'Too late for military response, difficult to isolate Pakistan'

Kolkata, Sept 26: As tensions between India and Pakistan continue to rise over the Uri terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, US-based political science expert Sumit Ganguly has stressed it is “too late” for a military response and even attempts to diplomatically isolate Pakistan would be tough for India in the current global scerio. “I think it is too late for a military response. Any element of surprise that might have existed is long gone. At this stage all that India can do is try and diplomatically isolate Pakistan. Even this strategy will be difficult as the world is preoccupied with a host of other crises,” Ganguly, director, Centre on American and Global Security at India University said in an email.

With debates raging on whether India needs to call Pakistan’s nuclear bluff, he warned that resorting to nuclear weapons on India’s part would be “sheer madness”.

“India needs to devise a strategy to call Pakistan’s bluff. To that end, it needs to set some red lines of its own. No, a resort to nuclear weapons on India’s part would be sheer madness,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly also asserted that severing cultural ties with Pakistan is “foolish”, and pointed to the fact that “even at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had extensive cultural links.”

Further, India has to contend with the Chi factor as it evaluates all its options with Pakistan, he noted and asked if India’s stand would strain its relations with the Asian superpower. “Much depends on the actions that India takes vis-a-vis Pakistan. However, if India wishes to be a great power and be seen as one, it can ill-afford to constantly kowtow to the sentiments of the People’s Republic of Chi (PRC),” Ganguly observed. (IANS)