Pakistan’s generals and politicians must be rubbing their hands in glee. This is a scenario that even their accomplished propaganda war specialists would not have been able to conjure. Having successfully staged a surgical strike across the LoC, India is now going into convulsions with questions over whether the strike actually took place. And if it did, where’s the proof? All that Pakistan had to do was deny the attack took place. After all, which self-respecting military or sovereign country would accept that it suffered a humiliating cross-border raid with a loss of soldiers when the defences were supposed to be on full alert? Yet, India’s netas do not understand this simple logic. They would rather believe what the generals across the border say than their own. They want proof but fail to understand that no military force would release details of operations carried out in stealth. This is not a movie, this is real.

The Government had this coming when it decided to go public with news of the surgical strike. It could have opted to stay quiet because the military and strategic objectives — neutralising the terrorist launch-pads and sending the message to Pakistan that the line of tolerance had been breached — were achieved. But then, there was the domestic constituency to address. There was a groundswell of anger post-Uri and the Government had to show a military response. The decision to go public was therefore a political one, but the Government did well to blunt the political edge by asking the army to make the announcement. And the army deserved the spotlight.

It is true that in a democracy questions will be asked of the highest institutions and they have to be answered. But there is a respectable way of doing that, especially when the questions relate to national security. Parliament exists precisely for this and the Government is duty-bound to answer. Instead, to raise these questions on television or in blogs.... Well, it can happen only in India.

Senior Associate Editor

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