India's purpose should be to re-establish deterrence, says Ajay Bisaria

During his tenure as India's envoy to Pak from 2017 to Aug 2019, Bisaria had a front-row seat to India's response to the 2019 Pulwama attack and argues that India now needs to re-establish deterrence

After the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam killed 26 people, mostly tourists, India-Pakistan relations have sharply deteriorated. The attack has prompted diplomatic downgrades and treaty-level measures, and raised the spectre of escalation amid a widely anticipated Indian military response to Islamabad’s continued support for cross-border terrorism. Against this backdrop, former diplomat Ajay Bisaria — India’s last High Commissioner to Pakistan and subsequently envoy to Canada — sat down with Business Standard’s Bhaswar Kumar and Archis Mohan to unpack the timing of the attack and the response it demands from India. During his tenure as India’s envoy to Pakistan