A week has gone after the DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh made a public announcement of Indian Army’s surgical strikes across the Line of Control. A score of debates, opinions and accusations are doing the round in our country. Here are some of the significant developments in the country that have taken place after the surgical strikes:
Political Mudslinging and Opportunism
Narendra Modi government took a firm step by retaliating through this surgical strike on terror launch pads across the LoC. The operation was not framed as a revenge for the attack in Uri, but as a pre-emptive move to stop terrorists from infiltrating into India. While right after the attack, many Indians felt elated about the fact that a strong message has been sent across the borders, political oppositions of the BJP began questioning on the credibility of the attack. Demanding ‘video evidence’ of the covert operation from BJP, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party top brass, Arvind Kejriwal has demanded the govt. to provide evidence of the event so that the question raised by the Pakistani media can be answered. Even Congress leader, Sanjay Nirupam courted controversy calling on the Centre to give proof of the surgical strike.
Union Minister Hansraj Ahir on Wednesday said the Army has handed over to the government video clips of the cross-LoC operation as per the laid down procedure.
Despite Narendra Modi’s stance of restraining arms operation against Pakistan, many members from BJP have started gloating over the strikes and glorifying it like winning a major war.
Confusion over the number of casualties
A reportage carried out by Indian Express, based on eyewitness accounts, suggests that the fatalities in the raids may have been lower than the 38-50 as attributed to Indian officials in reports. The eyewitness report claims that the Indian Army has caused little damage to jihadist logistics and infrastructure.
Secrecy on the strike
There are talks going round everywhere that India should have kept its surgical strike a secret affair, instead of making it public. The information could have just been relayed by the director general of military operations (DGMO) to his Pakistani counterpart without making a public announcement. History has its evidence where a lot of countries had operated surgical strikes against other countries, but they have been never revealed because the attacks were exclusively covert.
Britain’s war in Dhofar was hidden from the public for six-and-a-half years.
Punjab villages vacated
After the Uri attack by Pakistani militants, followed by India’s surgical strike across LoC, there’s a war hysteria spreading all over the country like a wildfire. To avert any possibilities of war casualties, six border districts in Punjab were put on high alert and the government began evacuating villages within 10km of the frontier, fearing retaliatory measures from Pakistan. Such measures were adopted despite knowing that it is a season of harvest in Punjab. Nearly 1,000 villages in the districts of Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka had been evacuated.
Polarizing of opinions among people and media
While it is time for India to stand united against terrorism, talks are deviating on how Pakistani actors or celebrities who are involved in Indian movie business or culture should be banned. While it is a responsibility of the celebrities to condemn the Uri attacks, it should be remembered that the media houses cannot instigate them to go back to Pakistan. This should absolutely not be the concern for India.
Social media is also getting flooded with opinions favouring war against India. Warmongering has become a very common affair in platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Hate messages are being circulated targeting Pakistan, including its entire population. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked us to refrain from such warmongering, it should be a moral responsibility for every Indian to not instigate hatred.
The Logical Indian urges everyone to abstain from circulating hate and war messages against Pakistan. War is not the solution.
