How To Punish Pakistan

In the aftermath of the uri attack, the government faces a clamour of heated opinion, demanding retribution for pakistan’s most recent transgression. India is not without the means to answer its neighbour’s provocations. But it also has much more at stake. We weigh the options.
 

- Raj Chengappa and Sandeep Unnithan

In his hour of crisis, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi decides what ‘punishment’ Pakistan deserves for crossing the threshold of Indian tolerance with the Uri attack—in which 19 army personnel were killed—he could do with some age old wisdom that would also sit well with his party’s Hindutva moorings.

Some 2,500 years ago, ancient India’s foremost strategist, Kautilya, in his seminal treatise, the Arthashastra or the science of politics, discussed in detail how to deal with enemy nations. Like his predecessor Sun Tzu, Kautilya was not an advocate of rushing into war but of weighing all options carefully before proceeding. Kautilya declared: “If there is equal advancement in peace or war, one should resort to peace.”

Like the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz centuries later, Kautilya believed war was only a continuation of politics by other means and considered it the last option. According to him, the key to winning was not military might alone but perspicacious judgement, comprehensive intelligence and a deep grasp of politics. 

As Modi confronts his defining moment as prime minister, just like his predecessors did—Atal Behari Vajpayee during the 1999 Kargil intrusions and 2001 Parliament attack, and Manmohan Singh during the 2008 Mumbai attacks—he would be wise to heed such sagacious advice and learn from history.

The course Modi decides to take in the coming weeks and months will not only decide whether the prime minister emerges as the statesman he so wishes to be seen as, but will also affect 1.4 billion Indians, if not the world.

REVENGE MANTRA