By The Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

The recent armed forces operations in the North East near the Indo-Burma border or to be specific inside Myanmar’s territory were not only unprecedented but would also have far reaching reverberations from diplomatic and strategic point of view. Militants got a clear message that challenging one of the strongest armies in the world will not go unanswered. The reaction was justified and much needed to boost the public confidence and morale after the Chandel district attack. This should send a warning to Naxalites, separatists and terrorists who are bent on destabilizing the country.

 There should be a point, a limit up to which tolerance becomes zero to any subversive or terrorist activities, ideally there should be a limit at all but we always had a tendency to go the peaceful way. At least Modi government is not taking that route. The hot pursuit of terrorist is nothing new or surprising. Mossad, the feared Israeli Intelligence agency is well known for this. Americans and Russians go after their enemies wherever they are. So why finger pointing at India. The resolution passing stunt of Pakistani politicians and their threats of nuclear weapons are comical at best. Though it is true we cannot go public with cross border ops in Pakistan of covert or overt nature but we’ll come to that in a little bit. We should ignore their wind bagging. Yes, they have a nuclear weapon and all things aside the danger is real but we should not be intimidated by some zealots who think arms and money from a nuclear armed nation will give them power to threaten world’s largest democracy. In the words of Mexican legend Emiliano Zapata “It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

Now let’s talk about the “buzz” that was generated after the operations in Myanmar. Covertly or overtly, military operations at best should be hidden from public eyes or least from the news channels. Reports must be redacted at least for some crucial details before they go out in public domain or we have an allied country of Myanmar trying to save face stating that their are no Indian soldiers on its soil. We need our friends to remain friends and this operation should not be that last one where they help us or let us get the bad guys. We can be forceful about it but remember that our archenemies Pakistanis were not too happy about American drones either. So respected ministers should be requested to not ruin international relations for few minutes of TRP, there is some reason Sun Tzu wrote art of war two thousand year ago. We have dealt a heavy blow to our enemy but let’s not be in everyone’s face about it. The enemy should now know what, when and who hit them.