THIS is with reference to the interesting letter ‘Bilateralism is the only way forward’ (May 11). The fact is that regardless of how things move from here on, the recent escalation by India should not be viewed in isolation. The fact is that the Indian actions have taken the matter far beyond the limits of bilateralism. They must be seen as part of a broader pattern of fascist aggression that is emboldened by imperialist impunity, exemplified mostly by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The ruling bourgeois class of India, increasingly aligned with monopoly capital and Hindutva fascism, much like Zionist settler-colonial state, exploits nationalism and manufactured external threats to consolidate power, suppress dissent, and divert attention from its systemic failures. Israel’s atrocities, enabled by Western imperialism, have set a dangerous precedent. Fascist states now operate with the confidence that mass violence, ethnic cleansing and militarised repression will result in no meaningful consequences.

India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindutva regime, has drawn from this playbook, intensifying its occupation of Kashmir and escalating hostilities with Pakistan while the world’s gaze is fixed elsewhere, or when it thinks the global community is willing to look the other way.

The Indian government has long used the façade of external threats to consolidate domestic power. The Indian ruling class time and again drums up jingoism to mask its failures, like agrarian crises, rampant unemployment, and the severely brutal suppression of workers’ movements. It constantly fuels anti-Pakistan rhetoric to justify its stranglehold over the state and the country’s economy.

The recent Pahalgam attack, obviously a false flag conveniently operation timed and amid at election victories, was swiftly weaponised to justify India’s reckless decision to back out of the Indus Waters Treaty, an escalation designed to ‘punish’ Pakistan while distracting attention from India’s internal crises. This was surely not a strategy; this was sheer desperation.

The Indian state, much like Zionist Israel, operates on a doctrine of militarised nationalism where every ‘terrorist’ incident — real or staged — serves as an excuse for further aggression. There might be parallels between Israel and India, but, make no mistake, there are no such parallels at all between Pakistan and Palestine.

Pakistan is a sovereign, nuclear-armed state fully capable of retaliating against Indian adventurism. The imperialist-backed genocide in Gaza has allowed fascist regimes, like the one in India, to believe that they can act with the same impunity, but Pakistan’s military deterrence ensures that India’s warmongering will not go unanswered. Never.

Pakistan’s armed forces have proven yet once again that they are not only a nuclear power, they have a clear edge in conventional weapons, too. The current embarrassment should be enough lesson for Modi and his lot of Hindutva zealots.

Insia Fatima
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2025