In replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday following the killing of five jawans on the Indian side of the Line of Control by Pakistanis in the Poonch sector earlier the same day, defence minister A.K. Antony significantly noted that India was facing problems on “both borders” (meaning Pakistan and China).
He also spoke of the “continuing” LoC violations. Separately, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has spoken of giving Pakistan an “appropriate” response to its “deceitful” attack on Indian posts. While the defence minister referred to border problems with candour, it is far from clear what “appropriate” steps India has taken in the past year to forestall such LoC violations by Pakistan, particularly after January 8 when two Indian soldiers were beheaded by Pakistani troops on our side of the LoC.
The impression has gained strength — and this was reflected in the Upper House — that the government routinely mentions diplomatic channels through which to convey India’s strong concerns on LoC violations, but that the matter ends there. It should be made clear to the Pakistanis now that the time for jiggery-pokery is over.
Mr Antony did not hide the fact that infiltration across the LoC has “doubled” in the past year, and ceasefire violations had gone up 80 per cent in the same period. The Lok Sabha had to be adjourned on Tuesday as the House was dissatisfied with the defence minister’s statement. Quite plainly, the official statement is short on steps taken by India other than to speak of diplomatic channels.
But look at what Pakistan has done in the meantime. In a statement its foreign office spokesman flatly denied that there was any military incident on August 6 in the Poonch sector. The same brazenness had been displayed after the January 8 beheading of our soldiers and mutilation of one of the bodies. In effect, the diplomatic channels are dysfunctional. In Pakistan’s strategic doctrine, India remains the principal adversary.
Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly spoken of mending ties with India and of the two countries cutting their defence budgets. This should be regarded with a pinch of salt, for determining the contours of Pakistan’s relations with India are not in the hands of the civilian leadership but that of the Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (the same holds for its ties with Afghanistan, China and the United States). If it has to, India must act without troubling itself too much over America’s concerns that muscular steps taken by India will divert Pakistan’s military from the Afghan border to the Indian, and this may endanger America’s safe exit from that region.