It is an open question whether the “punitive
fire-assaults” the Indian Army unleashed at several points across the LOC on
Wednesday sufficed as the “heavy retribution” promised after the barbaric
mutilation of an Indian soldier killed in the Machhil sector the previous day.
It is also an open question if the speed with which the counter-assault was
mounted was the result of India having painted itself into a corner by making
such political capital of the “surgical strikes” of 28 September — a gung-ho
public now expects swift, telling, responses.

What is not open to question is that in seeking to
satisfy domestic political audiences the armed forces of both India and
Pakistan are now caught in a spiral of violence that is threatening to spin out
of control.

 A scary
prospect, even if the argument is accepted that there is still “space” for a
conventional conflict between the two nuclear-weaponised nations. Propelling
that spiral is the strong politically-induced sense of ‘badla’ that so
negatively impacts rational thinking. For, apart from sending death counts
inexorably upward, the string of angry “exchanges” have yielded little on the
ground: Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism has hardly been diluted, the
Kashmir dispute has not moved an inch toward resolution. Yet lives, precious
whether Indian or Pakistani, continue to be lost.

Civilians have borne the brunt of a deteriorating
situation: it would be inhumane to deem a passenger bus being destroyed in the
Neelam Valley nothing more than “collateral damage”.

Nor should there be much gloating over the Pakistan
Army’s Director-General of Military Operations seeking an unscheduled
interaction with his Indian counterpart — no tangible efforts at de-escalation
resulted.

Nor should too much be made of Sartaj Aziz’s travel
plans to Amritsar for an Afghanistan-focused meeting.

To be fair, Mr Narendra Modi walked more than the
“extra mile” in an effort to restore normality in the bilateral relations.

That he met with no success did hurt. But does that
valid sense of hurt merit allowing conditions to sink to the present depths?
Voices of restraint are being silenced, rabid rhetoric is the order of the day.

Those who dare call for lowering the temperature are
deemed guilty of being treacherously “anti-national”. It is no secret that
jingoistic passions are being fuelled for perceived political gains. And there
are lurking suspicions that sections of the electronic media are seeking to
ingratiate themselves with the ruling entity by amplifying the belligerence.

All experts, including those in the NDA camp, are
aware that bilateral relations can only improve when diplomatic and political
efforts are re-launched. The soldier- talk about “surgical strikes”, ‘heavy retribution”
and “punitive fire-assaults” may expand the vocabulary — but narrow the
chances of a cessation of hostilities.