In 2008, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, bitterly criticized the UPA government for being ‘soft on terror’ and not answering Pakistan ‘in the language it understands.’ He even held a press conference in Mumbai when the 26/11 attack was going on. In light of this, what should the nation expect from him as Prime Minister? He paid a ‘surprise’ visit to Pakistan. One wonders what was discussed between Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif as a week later, our military base in Pathankot was attacked by Pakistani terrorists. Six terrorists managed to withstand an entire brigade of infantry, NSG, BSF, other paramilitary and police forces, for nearly four days. Why did this happen? The simple answer is: because the BJP government completely mishandled the situation. An operation that should have ideally been commanded by the Indian Army, which has experience in handling such operations, was being commanded by the NSG, which had limited knowledge of the terrain and had to be specially flown in from Delhi. BSF also arrived on the scene and so did Punjab Police, with no clarity in the overall command structure. The premature tweets by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the “success of the operations” shows that he was not even aware of what was happening on ground. Confusion reigned and it was only the bravery of our Jawans that saved the day.
Sherful Islam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
