My Opinion

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not tell his National Assembly why his country has become a hub for exporting terrorism, why his country runs factories that churn out terrorists, why terror masterminds like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar openly move around and then plan and threaten fidayeen strikes against India. The question now is: whether there is now any chance of friendship between India and Pakistan under these circumstances. It seems author Tarek Fatah was right when he said Nawaz Sharif is afraid of his Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif. Tarek Fatah had also said that Hafiz Saeed is the real Prime Minister and Syed Salahuddin is the real Defence Minister of Pakistan. It appears that Nawaz Sharif has spurned the hand of friendship offered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi because of this reason. Modi never imagined Nawaz Sharif would change to such an extent, and probably Nawaz Sharif, too, never imagined Modi would respond to the Uri attack in this manner. No country in the world now believes Pakistan. The present situation has been created by Pakistan itself over the years. It used to take money from the US to fight terror, even while its army was hiding Osama bin Laden, it projected itself as a friend of Afghanistan, but it was simultaneously sheltering and supporting the Taliban, it speaks of friendship with India, but has stabbed its neighbour several times in the back. The entire international community now understands the real face of Pakistan.

Two Srinagar youths interviewed by India TV have exposed the hollow claims being made by separatist leaders in Kashmir.

Five points emerge from the interviews of these two young men – one, Hurriyat leaders are playing with the fate of young Kashmiris for their own petty interests, two – Hurriyat leaders do not want peace in the valley and want young men to be killed by security forces, three – terrorists are attacking security forces in Kashmir by using young protesters as human shields, four – the common Kashmiri youths has no interest in waving the Pakistani flag but Hurriyat activists are coercing youngsters to do so, and five- people in the Valley are suffering financially as their earnings have completely dried up in the last three months because of the continued general strike and protests.

And yet the Hurriyat leaders continue to give calls for bandhs because it suits the interests of their political masters. Both the youths have given a valuable suggestion – if the government provides them jobs and guaranteed work, the separatist leaders will soon have to shut shop.

With both the National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan contacting each other, Pakistan’s reported offer for talks is an exercise in deception. Pakistan is offering talks under pressure from the US, while on the ground level, it’s the Jamaat ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed who is calling the shots. Post-surgical strikes by India, the Pakistan army now appears to be desperate. It has violated the LoC ceasefire at least four times in the last 48 hours, and has tried to send infiltrators twice. But each time, Pakistan army’s efforts were foiled by our valiant jawans. Our armed forces are on high alert and ready to defend our territory. On the other hand, the Pakistan army is trying to stage manage shows on its side of LoC by conducting guided tour for the media. The versions of Pakistani army officers on surgical strikes are in conflict with the versions of local villagers. Even the international media is skeptical about Pakistan’s claims. It was not for nothing that Tarek Fatah told me in Aap Ki Adalat show that the Pakistan army generals are liars and their nuclear missiles contain nothing but ‘faluda’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi first isolated Pakistan on the world and regional stage through diplomatic means, and then delivered a stinging reply by ordering the army to cross the Line of Control and destroy terrorist launching pads.

The people of India were expecting such a drastic step from Modi. If you carefully go through the details of the surgical strikes, one can understand that the task was not easy. Today is the day to salute our brave army jawans.

Today is also the day to appreciate Prime Minister Modi’s determination, will power and courage. The surgical strikes that were carried out across the LoC were the first since the 1971 War.

By carrying out surgical strikes, India has given a clear message to Pakistan that enough is enough. India will no more tolerate terror attacks.

For years, we have been discussing the need for surgical strikes. The locations of terror camps in Pak Occupied Kashmir were in the public domain.

Our army had commandos to execute these strikes earlier too, but it is because of Narendra Modi’s will power that a final decision was taken and the surgical strikes were successfully carried out.

So the slogan now is: Abki Baar, Sarhad Paar.

With Bangladesh and Afghanistan joining India’s move not to attend the SAARC summit in Islamabad, Pakistan’s isolation in the South Asia region is almost complete. All our neighbouring countries do know that terror training camps are being run in Pakistan. This is the first time Pakistan has been isolated in South Asia on the issue of terrorism. If Pakistan does not learn a lesson and stop “exporting” terrorism, the day is not far off when Pakistan will be completely isolated on the world arena. On the other hand, the Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has openly spoken of war and nuclear attack in his interviews to local TV news channels. Asif clearly said his army would try to “annihilate” India. The same minister also admitted that he had an “anti-India mindset”. If somebody does have such a mindset, then nobody can help.

Post-Uri attack, the political leadership in Pakistan had presumed, wrongly, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would call for an all-out war or a surgical strike, but Modi did not oblige them. Instead, our Prime Minister sought to create a gulf between the people and political leaders of Pakistan, by calling for a war on poverty. Recent remarks from political leaders in Pakistan indicate that they now appear to be jittery, and are trying to boost the morale of their people through jingoistic statements. The Pakistani leadership is worried after India clearly indicated it would reduce the flow of water from Indus river and review bilateral trade relations. The leadership is now at a loss as to how to respond. That is why its political leaders and army officials are now speaking of war and hostilities. We also hear jingoistic voices on Pakistan’s TV news channels. After External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the UN General Assembly that Pakistan has become the Ivy League of terrorism and was exporting terrorists, the Defence Minister of Pakistan spoke about his country getting ready for a war. The Pakistani minister apparently forgot that war strategies are not disclosed sitting inside TV studios. They are resorting to jingoism only to boost the flagging morale of their people. They seem to have forgot that war is fought on the field. Time has now come to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. India needs this. I have myself signed an online petition to the White House. As per rules, a petition requires one lakh signatures for the White House to reply within 60 days, but a petition from India should carry not one lakh, but one crore signatures! I, therefore, appeal to all of you to sign the petition. Just log in to http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ go to We The People Petitions, and sign before October 21.

Voices had been raised in the past against Pakistani actors and singers performing in India, but now that there is widespread anger against Pakistan post-Uri attack, demands to boycott Pakistani artistes have been raised again. It is true that some of the Pakistani actors and singers are indeed popular in India, they have earned fame and money in India, but Indian artistes who are popular in Pakistan are either not allowed to visit or perform there. Therefore the anger against Pakistani artistes in India is justified. But we have to realize that these Pakistani artistes have come here after getting visas and proper permission. The security of these artistes in India is also our responsibility.

Pakistan Air Force is conducting routine annual air exercise, but their Defence Minister has posted pictures of some of the fighter planes on Twitter. His intention was to convey to the people of Pakistan that his Air Force is ready for battle, and to convey to India that if attacked, PAF fighter planes can take off from highways to retaliate. But the minister,, Khawaja Asif has himself become the butt of ridicule in his own country because of this tweets. He forgot that the Indian armed forces are not so naive as to be frightened by routine air exercises. He forgot history – Pakistan attacked India thrice and bit the dust thrice.

The audiotape related to the speech of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar soon after the Uri attack, clearly shows that Pakistan has become a safe haven for terrorists, where they move around unhindered. In such a situation, nobody can trust Pakistan’s claim that it does not help terrorists. The truth is that the Pakistan government, the Pakistan army and the ISI – all three are aiding and abetting terrorists to launch attacks against India. The time has now come to take decisive action. As far as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s remark, that Prime Minister Modi’s vow to avenge Uri attack will not remain just words, is concerned, there is no doubt that India will definitely retaliate, but not through knee-jerk action. Any action would be executed after proper planning. If that happens, the people of this nation will heave a sigh of relief.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been clearly betrayed by Nawaz Sharif. The manner in which the Pakistani Prime Minister attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony and spoke of friendship, the way he further extended his hand of friendship by inviting Modi to Lahore, the promises that he made on jointly tackling terrorism — there was no reason on part of India not to disbelieve his gestures and promises. But, the moment the ground situation changed, with turbulence in Kashmir, Nawaz Sharif changed his tune. For India, it has now become difficult to talk peace with Nawaz Sharif any more. The situation has now come to a point where Prime Minister Modi may not be visiting the forthcoming SAARC Summit in Islamabad, and the summit is bound to fail with Bangladesh and Afghanistan indicating their desire not to attend. On the issue of isolating Pakistan after the Uri attack, there are three options before India – one, to isolate Pakistan diplomatically at world forums, the second option is to carry out a surgical strike on terrorist camps inside Pakistan, but to execute that, adequate intelligence inputs and planning are needed, and this may take time. The third option, according to experts, is to wage all-out war, but one should never forget that Pakistan, too, is a nuclear power, and India may suffer more losses in the event of a full-scale war, because a failed state like Pakistan has not much to lose.

In the present internecine war in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family, the patriarch is doing an intricate balancing act. His decisions boil down to this: neither you win, nor I lose, it’s a win-win for both.

On Tuesday, Shivpal Singh Yadav looked cheerful after meeting his brother Mulayam Singh for three hours. My information is that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had removed UP chief secretary Deepak Singhal on his father’s instructions.

He had also taken his father’s advice before dismissing two of his ministers. The confusion arose over taking away key portfolios from Shivpal Singh. When Mulayam Singh decided to make his brother Shivpal the chief of the UP unit of Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh took away seven out of ten portfolios that his uncle was handling.

On Tuesday, Mulayam Singh Yadav told his brother that one should understand, the party forms the government, the government does not form the party, so his stature would be greater than that of the Chief Minister.

That is why when Shivpal Singh Yadav came out, he claimed, he has been promoted and he was happy on being given a bigger post.

However, that does not mean that all is hunky-dory in the Samajwadi Party. There has only been a pause in the battle, the embers of fire are still there.