Kashmiri villagers outside their house damaged after cross-border shelling from Pakistan, Uri, north of Srinagar, May 8, 2025
One of the saddest things about India’s lurch toward transforming as a national security state through the past decade since our late ‘peacenik prime minister’ Manmohan Singh handed over power has been the gradual atrophying and the virtual eclipse today of the peace movement in our country.
The death of the peace movement marks a colossal failure of the left parties in India who have always been at its barricades but have gone into hibernation, and are in a state of torpor. This can be largely ascribed to their defeatist mindset in the recent years and a lacklustre leadership.
In reality, they have chosen to go under. The communist parties have never been a large political constituency in India but through ups and down, they still had a larger-than-life image and influence and their voice commanded respect. What distinguished them was their audacity to speak up. But today, they have altogether stopped running with the hares, and at times, even seemingly prefer to hunt with the hounds.
As war clouds gather on our horizon, they are taking an expedient course and vacating the barricades of the anti-war movement. Indeed, the dismal scene today is so disheartening because unlike in 1962, this war is surreal and is being fought with gusto and deception (by both sides) powered by an existential angst over the unresolved Kashmir problem.
Someone wrote in the social media with a sense of despair and hopelessness about what she sees around her: “I am not a reputed editor, forced to pull down a page because of government pressure. That I don’t have to deal with aircraft parts in fields and conjecture how they got there, or reproduce spineless political party statements… Congress, CPI, CPI M, Owaisi, libtards at all… Even as the killers roam free…”
The last part is important. Once the fog descends on the killing fields, the objectives that drove our country to launch a war get forgotten. Even erudite Indians get thrilled that Lahore’s air defence system has been taken out by an Indian drone (although BBC reports politely that there is no “independent confirmation” of the Indian claim.) Nonetheless, yesterday afternoon, the driver of a car who was bringing me home from a lunch, said in jubilation in Hindi, ‘Sir, we are buggering them in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi… they have nowhere to hide.’ And he used an expletive.
This is where the political parties in the opposition can play a positive role by offering sobering perspectives to the nation and mentor public opinion. At some point, the raison d’être of de-escalation will surface. It is improbable that de-escalation will come from the Americans all over again, who have far better things to do under Trump’s watch.
The US Vice-President JD Vance has said that a potential war between India and Pakistan would be “none of our business.” He added in a somewhat derisive tone, “We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can’t control these countries, though.”
The way things are developing, the political elites who have climbed the high horse will have a problem to dismount when de-escalation becomes an imperative need. They are setting a trap for themselves. That is all the more reason that responsible opposition parties should position themselves accordingly.
Simply put, they should opt for a position of moderation and reasoning. Unless transparency is allowed in public discussion, a dialectics may set in between jingoism and the shrill political rhetoric (embellished by the media) that may lock in the trajectory of the war, which is actually yet to begin and can still be averted.
Our media is no longer capable of performing such a role. In fact, those of us who know English language would rather depend on foreign media with a record of objectivity to get a sense of what is happening — or what can happen if the present highly emotive odyssey continues.
The Economist magazine which has a great tradition in journalism, captioned its editorial on Wednesday like this: Luck stands between de-escalation and disaster for India and Pakistan. Since the item is behind paywall, I am taking the liberty of reproducing some excerpts:
“The spectacle of India and Pakistan teetering on the threshold of war and then backing off is both alarming and familiar. This time the odds remain in favour of de-escalation, as before. Yet the past two weeks show that relations between the two nuclear powers … are increasingly unstable and dangerous. It is more important than ever that the two sides address their differences, including Pakistan’s reckless indulgence of militant groups, which threatens itself and India.
“Artillery duels along the de facto border in Kashmir are growing in intensity and killing civilians… Something like this pattern has occurred several times since 2000. Yet look closer and this conflict is changing … New weapons technology is changing the conflict, too… The combination of an unstable Pakistan, an arms race and outside indifference is dangerous… there is an off-ramp from Armageddon.
“Unfortunately, unless the conflict’s underlying causes are tackled, it will surely flare up again. India needs to end its self-defeating repression of the part of Kashmir it controls. This has a Muslim majority and has been subjected to more centralised administration since 2019, resulting in militarisation, clampdowns on free speech, abuses of human rights. But the bigger problem is Pakistan’s tolerance of militants which it has long viewed as a source of asymmetric leverage… Pakistan’s timeworn strategy is to sponsor destabilising attacks and then call for stability…
“With luck, the latest outbreak of violence will fit the familiar pattern. But sooner or later luck will run out.”
The editorial is critical of Pakistan’s support for terrorism and underscores that the International community should exert sustained pressure on that country to mend its ways. But that does not discourage the magazine from calling a spade a spade. It also recognises that the root cause needs to be addressed by India. Our opposition parties, especially the communists and Congress, owe it to the nation to articulate constructive, balanced opinions in such a national crisis situation. If they are lacking in ideas, the Economist editorial can be their playbook.
As the saying goes, patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Our notions of patriotism can only fuel jingoism, which, as modern history shows, is bound to boomerang at some point. May 9 is a stark reminder, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.