LoC beheadings: Modi should re-engage with Pak, not opt for rash reactions

Events along LoC underscore the need to engage with Pakistan

The shameful beheading of two Indian soldiers by Pakistan’s border action team near the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday has justifiably flared tempers on the Indian side. The government has asserted that India has sufficient evidence to prove that the Pakistan army crossed the LoC at the Krishna Ghati sector and committed this “heinous act”. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, too, conveyed India’s outrage to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, though the Pakistani establishment has denied the involvement of its army. Predictably, there is growing clamour within India, across the Treasury and Opposition benches, for the army to retaliate with full force. However, there are many reasons why the government must think through its response. 

For one, the policy of tit for tat does not seem to be working at all. What makes the whole situation worse is the obvious weakness in India’s defence establishment. Since the audacious attack on an air base in Pathankot early in 2016, crucially just a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stop in Pakistan to meet his counterpart, there has been a succession of similar attacks. Each of these attacks has targeted India’s army personnel and struck terror in bases that were supposed to be impregnable. This trend did not stop despite India’s famed “surgical strikes” in retaliation to the attack on the Uri army base because the Pakistanis struck back further into Indian territory and hit the Nagrota army base in November. The death toll of Indian soldiers is rapidly rising with no real improvement on the ground. 

The other big reason is worsening situation in Kashmir. There has been a rising number of cross-border incidents, and of increasing severity, associated with disturbed political conditions in the Kashmir Valley. Such incidents diminish when there is relative calm and peace in the state. This points to the urgent need for a political initiative to defuse the increasingly tense situation in the Valley and to address the growing alienation among the people, in particular Kashmiri youth. Recourse to tough security measures while failing to address longstanding and well-known genuine political grievances can only create opportunities for Pakistan to fish in troubled waters. In this context, recourse to President's rule will be turning the clock back and will prove to be counter-productive, as advised by Governor N N Vohra.

While letting the army respond in its own effective way to the latest Pakistani provocation, India cannot lose any time in promoting dialogue and reconciliation in the Valley. At the same time, India should re-engage Pakistan in a dialogue, and use it as a platform to put its government on notice for its various misdemeanours. Since it is true that any effort at talks with Pakistan’s civilian leadership alone is meaningless unless the Pakistan army is on board, it would be a good idea to pursue Track II diplomacy and informal back-channel communication. There cannot be a sustainable solution that is based solely on military action. Also, there is no point in being defensive about putting Kashmir on the agenda. After all, India has an issue with Pakistan’s illegal occupation of a part of the state and its vacation should be an item on the agenda. Dialogue should be seen not a climbdown by India but as regaining some room for manoeuvre.