Poochte hain wo ki Ghalib kaun hai,
Koi batlaao ki hum batlaayein kya.

Pakistan posed this question again on Valentine’s Day.
India came back with a return gift on the 13th day.
Love was in the “air”, you see.
They got made.

That was Ghalib. That was Delhi.
This is Islamabad. This is still Delhi.
And we, Indians, love Ghalib.
We are Ghalib.

They say, if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain. We did exactly that—mountains and all!

I would neither get into the hard news mode nor the analytical one. I am not a subject matter expert on Air Force operations, as many supposed defence experts/analysts on television. I have been an infantry soldier who was taught to cool it to beat the heat. Simple, isn’t it?

So, let me go about it, as simply as possible.

A suicide bomber, as part of the terrorist campaign, rams into a convoy vehicle carrying CRPF personnel killing more than 40 at Pulwama. The Pakistan-based militant organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), claims responsibility for this genocide.

Location: India. Personnel: Indian.

JeM is designated a terrorist organisation by India and the United Nations, as well as by the UK, the US and other countries including Pakistan (hereinafter, NaaPak). India, as usual, reiterated its demands to NaaPak (unholy) to stop supporting terrorists and terror groups operating from its territory and dismantle the infrastructure operated by terrorist outfits to launch attacks in other countries. NaaPak, as usual, condemned the attack and rubbished its link to the attack, denying the presence of JeM on its soil.

Business as usual. Fair enough.

Now, desperate times call for desperate measures. India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. It was a non-military pre-emptive action, specifically targeted at the JeM camp. It carried a message in the form of a payload. The message that the chickens always come home to roost.

Oh, yes! The chickens. Reminds me of biryani (a dish made with highly seasoned rice and meat, fish, or vegetables). Between cooking cock and bull stories and boiling the pot, the crackpot NaaPak knows well that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. The chickens will come. For biryani or otherwise.

Back to NaaPak. After an initial denial, NaaPak admitted the Indian attack. It then denied casualties or damages but confessed that the trigger for the Indian action was Pulwama. The NaaPak authorities addressed the world quoting a private TV channel as the official source of information from India on the basis of which, they exclaimed retaliation.

Retaliation? For what?

You have yourself designated JeM as a militant organisation and banned it since 2002. You have registered this Islamist extremist group as a threat to your existence too and are committed to the stability in the region. You deny the existence of JeM on your ultra-productive soil and you have denied casualties or damage admitting only an intrusion by the Indian Air Force, which, as per you, failed.

India has clearly stated that the strike was non-military and pre-emptive in nature, specifically targeted at the JeM in the face of imminent danger. Every country reserves the right to self-defence. Moreover, one of the functions of the UN Security Council is to take military action against an aggressor. We did exactly that. No civilian and/or military installations of NaaPak were targeted.

Having said that, even if we assume that India penetrated NaaPak to deal with JeM, is it in your welfare or is it warfare? In fact, given that Frankenstein is equally disturbed by its monster, is it conceivable that NaaPak collaborated with India in these strikes on JeM?

Who knows? Did NaaPak retract from its position after the damage was done? Or did it want India to be the bad boy? Who knows?

So, Sweet Fanny Adams,

Apply logic to any of the aforesaid points and help me understand.

Retaliation? For what?

This is what I posted to the spokesperson of NaaPak Armed Forces too, with regards, regardless of his comfort with both English and India. Pun intended.

But retaliate it did.  

NaaPak attacked the military installations of India within a day, of our counter-terrorism action. One of its aircraft was taken down but India lost one, too with its pilot missing in action. NaaPak claimed the custody of our pilot. It unofficially and discreetly went about releasing pictures and videos pertaining to the capture and treatment meted out to the soldier in custody. Accidentally on purpose.

It broke every rule in the book while doing so.

Mind you, this action of NaaPak is a military act of aggression. An act of war.

Mind you, it has already violated the Geneva Convention pertaining to the captured Pilot. Article 13.

Mind you, NaaPak has initiated this, officially.

I repeat. Officially.

I repeat. An act of war.

I repeat. Geneva Convention.

The world knows that NaaPak has been on a warpath with India from the day it was conceived. Breeding terrorism and nursing this industry makes a good survival proposition for it given that it has been a loser all its life and has nothing more to lose. The data speaks of the opportunities given to peace, for settling down, by the peace-loving nation called India, but it had never been good enough to deter NaaPak from unleashing the dogs of war, every decade, since that bloody ’47. Srinagar (2001), Delhi (2001), Mumbai (2003 and 2008), Ayodhya (2005), Pathankot (2016), Uri (2016) and the list goes on for JeM.

Some days you get the bear, other days the bear gets you. So be it, but remember, the Indian Air Force had last played the wedding crasher in 1971 and a little bird told me that this sort of strike is a first ever by a nuclear power on another.

You hit us on a Thursday without realising that there will be a Tuesday. You forget that peace is a two-way street.

Peace reminds me of “piece”, so a piece of advice for my fellow countrymen:

In the times of social media, round-the-clock TV channels, you don’t even realise that you are not watching channels—you have become channels. The channels to spread misinformation, fake news, rumours and speculations. You have been sucked into psychological warfare and you don’t even know it. This is very much a part of the enemy tactic. Playing into the hands of an unseen/unknown enemy is worse than what soldiers do. That’s not only betraying your nation but also a disservice to yourself.

Don’t propagate till it’s from the horse’s mouth. Don’t fall for hidden agendas. Don’t fan hatred and chaos. It has ramifications: both legal or otherwise.

I understand that adding fuel to fire is quite Indian but for the love of Mike, please control your narcissism and stop playing God. We have enough Gods. I understand that our fingers are the most used body part today, from Whatsapp to Facebook, but you would be better off raising it as a personal weapon to your foe than helping yourself with it (no pun intended). I understand that in India, everybody’s business is everybody’s business but remember, armed forces is serious business. Leave the matters to specialists and be the Indian worth fighting for. When soldiers don’t get into your professions, why would you?

These situations are peak business hours for unscrupulous elements with vested interests and they will incite you. Control your base instinct. Go watch Basic Instinct, in lieu.

United We Stand, Divided We Fuckall. 

Having done with my compatriots, let me do in our neighbours.

Yes, my dear NaaPak,
The soldier in me will give you a cue,
Discretion is the better part of valour,
If you fuck up, India will be all over you.

And trust me,
Nuke is not an option for you.
It simply means your annihilation.
We got to do what we got to do.

The die is cast.
Try not to die.
The call is yours.
We will weigh the fat lady,
It isn’t over till she sings.
Insha’allah!