WHY THE WEST IS ANGRY OVER OP SINDOOR
The new Indian doctrine calls the Western world’s bluff; Pak N-bomb is not an Islamic bomb aimed at Western world but leg irons to keep India down
The India-Pakistan conflict ended with bare minimum trouble to everyday civilian life but with a dramatic disruption in the region’s geopolitics. India has unveiled its new doctrine to call Pakistan’s nuclear bluff --- rather the sham should be rephrased as the Western World’s Pakistan Nuclear Bluff. It all started with the euphoria in the Western media over the shooting down of a Rafale jet. Of course, aircraft get shot down during combat routinely and that is called war wastage (Britain lost 8325 aircraft during WWII). What matters is the precision bombing of the targets, which was carried out with elan.
A news report that got circulated in journalistic WhatsApp groups in the initial hours of the conflict, purportedly published by a British newspaper, had a celebratory outburst about Pak-Chinese air defence mechanisms supported by a network of satellites not allowing a single Indian Air Force aircraft to even take off.
The malicious glee lent itself to high-strung hype: “India now knows that any venture into Pakistani airspace invites death trap orchestrated by J-10Cs, PL-15s, and Pakistani resolve…” Then comes the doggerel: “So, they stay back. Grounded by fear. Blinded by radar. And humiliated by silence… At that speed the Indian pilot had 9 seconds. Not enough to react. Not enough to survive. You don’t see the Indian Air Force over Kashmir anymore. Because every time a fighter lifts off, Pakistani radars pick it up… India’s Pain, Pakistan’s Message.”
Predictably, 'pain' and 'message' had P and M in capital letters. It ought to have been published in a Pakistani newspaper because it was Pakistani propaganda at its worst. Well, when Elizabeth Windsor took her coronation oath in 1953 she had counted Pakistan as her territory; however, this time, her son Charles skipped mentioning the favourite colony. Why else would any newspaper not see the damage inflicted on the terror training facilities in Muridke and Bahawalpur? How could these two have been bombed deep inside Pakistan territory without Indian aircraft or missiles targeting them? Or do western war poets believe that only Rafale would get “blinded” by the radar while all the other Indian projectiles would hit the Pak targets precisely? Soon, there was a newer version of the same story with a disclaimer that the earlier effort was fabricated.
This was worse than Indian TV journalists’ monkey tricks. They are used to embarrassing themselves, and keep doing them for Television Rating Points. But there is no TRP war to be won by writing bad poetry for Pakistanis. Or was the “fabricator” trying to make Churchill proud? It was as if Churchillian hatred for India as British foreign policy was written, exhibited and hung on a brilliantly-lit billboard on the London bridge for all to see. Not just the British, other Western media too peddled Pakistani lies.
That brings us to the question: did India lose out as the Western media would want us to believe? Not one bit. Donald Trump has zero credibility at home and abroad. Nobody, least of all himself, takes Trump seriously. If at all Trump has achieved anything, he has only blown up the possibility of QUAD ever becoming operational in the Indo-Pacific. After US’s attempt to play the Pakistani nuclear bluff, re-hyphenate India and Pakistan, inviting the two to a neutral territory, and talking cheap trade, Trump has no friends left atop Raisina Hill. India categorically rejected all his claims. In an emphatic assertion of India’s independent foreign policy, the Prime Minister called the Western bluff --- the nuclear threat won’t work any longer.
It is indeed a Western bluff because the West never exhibited any nervousness about Pakistan’s nuclear programme as it has about the Iranian and Iraqi programmes. For Iran, a N-bomb is a guarantor of its sovereignty, but for Pakistan it is only a deterrent against India’s prosperity. Without Western “sanction”, Pakistan would never have built its nuclear arsenal and without the Western patronage Pakistan’s nuclear weapon programme would never have become a blackmail facilitator for terror attacks against India.
Yes, that is exactly what it is. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are only meant to guarantee continued covert operations against India without counter action.
If Israel can bomb the Parchin nuclear research facility 30 kms east of Teheran (and about 40 years ago the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq), why didn’t the West ever get the Pakistani bomb dismantled? Why isn’t Isreal threatened by the Pak N-bomb? The aerial distance between New Gwadar International Airport and Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is only 2800 kms and that is roughly the range of Pakistan’s Shaheen – III missile. If the Pak army launches the missile from Taftan on the Iranian border, the distance will only be about 2500 km. But the Israelis have never sweated over Pakistani bombs or missiles. For, the Pakistani bomb is not an Islamic Bomb aimed at the Western world, but mere leg irons to keep India down.
Modi has scripted a doctrine to break these Western-made Pakistani nuclear shackles and this may get counted as his greatest achievement. Whether India hit the Kirana Hills nuclear storage facility or not is too sensitive for loose talk, but India did exhibit that it won’t shy away from responding to grave provocation simply because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. This time the escalation was so effective that 11 Pak airfields were rendered useless. There are Indians who doubt the efficacy of this doctrine wondering whether India can afford to kinetically respond every time a few terrorists open fire at innocent civilians. Unfortunately, the answer ought to be yes.
For, these are not stray terrorists opening fire at their free will, but Pakistani military-intelligence establishment’s foot soldiers. They are unleashed for tactical reasons by the Pakistan Army. That realisation, as enunciated by the PM in his address on May 12, is the bedrock of the new doctrine. Pakistanis cannot launch mini, micro or major operations using its semi-state actors with the generals hiding behind them. Pakistan Army, unlike most other armies, exists only for itself. So, India cannot continue to bleed from a thousand cuts simply because a Quran-spouting Mullah in battle fatigues wants a promotion and a baton.