Why Pakistan is different from China

Arun Joshi

Quite often it is asked, why is India so obsessed with Pakistan? This question became more pronounced after Chinese troops intruded eastern Ladakh. Wide gaps were discovered in the Indian response to the two countries.

It was argued that India had been explosive against Pakistan when an act of terror took place in Kashmir. But, post Galwan valley clashes of June 15 in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, the Indian response was seen very soft in comparison. J&K and Ladakh are joined with each other by history and geography despite their separate identities as two different Union Territories now.

There are essentially two points to be pondered over: one, is it right to compare the behaviour of the two countries towards India? Second is something called strategic calculation and the consequences that are put on the table.

Since Partition, Pakistan has been busy causing trouble in Kashmir with bloodletting that has consumed thousands of Kashmiri lives. Pakistan is responsible for destruction in Kashmir and Indian patience came to a breaking point. At that time, India took the revenge with Pakistan and PoK.

Uri and Pulwama were two known acts of terror and the world saw the Indian retaliation with eyes wide open.

Pakistan was hit by the Indian surgical strikes in 2016 and 2019.

Pakistan has been drawing a sadistic pleasure and promoting disharmony following the Chinese incursions, using it to internationalise the Kashmir issue and play the communal card. It may be having an intuitive appeal for the Pakistani establishment, but the world has ignored it by and large.

China’s case is being resolved through dialogue. There are issues, difficult ones, for which there may not be early solutions, but the border clash is different from more than 70-year-old campaign of terrorism that Pakistan has launched against India in Kashmir. There is a binary, it needs to be understood fully to draw the difference in approach in dealing with the two countries that have inflicted two different situations in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.