Pakistan's decision to return IAF pilot allows Imran to play pacifist while India lets social media dictate its stance

Hatred from the comfort of the drawing room when you are not really involved is easy. But let’s be fair on this one. Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan set his field with a certain panache and keeping in mind the strength of his “bowlers” and the “playing” conditions, he made his moves. Imran Khan’s announcement to the effect that Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthman is being sent home on Friday is a very decisive bit of strategy. He has de-escalated the conflict spiral and brought it to manageable levels with this singular act. Truth be told, it would be a disservice to all the forces of the world and the integrity of the Geneva Convention if we were to see this courtesy as a ploy steeped in insincerity. Ask his family that. Imran has not used him as a bargaining chip and that is a positive sign. [caption id=“attachment_6156561” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan. Image from Pakistan PMO handle[/caption] Having had the occasion to meet Imran fairly often, I always thought he was a pretty straight shooter. And since most of India believes even today that all civilian prime ministers in Pakistan are just puppets of the generals, we have to then agree that Imran and his generals were on the same page in determining the PR fallout of the decision to return the pilot. Maybe Imran has realised that fighting India is futile. In these 72 hours, Imran has also been an upfront leader. He has emerged from his nation’s point of view as decisive and has established a rapport with his people, while insisting from the word go that he wants no war, no hostility and has made a call to talk. In contrast, our leadership sort of allowed him to take over the writing of the script and allowed him to command the stage. Whether we did this out of rage or arrogance or simple contempt for the enemy, and still believe it is all a charade and dipped deep in falsehood, the fact is that our silence could have been broken by some strong and reassuring statements to the nation. Our statements should not have been limited to addressing specific vote banks. Besides, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was conspicuous by her absence. One wonders, in the aftermath of this conflict, if our patience for indifferent defence ministers will wane, and whether it should wane. Narendra Modi appears to have decided that he had done his bit from the war room and owed no one any explanation. In the interim, the Congress leadership was doing no better. We saw Rahul Gandhi grinning in an immature manner in Assam on the same day that the aerial combat took place. It was inappropriate in the extreme. Today, there is a niggling feeling that an upstart actor stole some of the limelight by playing pacifist and working on his nation’s emotions, while we allowed social media to dictate our course. If we can lower the temperature but not our guard and listen to, if not swallow, all that comes from Pakistan, then New Delhi has to make the decision — do we believe this former cricket captain or is he bowling googlies and wrong ‘uns to us? Is there anything to gain in not investigating his desire to talk? That is the question we must ask ourselves. Also, it would be a disservice to the armed forces of the world and their code of conduct if our leadership were to scoff the freeing of the pilot and claim that this happened because we “scared” Imran Khan. It was too early in the match for anyone to scare anyone. There seems to be little point in not sitting down at the table and dictating our terms first. As John F Kennedy said, we will never fear to negotiate, but we will never negotiate out of fear. Fair enough. We have had 70 years of loathing and misunderstanding and war, and relations blowing hot and cold. It is important to remember that India-Pakistan relations are like a Test match, and not a T20 or a one-day match. We should check the pitch carefully, but check it we must. Follow live updates on India-Pakistan tensions here.