War Hysteria and Jingoism by India

The current tension between India and Pakistan have gathered the attention of the whole world. The conflict between the two nuclear-armed forces is not a new thing, but 14^th February escalated tensions between both when a native Kashmiri, Adil Ahmed, carried out a suicide attack on a convoy of Central Reserve Police Force in Pulwama, killing at least 40 soldiers. The convoy was carrying almost 2500 Indian soldiers in 78 vehicles. The area where incident took place was only 20km from Srinagar. India, keeping the legacy, blamed Pakistan for the attack right after the attack, without any investigations. Jaish-e-Muhmmad took responsibility of the attack and video of Adil Ahmed Dar went viral. His family unveiled that he was radicalized after being beaten by the Indian armed forces. It is not astonishing to know that he joined the separatist group after being beaten up because if the Indian armed forces can use a Kashmiri as a human shield for their van they can do anything. At that time, Pakistan was busy in welcoming His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. Prime Minister rightly point out in his address on 19^th February,

“why Pakistan would be involved in any such activity when the world is thinking to invest in Pakistan, we would help out India in any investigations, Pakistan is ready to talk on terrorism because it has not only cost us lives of 70000 people but it is a virus for the whole region. It is intriguing for the Indian government to realize that Kashmiri’s have reached to a point where they have no fear of losing their life. There is no military solution to anything, we should negotiate. The attack is only beneficial for one party, and that is BJP because it is election year. And know that we don’t want war but if there is any force we will retaliate and retaliate rightly”.

But the voices for revenge and war mongering in India were quite loud and it was not acceptable for BJP to lose its power when the elections are just about to happen. The Indian Air Force violated the line of control on 26^th February. According to Indian forces claims, the Indian aircraft were carrying 1000 kg payload to drop it on training camp of Jaish-e-Muhammad at Balakot. But as per the satellite images, there was no training camp where Indian forces dropped the payload but a hill and the attack has damaged pine trees planted. Pakistani authorities are planning to lodge a complaint in the United Nations for “Eco-Terrorism” caused by Indian air force and brought the two nuclear forces at the verge of nuclear war. Pakistan again warned Indian government to not provoke Pakistan to carry out any counter-attack as it would lead to war, and DG ISPR too offered peaceful negotiations to the problem. But it was not in the interest of Indian government as if they’ll go for negotiations, they would lose vote from the war and violence loving people in India incited by war mongering Indian media.

The Indian Air Force again violated line of control on 27^th February, and this time, as already been warned by Pakistani Armed Forces, they retaliated back. Pakistan Air Force shot down two Indian aircraft, the wreckage of one fell in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and the wreckage of other one fell in Indian occupied Kashmir. One Indian pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by Pakistan army. Indians demanded the treatment of Abhinandan as per Geneva Convention. It is important to understand that the Geneva Convention is only applicable to “declared wars”, so the question arises has India declared war on Pakistan? If not so then India has no right to demand the treatment of pilot as per Geneva Convention. PM Khan announced that in a joint session of National Assembly that he will return back Abhinandan as a gesture of peace. But right after he was returned at Wahga border the clashes at LoC again started, Indian armed forces used heavy firing on Kahsmiris resulting in various causalities. Not only this, the Indian PM Narendra Modi said, “Pilot project happened recently, now real one has to be done”.

This official statement by Indian Prime Minister represents the fascination for war. The Indian media done its best to build a pro-war narrative. The Indian cinema too is trying its best to cash the war, the huffpost India reported that the Bollywood producers are fighting to register for “Patriotic” movies titles; Pulwama, Balakot, Abhinandan”. And on other hand, in Pakistan from Prime Minister to opposition, to media houses to common people, everyone demanded peace rather than war. The reason, which is also mentioned by PM Khan is that, Pakistanis know that it is easy to start a war but no one can end a war, Pakistan has suffered from war on terror since 2001 and now Pakistan do not want to be involved in another decade’s long war with India, where both parties are nuclear power. It is time for Indian government to realize that war in reality is not similar to that of wars in Bollywood movies, it takes life of real people, and the major victim in this war hysteria and jingoism showed by Indian government, are Kashmiri’s and the civil population of both countries. India needs to revisit its tactics to win election other than use of force and being Pakistan centric in the election campaigns.