BEFORE TERRORISTS, WE ARE ALONE

Prime Minister Modi had, and will continue to have, the backing
of all of India in his stand against the terrorists who "made a big
mistake" in attacking jawans in Pulwame. The attack must have given
the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and its protectors in Pakistan a cheap
thrill of achievement as they managed to kill 40 CRPF men in one go.
But it was a big mistake because it made India unite against the
assassins. Enemies have been shown that they cannot take advantage of
India's noisy democracy and create divisions in the name of religion.

Nevertheless, the latest JeM strike is an opportunity for us to
examine our record, our resolve and our capabilities more closely than
before. The unity of purpose that binds India together in crises is
different from the ability to stop terrorists in their track. The
record shows that JeM's ability to strike has in no way been curbed
over the years. They attacked India's Parliament in 2001 and the IAF
base in Pathankot in early 2016. Later that year four terrorists near
Uri town were able to stage "the deadliest attack on security forces
in Kashmir in two decades." In retaliation to the Uri attack, India
said it made a surgical strike. The people know precious little
about it, except that it has not weakened JeM in any way. Within a
year and half they struck at Pulwame.

A reality that has to be faced is that this is a war India has
to fight alone because, at the international level, India really has
no friends. This isolation is linked to a series of strategic
blunders beginning from the time of independence. When Pakistan
rushed tribal fighters from the Northwest Frontier to capture Srinagar
in 1947, Sardar Patel was quick to rush troops there and save the
situation. If the soldiers were given a few more days they could have
thrown the tribals out of Kashmir and brought the whole state under
Indian control. But Viceroy Mountbatten played the friendship card
with Jawaharlal Nehru and managed to get a ceasefire ordered,
permanently dividing the state between India and Pakistan. Nehru
went on to make blunders by allowing the UN a role in the dispute and
by pledging to hold a plebiscite in the state. Britain, a world power
in those days, was unfriendly to India and manipulated the UN in
Pakistan's favour.

India's next round of blunders occurred under Prime Minister A.
B. Vajpaye. The hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999 was
handled with great incompetence. The pilot had cleverly pleaded fuel
crisis and got permission from the hijackers to land in Amritsar.
This was an opportunity for India to take control of the situation.
But in Amritsar, as a member of Vajpaye's staff put it later, "airport
officials ran around like so many headless chicken, totally clueless
about what was to be done." A team of special commandos could not
reach the airport because of traffic problems in the city.

The flight finally landed in Kandahar in Afghanistan. The
Government, still clueless, not only agreed to all the demands of the
hijackers, but Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh personally went to
Kandahar in a special plane along with terrorists released from Indian
prisons (and bundles of currency notes, as some reports said).

The main terrorist released by India to satisfy the hijackers
was Masoon Azhar who had been in Indian prisons for five years.
Accorded a hero"s reception in Pakistan, the man went on to found the
JeM and become the world's most strongly motivated terrorist.

What India needs to realise is the futility of depending on others
to come to its aid. Pleading for UN intervention is useless because
China has veto power there and China is as openly hostile to India as
it is friendly to Pakistan.US will give verbal support to India but
nothing more, especially now when it is planning to withdraw from
Afghanistan with Pakistan's cooperation. Saudi Arabia under Mohammed
bin Salman? Forget it.

Look beyond and we see another approach. US special commandos
found out a secret hide-out in Pakistan, staged a lightning operation
there and killed Osama bin Laden before anyone knew what was
happening. In 1976 when an Air France flight was hijacked by a
Palestinian faction demanding the release of militants imprisoned by
Israel, a completely unexpected 90-minute night operation by Israel in
Uganda's Entebbe airport rescued 102 of the 106 hostages there.

Examples exist. So does expertise. All that is needed is a
shared, non-negotiable, politically unpolluted pride in one's nation.