Post Pulwama, Surgical Strike Will Be ‘Strategic Folly’

The dastardly attack on the CRPF jawans in Pulwama, killing 42 of them, has put the Narendra Modi government under intense pressure to avenge the death of the soldiers militarily.

The massacre has whipped up national sentiments and the PM, has said at least four times since the incident, that the defence forces have been given full freedom to decide the time and the nature of the strike.

While several options are being explored in the war rooms, retd Lt Gen H S Panag, who was GOC in C Northern Command has expressed reservations about mounting another surgical strike. “Another ‘one off’ retributory operation would be strategic folly”, he said in his opinion piece in The Print.

More than the security forces who are trained to face adversity and setbacks, it is the public sentiment high on politically-inspired nationalism that may force the government to respond to Pakistan militarily.

“But the response should not be hurried, it must be strong and credible to make Pakistan sit up and take note, and be part of a calibrated strategy to force compellence on Pakistan. We should be prepared to climb up the escalatory ladder as the situation develops. The 2016 surgical strikes were a tactical success but being a ‘one off’ operation, they did not achieve the desired strategic results,” he said.

The Kashmiris’, Lt Gen Panag said, had lots of hope from the BJP-PDP alliance. It had the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the people to garner their support. But BJP’s ideology prevented it from being an accommodative coalition partner, leave alone provide healing touch to the people through political engagements. “Complete reliance on the hard-military strategy at the cost of political strategy ensures that the insurgency never dies. Pulwama attack is the manifestation of this phenomena,” he observed.