Kinetic Response, Escalatory Ladder & Off-Ramp

Pahalgam was the first step on the escalatory ladder. Kinetic action implies use of military force to deliver a message. India took that step up the ladder on the intervening night of May 6-7

- SHEKHAR GUPTA

Three interconnected expressions have acquired currency in our conversations since April 22, the outrage in Pahalgam. These are kinetic response, escalatory ladder, and off-ramp.

Before these, however, comes a term used so rarely these days, it sounds exotic: casus belli. I am employing Latin despite my first venerable news editor late D N Singh's orders to never use "foreign" until an English alternative was available. Somehow, cause to justify conflict or war does not sound so convincing.

The casus belli in this case is Pahalgam and it is astounding — and disappointing — how it has faded from not just international media, but ours too. If that massacre hadn't taken place, we wouldn't be here today. Pahalgam, thus, was the first step on the escalatory ladder. Why did the Pakistani establishment and their proxies choose this action, we will analyse in another article over the next couple of days. This story isn't going anywhere.