Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Is dialogue or action the need of the hour?' that was published in Newsband

Is dialogue or action the need of the hour?

The killing of five Indian soldiers on the Line of Control has shocked the political and media circles. This happened at a time when New Delhi and the new government in Islamabad were quietly setting the stage for the resumption of talks that had been derailed by the beheading of an Indian jawan at the LoC in January. Both sides were on the verge of restarting the process. A meeting between Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York was also finalised. But whenever the two countries take even the most tentative steps forward, there are elements out to ensure such attempts make no progress.

Is there no alternative to dialogue? It could have been Pakistani soldiers or terrorists in military uniforms who killed the Indian soldiers. This is not the first time the truce along the LoC has been violated in the past 10 years of its existence.

Prime Minister Sharif wants friendship with India. But what about the Pakistan Army? Do they want peace with India? We can never know which way the civilian-military balance in Pakistan will tilt.

Sanity says that there is no alternative to dialogue, yet we must negotiate from a position of strength. In international affairs the national interest is supreme. We need to learn from countries like Israel and the USA, they brook no nonsense from any quarter. Countries like Vietnam and Japan that are much smaller than India have taken stronger positions against a power like China.

This attitude of 'dialogue at all costs - let whatever happens' is exactly what is so predictable about us. And this is exactly what is being exploited to the hilt by both Pakistan and China. After every incident where lives have been lost we hear a chorus for dialogue since our adversaries are nuclear powers. If that is the case, why don't they feel the same way about us since we are also a nuclear power? Instead our LOC is being trampled at will. The fact is that a single act of measured military retaliation will bring everyone to the dialogue table. The truth could be that Pakistan still does not have a mature democracy and probably military still has the last say.

It is imperative that we must press forward peace measures but not when Pakistan is not ready to accept the hands offered. Our silence on this matter can only worsen the situation and while the governments will get themselves protected using peace dialogues as shield, the trouble makers will get more chances to strike. We need to take some decisive actions and we have specialized forces that could be employed for such

operations. Only when we will have a strong hand on the border issue we should go for peace talks or else our actions will be considered nothing short of cowardice by our not so friendly 'neighbor'. Lets not forget what John F Kennedy said years ago -"we should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate"