After several years, the chaos of Delhi’s streets have been shattered by what appears to have been an IED blast that has led to several dead and injured in the national capital.
While it has not been overtly declared as a terrorist incident, the evidence for such a designation is all too plain. The Prime Minister, Home Minister and Defence Minister have all been making promises of justice and retribution.
India’s media often makes bold claims with scant regard for the truth but reports that local Kashmiris were involved in the blast are troubling, as they speak of radicalised members of society who are still able to get away with such heinous attacks.
This New Delhi attack differs from the Pahalgam atrocity of earlier this year. Then, Pakistanis were said to have crossed the border – the perpetrators were not Indian citizens. The attack was on a tourist spot close to the Line of Control separating India and Pakistan and not hundreds of miles away in the national capital no less. And the cold blooded way the terrorists shot dead the 26 victims of Pahalgam could not be more different to the randomness of a bombing on a Delhi street.
India’s response to Pahalgam was meant to have taught Pakistan and the terror groups it supports a harsh lesson. We gave them a befitting response was the oft-repeated line. But this Delhi attack exposes that as a lie.
After three Pakistanis crossed into our territory and murdered 26 men mercilessly, India had every right to exact a terrible price from Pakistan. But, if you take the Indian government’s version of events with a pinch of salt, all we really seem to have done was give Pakistan a bloody nose and they landed a few choice blows on us too before we caved in to pressure from the Americans and stopped our hits on the enemy.
Of course, the Indian government cannot admit this. The BJP has built up its reputation as a muscular party that is making India stronger, admired and feared. But it seems the truth of this is far more nuanced.
The inability or reluctance of India to land a heavy blow against Pakistan earlier in the year and the abject failure in getting the world on our side in the aftermath, despite a protracted diplomatic offensive shows that India is still nowhere near having the stature on the global stage that we aspire to.
It is, of course, unseemly to play politics at a time of national emergency. But the BJP is not beyond doing so itself. Building up its own reputation for strength means it has time and again tried to question the Congress Party’s ability to protect India. More than 11 years of continuous BJP rule, however, has yet to give India a cast iron shield for its vulnerable citizens.
