An open letter to India’s respected leaders

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Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji and Shri Lal Krishan Advani Ji,

Mumbai. The one word that has finally told Indians that enough is enough. As a powerful nation of a billion people let us now redefine our strategy against terrorism and apply those countermeasures that will deliver real results.

What we have done so far just won’t work. That is, swatting away endlessly at the hordes of fanatic foot soldiers of terrorism emerging from Pakistan just won’t work. Thousands of terrorists have been and will continue to be nurtured under state patronage across the border in Pakistan, ready to unleash terror in India in wave after mindless wave. The situation that India has faced for thirty years – and much of the rest of the world also now faces – is a new paradigm of warfare. In this new form of warfare as usual the citizens and infrastructure of one state are violently and repeatedly attacked by another state – however instead of this type of war being fought directly by a state, it is fought by proxy terrorist armies set up by the aggressor state. Thus enabling the aggressor state to plausibly deny its responsibility, escape direct retribution and continue its campaign endlessly with a minimal cost to itself.

After suffering asymmetrically huge losses as a result of decades of such warfare by Pakistan, our Indian governments one after another have yet to come up with a strategy which forces Pakistan to stop nurturing, financing and training anti-India terrorists as its mercenaries of warfare. The time has now come for India to redefine its strategy against terrorism. To plan our new strategy, let us revisit the four strategies used so far by the Indian state – which have however failed to turn off the terrorism tap firmly under Pakistan’s control.

[1] Diplomatic Duelling. This results in mutual accusations and provides an ideal platform for Pakistan to engage India in a debate on the world stage – temporarily elevating its standing to that of India’s before the international community. This does not inflict any real cost on Pakistan – rather it works to its advantage.

[2] Military Muscle-Flexing. This results only in mutual sabre rattling and provides a platform for Pakistan to project itself as a victim instead of an aggressor – while also elevating itself as India’s rival before the world. As any unilateral cross-border military attacks or even special forces operations are largely ruled out for several reasons (which are not elaborated on here), military muscle-flexing again does not inflict any real cost on Pakistan – and again works to its advantage.

[3] Confidence Creation. This seems logical but won’t work for two reasons. (1) The very need for Pakistan’s creation and continued existence is based on projecting India as an evil aggressor – refer even the content of Pakistan’s standard school text books which indoctrinate all Pakistani children with this hateful message. (2) The very lucrative political-economic-military domination of Pakistan by its army and ISI officers will cease if Pakistan makes long term peace with India – therefore the Pakistani army and ISI will continue to engineer terrorist incidents within India specifically to ensure any progress made towards peace is reversed. No confidence creation measures will change this core reality in Pakistan while it remains under army and ISI control – however such measures will only soften India’s position.

[4] Internal Inquisitions. It is well documented that Pakistan’s anti-India terrorism policy involves its ISI instigating, funding, arming, training and facilitating disgruntled segments of Indian society to attack India from within. However any heavy-handed inquisitions against segments of India’s own society by executive arms of the Indian Government can easily fuel the smouldering embers of perceived or real dissatisfaction. Such internal inquisitions by India will not inflict costs on Pakistan – but they will work to its advantage by weakening India.

So then what is the solution? Should India stop pursuing strategies [1] to [4] above? No, as the above are valid tools which the state of India needs to selectively apply – albeit with more finesse – as parts of its multifaceted approach to defeat Pakistan’s terrorist war against India.

However the problem is – these strategies alone just won’t work. What we now urgently need is to add new strategies going forward. Ones that don’t just build up our defences against relentless attack (e.g. add more security forces, improve inter agency coordination, get better intelligence, etc.), but instead ones that inflict unbearable costs on the sponsors of terrorism within Pakistan without inflicting significant costs on India. I.e. we now need strategies that will work and deliver results.

One such strategy that will work is an economic counter-escalation strategy that will reverse the asymmetric situation, i.e. that will raise the cost to Pakistan by several orders of magnitude without raising the cost for India. This can be achieved by two simple yet bold steps that can be very quickly taken by the Government of India – and the taking of which lies completely within our Government’s legal power.

STEP A: The Government of India passes a resolution to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism unless within three months it turns over to India the leaders and top level teams of the all terrorist organizations / supporting underworld terrorist organizations who have been operating against India and who are being hosted in Pakistan. In advance of passing such a resolution the Government of India should put in to the public domain sufficient legal evidence to prove beyond doubt the complicity in anti-India terrorist acts of the accused Pakistani organizations and their ISI sponsors.

STEP B: If after three months the required action is not taken by Pakistan – for whatever reasons / excuses – then the Government of India should pass a law that requires all companies operating in or having their offices operating in India to display within three months on their product packages and customer-facing documents a prominent one line declaration stating “Has Business with Pakistan“… if they or any of their parent/subsidiary/sister companies continue to either sell in or source from Pakistan. This new law should also require companies to certify in writing within three months to the Government of India their compliance status with respect to this law, but it would not penalize any of the companies who deal with Pakistan either operationally or financially. Then let India’s public and industry decide whether they wish to do business with a company that retains business dealings with a country which is a state sponsor of terrorism against India. This will result in many of the world’s companies having to choose between India and Pakistan. For those that chose the latter – India may not want them anyway. India’s citizens and business community will wholeheartedly back such strong legislation. A billion people nation and a trillion dollar economy will thus speak forcefully in one voice to Pakistan and to all the companies in the world who continue to deal with Pakistan.

If the Government of India is unable or unwilling to take such steps, the people of India will force our Government to act decisively through elections and through media. If even then the Government of India still is unable to act, there can be a voluntary movement launched in India requesting companies to actively display “No Business with Pakistan” on their products – to certify that they and their parent/subsidiary/sister companies do not sell in or source from Pakistan. When a billion person market and a trillion dollar economy clearly speaks its mind in a way that affects the revenues and profits of Indian and global companies, then India’s leadership and the world at large will have little option but to act firmly to permanently shut down Terrorism, Inc. in Pakistan.

Irrespective of how it is done, when Pakistan’s economy starts to collapse as a result of many companies starting to pull out as a result of India’s actions, the well-lined pockets of Pakistan’s military-intelligence leadership who have been sponsoring anti-India terrorism will also start to get emptied. As a result they will have just two options left: (i) allow Pakistan to implode economically destroying both their personal wealth and source of future income, or (ii) comply, i.e. hand over to India the leaders of its terrorist organizations and permanently dismantle its terrorist infrastructure.

The cost to India of applying such strategies will be minimal and these strategies will not be in breach of any international laws. However the costs to Pakistan of continuing to sponsor its terrorism against India will rapidly become unbearable as a result of the above steps.

As Indians we see Pakistan’s citizens as recently (albeit sadly and violently) estranged brothers and sisters. We wish them well and do not wish them harm. It seems that even the new Government of Pakistan offers genuine goodwill towards India. But so long as Pakistan’s real rulers – the army and the ISI – are hell bent on waging a unending and escalating terrorist war that is burning our country, destroying our industry and murdering our innocent citizens and guests, well then, the citizens of India expect the Government of India to hit back hard, hit back quickly, hit back smartly and hit back with the desired effect.

So Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji and Opposition Leader Shri Lal Krishan Advani Ji, here is the one question that now demands an answer: Should we Indians who have entrusted our country’s safe keeping in to your capable hands expect any less from you than to uproot the tree of anti-India terrorism from the soil of Pakistan where it has taken root? We trust that your experience, that your wisdom and that your love for this country will not let us down in this hour of need.

Yours respectfully,

One Billion Citizens of India