At a time when India was going to elections and the political atmosphere in the country was charged with allegations, counter-allegations, promises and freebies and Narendra Modi’s popularity was going downhill, a sudden surprise sprung up on February 26th when the Indian Airforce struck terror camps in Pakistan, as a counterstrike measure to JeM’s attack in Pulwama (Kashmir) which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans.
This non-military action from India successfully destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM’s) terror camps in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While Pakistan denied any such strikes on its terror camps and stayed in denial mode for a day, people across India hailed the Modi government for its timely action on Pakistan’s terror outfits.
Additionally, Indian government also ensured that the international community sees Pakistan as a terror-promoting country as it has not denied any claims made by India on its terror camps. In the process, Pakistan stood exposed. This action by India also signalled the world that India cannot and will not sit quietly if provoked and attacked, reflecting the emergence of a “New India” under Narendra Modi.
Soon after, the narrative within India changed as the NDA government kept giving on and off messages about how it kept its promise to Indians (about a strike-back). That apart, Narendra Modi’s speech re-asserted that India will not take anything lying down, anymore and that “India is in safe hands. For him, country comes first and is above everything.”
Even the carefully-worded statement put out by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on India’s airstrikes as “non-military pre-emptive action aimed at terror infrastructure in Pakistan” helped Indian government meet all the norms of International conventions. This was also a statement to the world that India will not tolerate Pakistan’s double games nor its allies’ lies in supporting terror-exporting countries, cornering China simultaneously.
While Indian Airforce totally stole the show by displaying its might at the right time, the BJP in an election scenario, will definitely use this episode to show it as “Surgical Strike 2.0” and use it as an achievement of India. While the Opposition still seems to be undecided about its Prime Minister candidate, this example of the Balakot attack has improved Modi’s graph and goodwill tremendously over the past few days.
On the other hand, the BJP also, fortunately, gets to focus on this issue and sidetrack Rafale deal which the Opposition has been using as a weapon to criticise the Modi government. Even the right-wing groups will use this opportunity of Balakot strike for Pakistan-bashing, which is expected to increase BJP’s goodwill and could as well, push Modi into the Prime Minister’s seat yet again! Well, the Surgical Strike 2.0 is definitely “Advantage BJP” for 2019 General Elections!
