The Patriotic Apologists

One more attack by the terrorists (ably supported by the Pakistani Army) at Baramulla. More army jawans killed and wounded. More anguish and more pain. And for the moment, hopefully, everyone is united in support of the country.

When the World heard about the unprecedented decision for a surgical strike taken by our Prime Minister immediately after the dastardly Uri attack, the first people to congratulate the Armed Forces and the Prime Minister (in that order) were our patriotic apologists. The opposition leaders were all scrambling to stay ahead of the other party in supporting the action taken without once sitting back and wondering why they, when they were in power, did not have the courage to take definitive action.

But how long will it be before we start hearing our Patriotic Apologists start to dissect every statement and start rationalizing their own comments.

The first set of serious questions were raised by several patriotic apologists, “intellectuals”, politicians and journalists soon after the national excitement of the surgical strike had started to wane. The first emotion of anger quickly changed to an attitude of questioning the capability of the Prime Minister and his Government. One senior politician who could not hold back his words even termed the Prime Minister a “war monger”. When suggestions were made about taking action in several areas outlined above the general question from an “interested and motivated” group of people who would be directly affected by such an action was how the Government could believe that a single action could remove terrorism.

It would be interesting to take stock of some of the comments from opposition leaders and discussions going on across several media about the possible steps that India should take.

Activate rebels in Balochistan: A brilliant move from our Prime Minister followed up by our Eternal Affairs Minister at the United Nations. It energized the Balochistan rebels to start demanding their own country and thus forced Pakistan to start focusing inwards. It took only a few days for certain politicians to start questioning this action on the grounds that India should not interfere with internal Pakistani maters. As if Kashmir is not an internal matter of India.

Skip the SAARC summit: Government of India took the unprecedented step of refusing to attend the SAARC summit. Most other SAARC countries followed suit giving a diplomatic defeat to Pakistan. Instead of applauding our Government, we have several opposition leaders who are talking of the past and the importance of continuing SAARC.

Review Indus Water Treaty: The mere mention of a review of the Indus Water Treaty was enough to get people talking. The first salvo was fired by one set of people who stated that Water should not be used as a tool and how on earth can water be used to combat terrorism?

Send Pakistani artists back: This is not a point that has been discussed by the Government of India but a demand from a regional party in the State of Maharashtra. Not a single Pakistan artist was willing to condemn the Uri attacks. Of course all Pakistani artistes come on valid visas issued by the Government of India and of course they are not terrorists. But when Pakistan stops all Indian telecasts and does not permit Indian artistes that is acceptable.

Revoke Most Favoured Nation Status: This would hurt Pakistan economically and local businesses would be affected. But we have our apologists who have started raising a clamour against this revocation. After all, businessmen are not terrorists, they say.

Stop over flights over Indian Territory: Pakistan has stopped over flights over its territory immediately (albeit they claim it is only for one week). India has taken no action so far but rumbles have started that curbs on civil aviation hurts passengers who are definitely not terrorists.

Impose tariff barriers on imports from Pakistan and reduce exports: India imports approximately US$ 2.0 billion from Pakistan and exports approximately US$ 1.5 billion from Pakistan. We need to impose non-tariff barriers on imports and reduce exports. Hurting an economy always has long term implications.

Work towards declaring Pakistan a terrorist state: A petition filed in USA by one of their congressmen has snowballed into a worldwide movement. I am waiting to hear comments from the disbelievers in India on this petition.

Each step, taken singly, will appear to be a weak and irrelevant act to curb the menace of terrorism. However, taken together, they will collectively work towards weakening the rogue nation Pakistan through diplomatic, economic, cultural channels and through local pressure groups.

Of course everyone knows and understand that solutions will only come from resuming talks but don’t they realise that there is a time for talks and there is a time for sabre rattling and cessation of talks because Pakistan does not want talks who has been used to a soft Indian Government who would revert to a pacifist attitude of talking about the “resilience of India and her people” and shy away from any hard action.

But if the agenda of our political apologists is to reduce the perceived political mileage that the BJP is likely to gain, then they and their ilk have no other way but to find ways and means to pull down the Prime Minister and question him on every step the Government is taking.

For our Political Apologists, why must it always be a situation of “Heads I win and Tails you lose?”

Remember the ancient folklore of being able to break one stick but not being able to break a full bundle of sticks? In times of national crises, it is important for the entire nation to stand together and our apologists need to stay quiet for a little while though they may not agree with the developments and do not have any answers except to criticize.

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The author is the founder Chairman of Guardian Pharmacies and the author of the best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent. Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for an Eye and The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur. 

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https://www.thequint.com/uri-attack/2016/10/03/can-patriotic-apologists-offer-solutions-instead-of-criticism-pakistan-india