Response to Uri: ‘Just Cause Doesn’t Make it an Intelligent War’

To go to war with Pakistan or not? Experts say no.

In the aftermath of the deadly Uri attack that killed 18 Indian armymen, a lot of rhetoric on the streets of the country has involved words like ‘war’, ‘conflict escalation’ and ‘covert operations.’

We sat down with Commodore C Uday Bhaskar, Director, Society for Policy Studies and Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, to better understand if going to war with Pakistan is a feasible option.

Both agreed on the fact that war with Pakistan isn’t an option for India but while Commodore Bhaskar believes this is because war is never desirable, Iyer-Mitra believes India has too much of a capacity deficit to undertake a war.

A just cause does not make for an intelligent war. 

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra

In India, the military is the equivalent of the OBC/Dalits and we don’t have an Ambedkar.

Commodore C Uday Bhaskar

I take (the US Bill to name Pakistan as a terror state) with a bucket full of salt with a pinch of action. 

Abhijit Iyer Mitra