now to ensure that another Pulwama-like attack doesn’t happen again?

1. Improve the working of our intelligence organisations

What was the biggest mistake that resulted in Pulwama attack? Intelligence. Even J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik admitted that there was an intelligence failure. It is true that there never is enough intelligence, but it is also true that our top intelligence organisations – RAW, IB and Military Intelligence – have been criticised previously for not sharing information between themselves. Books written by former top officials of Indian intelligence suggest that there is some form of rivalry between them. This rivalry came to the fore after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. (You can read more about it here.)

India's External Intelligence Agency
Council on Foreign Relations

We do have a Joint Intelligence Committee, but its effectiveness is highly questionable. On the other hand Pakistan has one powerful intelligence agency – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – headed by a three-star military officer active since 1948. In intelligence effectivity, the ISI scores above RAW. Unlike RAW which ensures that a certain line of humanity is never crossed, the ISI keeps creating, arming and harbouring enemies of humanity in the entire neighbourhood. And while our intelligence agencies might still be bickering over intel sharing, the ISI controls the entire intelligence gathering concerning Pakistan with a singular objective of defeating India.

This India must first set its intelligence house in order. If that is not done, we cannot rule out another attack.

2. Ensure that our jawans do not travel in ordinary buses or trucks during transit in high-risk areas

The least that the Indian government can do for our soldiers is to provide them better weapons and vehicles. Our army generally fights with INSAS assault rifles while the terrorists always fight with AK-47s. To explain it simply, the difference between an INSAS and an AK-47 is the difference between a scooter and a superbike. The CRPF jawans who were martyred in Pulwama were travelling in an ordinary bus that could be blown off by even an IED with less intensity than the one used in the attack. And here was an entire car loaded with over 300 kg explosives – enough to punch a hole in a powerful armoured carrier.

Mobile Brigade Corps Indonesia
Mobile Brigade Corps Indonesia. Time Magazine

A look at the Mobile Brigade Corps and Detachment 88 of the Indonesian Police, which have functions almost similar to CRPF, will easily reveal what and where we lack. The Indonesian police force has better equipment than India’s central armed police forces in spite of not facing the kind of repeated terrorist attacks India does. This should make our ministers take a look at their vaunts on doing “the most for defence” under this government. Indeed some good things have been done for defence robustness in the last five years but there is still so much more left to be done!

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3. We need the right kind of liberalism, secularism and idealism

We have the wrong kind of liberals, seculars and idealists in every field. They either live in utopia or adhere to one of the many political ideologies. We have so many Indians who are still preaching peace with Pakistan. There are influencers, mostly with verified Twitter handles, telling people to remain calm and not call for war. Of course war is not the solution. But while the ‘rationalists’, ‘liberals’ and ‘seculars’ forward their one-sided understanding of humanity to back their call, those who understand war would cite simple military facts and geopolitics.

Every day minorities in Pakistan become victims of the mobs, who are composed of the “people of Pakistan”. They are hardly ever booked because they carry out their acts under the guise of religion which forms the foundation of Pakistan. And yet there are Indians who are suggesting that we should keep “people of Pakistan” separate from Pakistani establishment. These Indians tell us that we should not let “our hatred” cloud cultural relations, we should listen to Pakistani artistes “who too are suffering”, we should not become anti-communities, etc, etc. While all of this sounds good, none of these Indians understand that Pakistan is a cancer whose existence will one day threaten all of humanity – and if not all of humanity then India for sure because the idea of Pakistan, which is purely religious in spirit, goes against the India of India, which is purely secular.

Protest in Pakistan
Mobile Brigade Corps Indonesia. CBS News

There are artistes and liberals within Pakistan who openly criticise the establishment but only for internal reasons. Hardly any of them ever criticises the country for what it does to others, especially India. How many of those Pakistani artistes condemned the Uri terror attack? That explains the idiocy of India’s liberals and exposes their Pakistan fantasies. And the Pakistani ‘liberals’ always present Islam in good light, unlike the Indian liberals who do not miss an opportunity to insult Hinduism – India’s dominant faith. It is painful that Indian liberal-secular brigade claim that India is intolerant even though some of them regularly abuse Hindu traditions and yet continue to win laurels both at home and outside.

4. We have some media houses who behave in an odd way

When a Muslim man is killed by a Hindu mob, the headlines read “Muslim man killed by Hindu mob” even before the police can establish the truth. If the religion of the victim and perpetrator is interchanged, the media houses try to turn their heads away. And if that becomes impossible, as was in a recent case in Tamil Nadu, they completely tone down the headlines. Isn’t lynching of anyone a heinous crime? Then why is it that crime is given a colour or ignored based on the religion of the victim and perpetrator? What does this reveal? The divisive tactics of some media houses, of course! Since most media houses in India are politically inclined to one or the other ideology – mostly to the Left and far Left – their news do not reveal the complete picture. Anyone without an eye for details would believe that India has become a dangerous place for Muslims in the last five years, which is nothing but a lie pedalled by some ‘award-winning journalists’. But this is the narrative that is spread far and wide because of the massive reach of like-minded, Left-leaning media houses.

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Indians protest
South China Morning Post

This unbridled hate for a particular political party, a dominant religion, and, by extension, the armed forces, becomes so acute that some journalists forget that their social media posts can insult the memories of martyrs. But when looked deeply, it becomes clear that these kind of journalists are not at fault – it is the education system under which history books do not talk about Hindu kings of ancient India and the culture of one-sided secularism which produces the wrong kind of liberal that is to be blamed. Whenever the security forces take action against militants, some media houses make it a point to present the story of the militant in such a way that it appears as if the militant picked up the gun because of Indian security forces. (Some recent news items on the suicide car bomber give the same impression. You may google.)

While telling the other side of the story is a good thing, why isn’t the same practiced when a security force jawan dies in a terror operation or a Hindu is killed by a Muslim mob? Should one lie or present half-truth in the name of free speech and win awards abroad? Do such journalism not create fissures in the society? For a powerful country, the media must side with the government, if democratically elected, on matters of international politics. And the media of any nation must tell the complete story instead of playing the dirty politics of being politically-correct. Depending on who holds the pen, an entire nation can either become a superpower or disintegrate.

5. We cannot fight a war with Pakistan unless we are armed to the teeth

Even though it is a failed state, Pakistan still has an Army, a powerful spy agency, collaborators in India, nuclear missiles, the backing of some Islamic nations and…China. Any war with Pakistan would mean inviting China into the war. Pakistan is China’s vassal state and is integral for Beijing’s global domination plans. Also, the sad truth is that India cannot fight on two fronts. Senior military officials have said this is clear terms in the past. Our Air Force is depleting fast and, thanks to the opposition and some media houses, the Rafale is flying in a different airspace.

Indian Navy Ship
South China Morning Post

In spite of the right-wingers who think India’s military might is like that of Israel, there is frankly no comparison. Israel has everything India still needs to work on – from the world’s best intelligence (Mossad) to the world’s best weapons. To top it all, the people of Israel are united in their belief that it is the only nation they have and thus they must defend it with all might. (This is a key factor. Some of the Indians who are currently baying for war with Pakistan probably do not even follow traffic rules.)

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The least the government can do is to increase the defence budget manifold, especially for the capital outlay. The government needs to get the arms needed by the forces, and the forces need to work together like a single body to take the enemy across the border out. While the latter is always doing that, it is the government which needs to fulfil the requirements of the forces. This government promised the moon in matters of defence capabilities. One can easily see that the moon is still far away.

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In fact, let us be very clear: WE CAN NEVER DEFEAT PAKISTAN UNLESS WE CHANGE. We know our enemy well. Now if we only know what is wrong with us, and where and what we are doing wrong can we become powerful enough to defeat anyone.

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