I love playing the game ‘what the Prime Minister should have said’. This is what the Indian PM should have said after the Uri attacks – apologies and thanks to the late Ronald Reagan.
“We Indians are slow to anger. We always seek peaceful avenues before resorting to the use of force. Despite our repeated warnings, Pakistan continued her reckless policy of intimidation, her relentless pursuit of terror. We tried quiet diplomacy, public condemnation, economic sanctions, and demonstrations of military force. None succeeded. She counted on India to be passive. She counted wrong. I warned that there should be no place on Earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills. I meant it. I said that we would act with others, if possible, and alone if necessary to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. Tonight, we have.
At 7 o'clock this evening air and naval forces of India launched a series of strikes against the headquarters of terrorist facilities that support Pakistan’s subversive activities. The attacks were concentrated and carefully targeted to minimize casualties among the Pakistani people with whom we have no quarrel.
Several weeks ago from Uri, I warned PM Sharif we would hold his regime accountable for any new terrorist attacks launched against Indian citizens. Uri and its monstrous brutality is but the latest act in Pakistan’s reign of terror. The evidence is now conclusive that the terrorist attack was launched from Pakistani soil.
Our evidence is direct; it is precise; it is irrefutable. We have solid evidence about other attacks Pakistan has planned against India. Thanks to close cooperation with our friends, some of these have been prevented.
Today we have done what we had to do. If necessary, we shall do it again. It gives me no pleasure to say that, and I wish it were otherwise. I'm sure that today most Pakistanis are ashamed and disgusted that their military has made their country a synonym for barbarism around the world. The Pakistani people are a decent people caught in the grip of military tyrants.
To our friends and allies around the world who work with us against terror, I would only say you have the permanent gratitude of the Indian people. We who remember history understand better than most that there is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil. It must be the core of Indian policy that there be no sanctuary for terror. And to sustain such a policy, free men and free nations must unite and work together. Sometimes it is said that by imposing sanctions against Pakistan or by striking at her terrorist installations we only magnify the country’s importance, that the proper way to deal with her is to ignore her. I do not agree.
For for us to ignore by inaction the slaughter of Indian civilians and Indian soldiers, whether in hotels or army camps, is simply not in the Indian tradition. When our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere in the world on the direct orders of a hostile regime, we will respond so long as I'm Prime Minister. Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty. It is the purpose behind the mission undertaken tonight, a mission fully consistent with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
We believe that this preemptive action against his terrorist installations will not only diminish Pakistan’s capacity to export terror, it will provide her with incentives and reasons to alter her criminal behavior. I have no illusion that tonight's action will ring down the curtain on Pakistan’s reign of terror. But this mission, violent though it was, can bring closer a safer and more secure world for decent men and women. We will persevere.
Thank you, and Jai Hind.
Alpesh Patel
