Does India Want Nuclear War?

By Sajjad Shaukat

By setting aside Indian commitment to observe restraint, as agreed during the recent meeting of the Directors-General Military Operations (DGMOs) of both the countries, India has accelerated unprovoked firing at the Line of Control in Kashmir and Working Boundary across Pak-Indian border. Even without bothering for nuclear war, New Delhi has continuously been ignoring Islamabad’s protest. In this respect, India again cancelled National Security Adviser (NSA)-level talks with Pakistan, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on August 23-24. In this context, Spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said that New Delhi opposes Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz’s meeting with pro-independence leaders of Kashmir. India neglected the fact that the Hurriyat leaders are true representatives of the Kashmiri people of the Indian occupied Kashmir, and could help in finding a lasting solution of the Kashmir dispute. During the talks between Pakistan’s Prime Minister Minister Nawaz Shariff and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ufa, Islamabad conveyed to New Delhi a comprehensive agenda to discuss all outstanding issues, including Kashmir as well as terrorism. But, Indian insistence to restrict the dialogue-agenda to terrorism or cross-border terrorism only shows that India is not serious to resolve any issue with Pakistan. Hence, Indian firing across the LoC and pre-conditions are part of its delaying tactics, based upon anti-Pakistan approach, followed by shrewd diplomacy against Islamabad. In fact, by promoting Hindu chauvinism on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans, extremist party, BJP won a landslide victory in the Indian elections 2014. Now, leader of the BJP and fundamentalist Prime Minister of India Modi has been implementing its party’s agenda. He has given a free hand to the Indian forces to go on aggressively with the border violations in wake of hostile statements by Indian leadership against Pakistan.

In order to defame Islamabad, from time to time, BJP-led government also orchestrates a drama to malign Pakistan’s security agencies. In this connection, in the recent past, prior to the US President Obama’s second visit to New Delhi, Indian intelligence agencies orchestrated a boat drama to defame Pakistan, allegedly reporting that a Pakistani fishing boat as a Pakistan-based outfit group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was intercepted by Indian Coast Guards, off the coast of Porebandar, Gujarat. And Indian Coast Guard crew set the boat on fire and it exploded. But, its reality exposed Indian terrorism, because, some Indian high officials admitted that there was no such boat which came from Pakistan. Similarly, on July 27, 2015, three gunmen dressed in army uniforms killed at least seven people, including three civilians and four policemen in the Indian district of Gurdaspur, Punjab. Without any investigation, Indian high officials and media started accusing Pakistan, its banned militant outfits and intelligence agencies for the incident. Indian Police remarked that the attackers were from Indian-held Kashmir, and some stated that they were Sikh separatists, while Indian Punjab police chief claimed that the three gunmen were Muslim, but as yet unidentified. Contradicting speculations, India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament that the gunmen came from Pakistan. Recently, Indian Army orchestrated a drama in the Indian-controlled Kashmir by killing an innocent person, showing his connections with Pakistan. When, it was exposed, the Indian government admitted the fault of its security forces.

Besides, New Delhi earnestly found various pretexts to cancel peace talks, while shifting the blame to Islamabad. For example, in 2002, under the pretension of terrorist attack on the Indian parliament, India postponed the dialogue process. Again, in 2008, India cancelled the ‘composite dialogue’ on the pretext of Mumbai terror attacks.

Particularly, on May 27, 2014, Indian Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shariff in the oath-taking ceremony proved faultless, because, while raising baseless issues like terrorism as pre-condition to advance the dialogue process, he said that slow pace of trial against the terrorists of the Mumbai 26/11 terror case; being held in Pakistan is main hurdle. But, he ignored the fact that on July 19, 2013, the Indian former home ministry and ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai in November 26, 2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were carried out by the Indian government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws. In this respect, some online reports of foreign media has revealed that Indian media has recently been up-beating the negative theme that LeT, in connivance with Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, are planning to conduct Mumbai type terror attacks inside India. It has been assessed that the campaign against Pakistan by India is fraught with the danger of India trying to create a reason for waging a ‘short’ and ‘swift’ war against Pakistan. Recent statements of the Indian army chief also endorse the same view.

Undoubtedly, New Delhi is destabilizing the regional countries in general and Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular to obtain its secret designs, aimed at augmenting Indian hegemony in the region. Therefore, India is foiling the peace process between Afghanistan and Pakistan by managing terrorist attacks like the recent ones in Afghanistan which revived old blame game against Islamabad. India is also thwarting the peace process between the Afghan officials and representatives of Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan, which started in Murree, Pakistan, on July 8, 2015 through a meeting, hosted by Islamabad, and in it, Chinese and American representatives also participated.

Besides, India wants to divert the attention of the international community from the involvement of RAW which has well-established its network in Afghanistan, and is fully assisting cross-border incursions and terror-activities in various regions of Pakistan through Baloch separatist elements, Jundullah and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). On a number of occasions, these insurgent groups claimed responsibility for their subversive acts. It is mentionable that on September 18, this year, the TTP militants attacked a Pakistan Air Force camp in Badaber area, Peshawar and martyred 29 people including an Army captain and four security personnel. In this context, confirming the death of 13, militants, DG ISPR, Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa said that valiant personnel of the security forces thwarted the attempt of the heavily-armed TTP terrorists by stopping them to enter inside the base—and they came from Afghanistan. Notably, Pakistan has decided to raise the question of Indian cross-border terrorism and RAW involvement in Pakistan at the UNO forum, with strong evidence in light of open statements of Indian defence minister and prime minister who recently confirmed assistance to anti-Pakistan elements including separation of East Pakistan. Pakistan has also decided to raise the issues of Indian cross-border shelling and human rights violations in the Indian controlled Kashmir. But, it is regrettable that the US is still showing double standard by asking both the countries to settle these disputes through bilateral dialogue. America should know that Dr. Subramaniam Swami, the leader of the Indian ruling party BJP stated on July 12, 2014 that India needed only two years to defeat Pakistan militarily, and the only solution of Kashmir was war, as “there is no peaceful, democratic solution”. However, Indian irresponsible moves are alarming for peace-loving countries of South Asia including those of the world. In this regard, even BBC pointed out that it seems that New Delhi wants a war with Pakistan.

Nevertheless, it is wishful thinking of the BJP leaders that they can wage a conventional war with Pakistan. While both the neighboring adversaries are nuclear powers, India is neglecting the principles of deterrence, known as ‘balance of terror.’ After the World War 11, nuclear weapons were never used. During the heightened days of the Cold War, many crises arose in Suez Canal, Korea, Cuba and Vietnam when the US and the former Soviet Union were willing to use atomic weapons, but they stopped because of the fear of nuclear war which could eliminate both the super powers. Therefore, the two rivals preferred to resolve their differences through diplomacy.

Likewise, many occasions came between Pakistan and India like the post-Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 when New Delhi started a blame game against Islamabad in wake of its highly provocative actions like mobilization of troops. Islamabad had also taken defensive steps to meet any Indian prospective aggression or surgical strikes. But, India failed in implementing its aggressive plans, because Pakistan also possesses atomic weapons. In the past too, Indian rulers had intended to implement their doctrine of limited war in Kashmir, but they could not do so owing to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. However, in the present circumstances, BJP is badly mistaken, if it overestimates India’s power and underestimates Pakistan’s power. Nonetheless, in wake of dangerous developments, created by the fundamentalist Indian government, question arises that does India wants nuclear war with Pakistan.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com