NEW DELHI: With war drums reverberating on India’s corporate TV channels and pulsating in the BJP’s echo-chambers on Friday, calmer voices were also finding space with online portals.

A seasoned Indian def­ence analyst gave measu­red reasons on Friday why there could be no hot war between India and Pakis­tan over the Pahalgam tragedy, even though there would be the pretence of one for political gain.

The existing ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) could suffer and the firing from both sides could resume to disturb the peace of local farmers along the borders.

Among the reasoned and reassuring voices from the perspective of bilateral and regional peace was former Indian army officer and defence analyst Pravin Sawhney.

He gave several factors for assessing there could be no war, chief among them being the China factor.

Mr Sawhney said the Aug 2019 changes in the status of the disputed state of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir had irked China more than Pakistan. The Galwan violence between the troops of India and China in April 2020 was an offshoot of that.

There were too many troops committed on the China border, Mr Sawhney pointed out, saying it would not be possible for India to move them immediately.

But that doesn’t mean the war drums would be silenced any time soon. PM Narendra Modi is a rare Indian leader to believe in keeping the pretence of war, as it suits his politics.

News portals noted that Modi was addressing an election rally in Bihar on Thursday, and did not attend the meeting with opposition parties, where the government for the first time admitted to an intelligence failure.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2025