Two Minus One Front Idea

Pakistani establishments and their proxies are prone to a severe, predictable 7-year itch. Each step up the escalation ladder buys India about these many years of deterrence on average

- SHEKHAR GUPTA

A simple question, a week after the Indian Air Force and Army struck nine terror bases in Pakistan: Why do nations have armies?

Is it to fight wars? Only morons — and some teenagers high on testosterone — would say that. Self-defence? That's for small nations. A great nation arms itself for a higher purpose.

That higher purpose is to prevent wars. The stronger the nation, the stronger the army it needs — not to conquer territory or bully others, but to keep out distractions from its sovereign spaces. In one word: Deterrence.

A question then follows: Have we achieved deterrence vis-à-vis Pakistan? The Pahalgam attack showed starkly that we lacked it. Did we achieve it when time was called after the skirmishes?

There is much celebration of revenge, especially on social media, which conducted its own private war with the Pakistanis, and where cessation of hostilities is yet to be called.

It is understandable that after the Pahalgam outrage, our debate was overtaken by anger. All sides, it seemed, were baying for revenge. But sovereign nations cannot reduce themselves to mere revenge. They need more. Deterrence, we said early on. Add to it a punitive ability.

That is also the essence of the "bhay bin hoye na preet" (nobody loves you until they fear you) line from the Ramcharitmanas that Air Marshal A K Bharti quoted at the tri-service briefing. The Pakistani response to the initial Indian strikes on terror bases showed that deterrence was not yet in place. The punitive power was underlined on the morning of May 10, with humiliating targeting of the PAF's most vaunted bases, air defences and missile batteries.

This was a formidable punitive package. And whatever keyboard warriors and prime-time gladiators might say, at the top levels, the government messaging wasn't "revenge" but deterrence: Every terror act will henceforth be an act of war; our response will be quick and disproportionate — so cease and desist.