It is a mistake to think that Pakistani violations of the Line of Control and the International Border are the result of New Delhi cancelling the foreign secretary talks with Islamabad that were to have been held on August 25 following the insistence of the Pakistani high commissioner here on meeting Kashmir’s Hurriyat leaders on the eve of the talks.
The truth is that the intensive firing has not ceased for more than two months. The trend picked up shortly after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, his initial “mummy diplomacy” with his Pakistan counterpart notwithstanding.
What’s interesting is that the Modi regime had kept the foreign secretaries meet on the agenda in spite of the daily exhibition of intense hostility from the Pakistani side.
It has got so bad now that the head of the BSF said last Tuesday that the level of firing from the Pakistan side has not been of this magnitude since 1971, the year India and Pakistan fought a regular war and the dismemberment of our western neighbour took place with the birth of Bangladesh. On Wednesday, the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers held a flag meeting to discuss rising hostilities and to scale things down.
But the Pakistani forces began firing once again right after the peace pow-wow.
Clearly, the Pakistan Army, which is calling all the shots in that country right now, is playing to a plan. The Indian government is guilty of not having a clue as to its intentions.
