Public Opinion on IAF’s Balakot raid and subsequent Indo-Pak tussle

Bhubaneswar: India received a jolt when 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district a few days back. The incident had shaken the nation and was strongly condemned by all Indians across the country. India avenged the Pulwama attack with the Balakot air strike. In short, we witnessed a series of big happenings escalating tension between India and Pakistan in the last few days. Pulwama attack, Balakot air strike, the capture of Wing Commander Abhinandan Vartaman and finally the return of the brave officer have been in news lately.  In this context, we sought the opinions of people.  Here is what they want to say:

Suresh Patnaik works as a manager for a vocational education company and believes that this is a new India who will not just sit and watch. India has had enough of patience with Pakistan’s antics. Balakot air strike was a much-needed action. He calls the PAF’s intrusion cowardly and regards Abhinandan’s release in just two days shows India prowess in the international community and also our foreign policy.

Asima Mohapatra is a branch manager who believes that Pakistan needs to be given a taste of their own medicine. She believes “it is always necessary to kill the deadly germs in spreading.” Asima strongly criticised Pakistan’s desperate attempts as unwelcome. She was referring to Pakistan making Abhinandan shoot a video before he was released. The botched-up and badly edited video was Pakistan’s attempt to improve their PR.

Soumya Mohanty is a vice president at a reputed firm who brings a new angle to this whole debate. He says that rather than retaliation our country needs to strengthen our security system. The pertinent question he raised was- Why is our intelligence failing? Who is accountable for not taking the intel reports seriously. As of now, no one has been held accountable for this major intelligence failure. Every single time it can’t be a ‘reaction’. Soumya lauded the brave officer and his unbreakable spirit and hoped that no officer has to go through the trauma again.

Auroshri Mishra works at a reputed IT company and believes that this is the best response India could have given now as going into a war would have made us isolated in the world and sitting silent would have portrayed our image as a dread country. He went to thank our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team for decision making and the brave pilots of the Air Force for making it possible. Auroshri also alleged the traitors and separatists who stay in India and yet unlawfully support Pakistan. He was full of praises for the IAF and wing Commander Abhinandan but disliked the political turn of events. He added that he was shocked at how the opposition could question at our officers’ bravery.

Vivek Patnaik is a manager at a reputed pharmaceutical company and said that this was a well-deserved retaliation on India’s part. He touted Balakota raid as the “Surgical Strike version 2.0”, which is the answer for the Pulwama cowardly attack. He argued that if the so-called Jihadiis can semi-permeate our intelligence with 80 kg of RDX, then India can most definitely penetrate well into Pakistan territory by completely demising the Pakistani security system with more than 1000 kg explosives and 12 Mirage aircraft’s power. Vivek believes that Pakistan was simply trying to protect its image and all of its action seemed half-hearted. He suggested that Pakistan was simply trying to project itself as a reasonable and responsible nation, which respects international humanitarian norms. He believes this just a political game for Pakistan.

Suraj Maningi is an MBA student at one of India’s top universities and coloured his comment with some humour. Taking a dig at India-Pakistan strained business relations and Pakistan tomato crisis he said that he pitied Pakistan’s tomatoes, their training centre’s for militants (which were destroyed at Balakot by IAF strike), their foiled plans and most importantly Masood Azhar’s so-called “Khaas” people (JeM’s chief Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law was reportedly killed in the attack). Suraj has pointed out how a MIG 21 (at least 30-40 years old) took down F-16 of Pakistan. He pointed out the skill of Indian pilots and how simply upgrading the technology is not everything. He lauded Wing Commander Abhinandan maintaining his cool even in an adverse situation which the brave officer faced.

Bhabatosh Pati is a BTech graduate and doubles up as civil service freelance mentor for geography, international relations and internal security. He firmly backs India’s drastic step. He believes that our country had no other option with Pakistan non-stop terror activities all these years. He strongly believes that there is absolutely no scope for any talks between the two neighbouring countries. And since India will in no way simply give over Kashmir to Pakistan, attacks like the Balakota attack are the last resort for India against Pakistan. Bhabatosh suggested that if not the Kashmir issue then Pakistan has no other agenda. He also pointed out how the so-called Jihadis have been brainwashed into thinking that Indo-Pak issues are religious, which is nothing but a political game for Pakistan’s top-notch players.

Also Read: Timeline Of Recent Indo-Pak Face-Off