Foreign Office spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan rejected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that there was now a ‘new normal’, made in his speech the other day, that India would respond to terrorism by military action, on the grounds of national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Those are good grounds, but India has paid scant attention to them itself. In the recent confrontation, it was the first to escalate matters by its Operation Sindoor. The vigorous defence made by Pakistan, in which the Pakistan Air Force downed three of its vaunted Rafales among five planes, and its later Operation Bunyan bim Marsoos, in which the PAF destroyed a S400 air defence system, as well as hit several other sites, including Brahmos missile stockpiles, made it clear to India that it had bitten off more than it could chew. The dog-eat-dog world which Mr Modi seems to inhabit, countries are both bound by international law, and can do what they want. However, for that one needs the sort of military might that India clearly does not have. Perhaps Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was going too far when he said at the Yasum-i-Tashakur ceremony on Friday that Pakistan had won, for while Pakistan established that it could defend itself, and India established it could not act with impunity against Pakistan, Pakistan did not establish that could force its will on India, not that it tried to.
However, water remains a problem, specifically the Indus Waters Treaty, which India has held in abet\yance. That particular problem has not only not been solved, but India has given instructions to its irrigation engineers to expedite plans to take water off the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. On the front burner is the Ranbir Canal, which would quadruple its present flow. Until that issue is resolved, there will be no victory to claim.
Mr Sharif had a valid point to make. He offered the hand of friendship, saying that Pakistan wanted India to be a good neighbour. He was showing more statesmanship than Mr Modi has shown, probably because he can afford to. After all, it is the sort of thing one expects a nation’s leader to say when he is speaking from a position of strength, especially when his country has no ambitions to play the regional hegemon. There is certainly the danger that India might violate the ceasefire, but it unlikely, so sound a drubbing has India received.
