During an event in London on Wednesday Indian Prime Minister Narendar Modi has yet again repeated the fallacious claim that its forces had carried out ‘surgical strike’ in Pakistani territory. Referring to the 2016 so-called surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC), Modi had said India would not tolerate those who like to “export terror” and will respond to them “in the language they understand”. Indian premier also claimed that before making the news of the ‘surgical strikes’ public, India had repeatedly attempted to contact Pakistan government to inform them about the operation. The Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) , however, rubbished the claims on Thursday saying “Constant repetition of a fallacious claim does not make it real. The Indian government is increasingly sounding like a broken record”.
Despite BJP government’s lofty claims of having conducted surgical strikes in side Azad Kashmir Indian army utterly failed to provide even an iota of evidence of having actually executed the so-called attack. Not only opposition parties in India have raised doubts over the claims but besides the world media local media in Indian too was seen challenging the veracity of these attacks. Serious questions were raised on the issue besides Chief Minister Delhi, Congress leader P Chidambaram demanded the Modi government to provide proof to substantiate the claims. Even then Mr. Modi keeps harping this mantra, which is nothing more than a myth.
India’s opposition Congress party has taken serious notice of Modi’s boastful talks terming them a “disaster”. In a statement issued by Congress’ senior spokesperson, Anand Sharma, the opposition party said: “Prime Minister Modi’s cavalier conduct of foreign policy at the Commonwealth Summit in London and the bilateral meeting with the British prime minister is hurting India’s national interests”. Regardless of how far this jingoism hurts India’s own national interests but one thing is clear that this chauvinism and belligerence on the part of BJP regime is a great threat to peace and security in the region. On one hand this hawkish posturing has created war-hysteria while on the other it is destroying peace prospects in the region. This ugly trend that has now taken roots in the Indian military and political establishment had further jeopardized the process of reconciliation in the region. And absence of dialogue between India and Pakistan at this crucial point of time should be a matter of serious concern to international community. Since the absence of dialogue makes complex issues even more complicated and therefore, it is time that the influential governments across the world should take effective notice of the volatile situation in the region and impress upon the government of India to start a dialogue process whereby all disputes particularly the long running Kashmir dispute could be settled peacefully. It is also time for India to acknowledge the ground reality that it cannot keep the world community in dark by pedaling false narratives about the so-called “cross border” terrorism. Kashmir is a political reality that could not be altered by false claims or through boastful talks of so-called surgical strikes this is what New Delhi needs to understand. So far as Pakistan’s stand on the issue of Kashmir is concerned, it is not going to change by resorting to age-old tactics aimed at creating a smoke screen to hoodwink the international community.
