India's Purpose Should Be to Re-establish Deterrence

India-Pakistan relations have sharply deteriorated following a terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir's Pahalgam that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, last week. Ajay Bisaria, India's last high commissioner to Pakistan and subsequently envoy to Canada, speaks to Bhaswar Kumar and Archis Mohan in an interview in New Delhi about the timing of the attack and the response it demands from India. During his tenure as India's envoy to Pakistan from 2017 to August 2019, Bisaria had a front-row seat to India's response to the 2019 Pulwama attack and argues that India now needs to re-establish deterrence. Edited excerpts:

- Ajay Bisaria

How do you view the timing of the Pahalgam attack?

India did establish deterrence after the 2016 surgical strikes and 2019 Balakot operation, which is why we went for six years without any major terrorist attack that used to be frequent before. But deterrence doesn't hold forever and can be eroded by other factors, such as the fact that the world has changed since 2019. India needs to now re-establish deterrence and impress upon the Pakistan Army again that there is a cost to supporting terrorism. The primary change that has occurred is in the internal situation in Pakistan. Things have become so desperate for the Pakistan Army that it decided to take this risk, despite the deterrence previously established by India.

Pakistan's Army chief, General Asim Munir, is beleaguered — he has jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, faces dissent within the army, and is accused of rigging elections to prop up an unpopular government. Munir also blames India for the deteriorating situation in Balochistan, and so on.

How does such a severe provocation align with Pakistan's stated shift to a geoeconomics-focused security paradigm?