Hindu nationalist surge may affect regional peace: scholars

Speakers warned that Pakistan could find itself fending off more attacks as extremism spirals in India

ISLAMABAD: A surge of Hindu nationalism in neighbouring India will not only have domestic implications for it but could also end up having serious repercussions for regional peace and security.

This was suggested by scholars speaking during a seminar on ‘India’s Strategic Posture and Implications for Stability in South Asia’. The seminar had been organised by the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) in collaboration with the University of Sargodha.

Former senior Strategic Plans Division (SPD) official Khalid Banuri observed that the rise of ultra-nationalism in India posed a grave challenge to global and regional stability.

“Regionally, India’s rising extremism is reflecting in Hindutva and is a dangerous trend which needs to be countered with Pakistan’s aggressive diplomacy sustained over a long period,” he maintained, adding that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had campaigned in this year’s polls on a hardline Hindu nationalist agenda.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, has since his re-election stepped up efforts for empowering the Hindu majority at the cost of other minorities, particularly the Muslims.

Recalling the Balakot stand-off earlier this year, Banuri said that Pakistan’s “proportionate and calculated” response to India’s “failed” strikes demonstrated the capability and will to respond to aggression using conventional means.

The response, he contended, proved as incorrect India’s assumption about Pakistan that Islamabad will exercise restraint and not respond.

Discussing the rise of the Hindutva in Indian polity, Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS) Director Dr Adil Sultan noted that the ominous implication of this dangerous trend was that the Indian leadership was now caught in a ‘commitment trap’.

He cautioned that any incident involving India in future, because of the increasing domestic challenges there, would tempt Delhi to use Pakistan as a scapegoat.

In such an eventuality, he said that the Indian leadership may also attempt to publicise their ability to “punish Pakistan” for bolstering its nationalist credentials.

Talking about the failed Balakot strikes, Dr Sultan said, Pakistan’s response conveyed the message that it has adequate conventional responses while busting the popular myth that Pakistan is a trigger-happy country which, when attacked conventionally, would respond with nuclear weapons.

University of Sargodha Vice-Chancellor Dr Ishtiaque Ahmed said that events which are unfolding in India show that Indian policies are based on racism; ethnic and racial exclusiveness along with the suppression and victimization of minorities.

Pakistan, he warned, could stand to be affected by these events.

Earlier, CISS Executive Director Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi said that the strategic picture in the region remains worrisome as the region experiences intense security competition.

“From Brasstracks to the Cold Start Doctrine (CSD), limited strikes to surgical strikes, the Indian strategic ambition has been manifest in many shapes and forms,” he said.

CISS Senior Research Fellow Dr Mansoor Ahmed spoke on the balance of the conventional forces and how that is affected by force modernization programmes underway in both India and Pakistan.

He underscored the need for Pakistan to invest in maintaining a credible conventional deterrence posture that supplements its strategic forces as part of full-spectrum deterrence.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2019.