New Delhi : India has got a bad name in diplomatic circles for giving wide publicity to the Army’s surgical strike inside Myanmar territory to flush out insurgents.
To add to its discomfiture, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Colonel (retired) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore went ballistic by claiming that Prime Minister Modi had ordered the “hot pursuit” and that the action has demonstrated his ‘‘56 inch chest.’’
Informed sources said such operations had been carried out at least four times in the past by the Indian Army, starting with Operation Gold Bird in 1995, to smoke out militants from Myanmar and Bhutan with the respective government’s consent, but they were always kept under the wraps and discussed only in whispers in military and diplomatic circles.
This time, while the Indian Army was still to come on record with details of the operation, Rathore spilled the beans and went overboard, indirectly warning Pakistan that “western disturbances will also be equally dealt with.” He also declared that “our PM ordered the hot pursuit in which two camps were completely annihilated…’’
Rathore was either privy to the developments or he was briefed to make this statement, hours after the Army disclosed the operation in a calibrated manner.
In Islamabad, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s response was predictable. “Pakistan is not like Myanmar”, he said and warned India that his country cannot be cowed down by threats from across the border. “Those having ill designs against Pakistan should listen carefully that our security forces are capable of giving a matching response to any adventurism,” he said.
Khan also said that Pakistan would never accept Indian hegemony and that “Indian leaders should stop day dreaming”.
Pakistan Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also stepped up the attack on India in a speech in Parliament. He said his country will take all steps to “expose” India’s role in the breakup of East Pakistan in 1971 and to “destabilise” it through terrorism. Addressing the Senate, Aziz said Islamabad has already taken “strong notice” of Prime Minister Modi’s statement “acknowledging” India’s “intervention” in events of 1971. “Pakistan will take all possible steps to expose India’s role in the breakup of East Pakistan in 1971 and its threat to destabilise Pakistan through terrorism,” he alleged. Aziz also urged the international community and the UN to take notice of the India’s “open admission” of indulging in subversive activities to destabilise Pakistan. Aziz said Modi’s statement vindicates Pakistan’s stand over India’s present and past policies to destabilise it. He said it is regrettable that Modi chose Bangladesh for the statement which was aimed at fanning hatred against Pakistan in Bangladesh.
