Pakistan dares India, should we strike?

The current government in India is led by ‘Babus’! Pakistan understands that and is having fun at our expense. Can you imagine Pakistan behaving this way if Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister? I would seriously doubt if they would have the courage to strike India should L K Advani become the next Prime Minister. Dr Manmohan Singh reminds me of the kid in a class who is beaten every day by the bully of the class and he goes to the principal complaining. We have heard a line from India for the past 10 years, “We are an emerging power”! If this is the way a rising power behaves, what would be the condition if it was not an emerging power? I dread to think! For starters, Manmohan Singh should take the ‘danda’ from the Bombay Police and give them AK-47 instead. He should them meet with the President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and put the ‘danda’ up where it belongs!

There is something else the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh can do, he can buy a box of ‘Pacifiers’ on sale and distribute 11 of them to his cabinet, especially Pranab Mukherjee, and put the twelfth in his own mouth. His government talks a lot but does very little. Can you imagine if our government was not making empty threats but was busy in very quiet diplomacy and was seen preparing for the war? Shri Zardari would be washing his ‘crap’ every morning! We believe in non-violence but a little suspense could have the Pakistan Military “shitting in their pants”. Iraq war has taught us that military option is not always wise or productive. India has plenty of options available internally as well as on the world-stage. Depending on the goodwill of the United States is not one of them. We have atleast 120 Indian ambassadors working around the world, 20% of these should be retired or senior defense officials.

Aggressive diplomacy backed by credible defense posture could achieve lot more than empty bluster. Pakistan has found a cheap method of rattling India’s cage every now and then. We have not yet figured out how to respond. Indians are smart and resourceful people. If only we could export our ‘Babus’ to Pakistan, we would have a paralyzed neighbour. Our diplomats (IFS and IAS officers) are not really equipped to deal with international diplomacy in this 21st century. A six week course at an American University is not going to change their DNA. These are difficult changes that India would have to make some day. We must also re-examine our attitude towards out defense personnel. The sixth pay commission report is an insult to our officers and undermines our national security. Besides bringing their pay scales on par with their civilian counter-parts, their ranks must be up-graded to world standards.