Ludicrous remarks

India’s repeated mishandling of the situation is doing more damage to its country than Pakistan could have dreamt of

The Indian government continues to try redirecting the media narrative away from its fatally incompetent handling of Covid-19 and its border conflict with China by forcing Pakistan into the picture. Most recently, Indian Army Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat threatened Pakistan with “heavy losses” in case of any attempt to act against India in “coordinated action” with China. Rawat has made a habit of speaking nonsense since he became India’s army chief in 2016. He has been one of the most ‘political’ serving military leaders in the country’s history by commenting, often ludicrously, on issues far beyond his mandate.

Rawat’s military prowess may be summed up by the fact that a few months back, he treated Pakistan as the primary threat in a hypothetical two-front war. While we are flattered by the high regard in which Rawat holds our soldiers, only a fool would look at Pakistan’s and China’s armies and then say the larger and more technologically advanced one presented the lesser threat. But Rawat’s tremendous skill at speaking with not one, but two feet in his mouth is the biggest reason his current position was created. PM Modi did not want the sycophant to be forced into mandatory retirement.

As for this perceived threat, neutral international observers will flatly state that Pakistan has not been doing anything suspicious vis-á-vis the India-China border dispute. The fact is that we don’t need to. India’s repeated mishandling of the situation is doing more damage to its country and military than Pakistan could have dreamt of. Pakistan could continue to just stand around and enjoy the show as India implodes under the tremendous weight of its governmental incompetence. Intelligent players in India know that the country cannot take on China if the latter chooses to forcibly claim any disputed territory. In such an instance, the go-to strategy will be to direct heated rhetoric at Pakistan so that the Indian population’s eyes are diverted from New Delhi’s capitulation before China.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2020.

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