It was as if the irrepressible Manohar Parrikar was waiting for the right cue and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi going for the verbal offensive against Pakistan by adding the Gilgit-Baltistan-Balochistan dimension to the Indo-Pak narrative in his Independence Day address, the Union defence minister needed no prodding.
So on Tuesday, Parrikar cut loose in Haryana’s Rewari where he had gone to flag off the “Tiranga Yatra” to mark the country’s 70th Independence Day. “Kal humare jawano ne paanch logon ko wapas bhej dia. Pakistan mein jaana aur nark mein jaana ek hi hai (Five terrorists were sent back by our soldiers yesterday. Going to Pakistan and going to hell is one and the same thing),” he said referring to a failed infiltration bid in Kashmir.
At his aggressive best, equating Pakistan with hell was not all. Carrying off from where PM Modi had left, Parrikar strongly reiterated that Pak-occupied-Kashmir is part of India and that violation of human rights must stop in Balochistan. He also pointed out that Pakistan was facing the consequences of its policy of encouraging terrorism.
The latest low in Indo-Pak ties this year has been triggered by several developments.
The beginning was ominous when on January 2, Pakistan-trained terrorists crossed over to India and attacked the Pathankot airbase. Other key developments that have led to the current situation are the arrest and subsequent telltale confessions of Bahadur Ali, a terrorist from Lahore who is presently in custody; the death of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani on July 9 leading up to the almost daily scenes of unrest in the Kashmir valley in which the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, and by proxy Pakistan’s spy agency — the ISI, are the main instigators.
The other dimension of the verbal war had been Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declaring Wani a “martyr” and observing July 19 as a black day to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir.
On Tuesday, the Pakistani Prime Minister was again at it when he sought global attention “to take stock of the plight of Kashmiri people” and vowed to support their “indigenous freedom struggle.”
