In India, emotions and temperature are climbing on the silly attack in Pahalgam by attackers who killed at least 28 unarmed Hindu tourists and wounded many more.
Indian politicians and media, and others have blamed Pakistan, and there are calls for many for many for a military strike against Pakistan. Now, three things must be said regarding this demand for war in Pakistan: one, wars are very expensive issues, and both India and Pakistan are poor countries that cannot pay them.
Two, wars have unpredictable results. It is easy to start a war, but you can never say how it will end. Napoleon and Hitler invaded Russia, waiting for quick victories, but we all know how their invasions ended. Three, both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers.
Then it is nonsense to talk about going to war. In my opinion, the best course was what happened after the pulwama attack in 2019, when temperatures were at the top of India.
The prime minister of the time of Pakistan, Imran Khan, had said that he understood the pain of the Indians by killing so many of his troops in the pulwama attack. The former Pakistani prime minister had also said that Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism, and that Pakistan was willing to cooperate with India in any type of research that India wanted to track and identify the guilty.
The Indian government has announced some measures against Pakistan, and Pakistan has corresponded to some measures against India. I am not entering the legality of these, but I present that they are instinctive reactions, which will only exacerbate the situation and damage the poor people of both countries.
For example, many parts of Pakistan are already staggering under severe water shortage, and Sindh and Punjab are fighting for this issue. The Pakistan government has declared India’s decision to suspend the Indo Water Treaty as an act of war.
Now, if the water that comes from the upper riverside country (India) is stopped or reduced by suspension of the Indo Water Treaty, Pakistan parts can become another karbala. They are not the rulers of Pakistan, but the poor people who will suffer like that.
Both India and Pakistan are poor countries. Poor people should join and fight together against their common enemy: mass poverty, mass unemployment, terrible level of child malnutrition, firing the prices of essential products, the almost total lack of adequate medical care and good education for masses, etc., instead of fighting each other.
I respectfully appeal to both countries to cool and adopt the Sabio Action course and statesman suggested by Imran after pulwama attack in 2019.
Judge Katju is former judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Discharge of responsibility: The views expressed in this piece are that of writer and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of PakGazette.TV.
Originally published in the news
