United Nations Charter of 1945 has traditionally conceptualized the law governing a state going into war and the conduct of armed forces (in the war) in two broader categories of ‘jus-ad-bellum’ and ‘jus-in-bello’. In this explanation, jus-ad-bellum makes it a pre-requisite that a war be waged only in a state’s defense for it to be legitimate. Jus-in-bello, whereby, describes the state and its armed forces’ conduct in war, and hence targeting civilians or confiscation of their property and all such elements, if hemmed in extremism and fascism might go to the extent of being recognized as universal war crimes. Post-Pulwama revelation by Mr. Satya Pal Malick is an embodiment of India standing in utter violation of both these clauses.
Mr. Malick has recently revealed as to how BJP government has framed Pakistan for the state’s own structural misgivings and short-comings post-Pulwama and for the party’s electoral advantage. It was on 14 February, 2019 that a young Kashmiri boy, reeling from Indian state atrocities in the region, detonated an explosive-laden truck into a convoy of 78 buses carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Personnel, killing 40. Mr. Malik equated the attack to the “incompetence” and “carelessness” by the Indian system while revealing how Narendra Modi, the state’s Prime Minister and National Security Adviser told him to stay quiet when he raised the issue of denying CRPF an airplane, that they had demanded, despite threat assessments by Intelligence agencies. If such stark revelations are taken into account, it appears as if the BJP government had itself planted Pulwama incident to soothe its war hysteria.
Such a Machiavellian ploy reflects gravely on the threat that BJP-lead Hindutva Regime posits to the security of the region and peace of the entire world. Blaming Pakistan, India launched a false-flag operation in Balakot in utter disregard to Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and hence in violation of Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter. The botched incident stands as a lesson to the India’s military capability chimera while also proving latter’s military and technological superiority.
Despite being a well-rehearsed operation containing 20 Mirage-2000 fighters, carrying Spice 2000 and Crystal Maze missiles and having the support of Air Borne Early Warning System, all it could do was to deliver its payload to kill a poor Pakistani crow and destroy certain pine trees, contributing in aggravating misery of our already stressed eco-system. India’s façade of destroying Jaish-e Muhammad training camp and killing 300 imaginary militants had already been negated by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator, and others. Pakistan’s subsequent Operation Swift Retort had downed two Indian military aircrafts, namely Su-30 and MiG-21, whose pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was also captured and after all India’s belligerence released as a gesture of peace.
“His disclosures demonstrate how the Indian leadership has habitually used the bogey of terrorism from Pakistan to advance its sham victimhood narrative and the Hindutva agenda, clearly for domestic political gains,” an Foreign Office statement read.
India’s warmongering and offensive military adventures continuously risk peace and prosperity of the entire region by festering already volatile security dilemma of the region. This proclamation by Mr. Satya Pal in his interview with The Wire raises threat matrix for not only Pakistan or the region but for the population of India as well, as for what has come to forth, it is clear that Narendra Modi would spare no leaf unturned to retain his political chair and stature. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that India was preparing a nuclear attack merely on the behest of its own delusional perception that Pakistan has been preparing to do so. It implies that when it comes to securing the rule of Modi-led BJP, the price could be even 1.3 billion populaces of India, speaking in view of crystal ball effect-the ultimate destruction on both ends-that has come with the nuclear weapons.
It is up to the people of India to hold their government accountable for endangering the sanctity of their lives and the much-coveted peace of the region and beyond. As for Indian government, Pulwama attack or Balakot misadventure or Missile misfires dilemma shall stand as a lesson that technical glitches in the BJP’s governance model would not do and that Modi’s hubris syndrome is suicidal for the prosperity and security of the people of India, more than anything else.
