Opinion Opposition’s support empowers government as it hunts for Pahalgam terrorists

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s terror strike in Pahalgam, take a minute, rewind to the pre-Tuesday polity. It was a story of polarisation-as-usual, with the government digging its heels in, the Opposition not giving any quarter to the government. The recent debate in Parliament on the waqf bill had brought a rare instance of both acknowledging each other, if only to lock horns. Against this backdrop, Tuesday is a turning point. The toll of the horrific act of terror has been devastating, leaving in its wake a stunned nation and grieving households across states. But Tuesday has also brought together, for now, a warring political class, the government with the Opposition, on a common ground of empathy and solidarity with families of the 26 Indians whose lives were cut short so cruelly. As it rolled out a series of steps in its coercive diplomacy to further isolate Pakistan and increase the international pressure on it, the government held an all-party meeting on  Thursday to brief its political opponents and bring them on board. And even as some members of the Opposition raised questions of security and intelligence lapses — legitimately, after a tragedy as grave as this one — all pledged support to the government in the action it takes in this sobering moment in the interest of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that “India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism”. That spirit is renewed and reinforced when parties across the political-ideological spectrum set aside their differences. In a challenging time, they will need to play not only a representative but also a bridging role. Even as some TV and social media warriors are using this moment to deepen divides and stoke faultlines, political parties must know that a much larger India lies beyond them, which all this noise — shrill and empty — and posturing cannot obscure. In this larger nation, stories abound of how, in the terror attack in which those who were targeted were identified by their names and their faith, neither mattered when locals rushed to help the victim, lent a shoulder and more, and later, when schools and colleges, shops and business establishments in the Valley downed their shutters to express their pain and solidarity.

Advertisement

This India is compassionate and encompassing, it will not let itself be defined or distorted by a terrorist’s strike, however devastating. In this India, someone from Bengal and Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala, Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh can plan a dream-come-true holiday in heartbreakingly beautiful Pahalgam, and students from Kashmir can go to other states to study and make a home away from home. That’s why the safety of the tourist in the Valley needs to be secured urgently. And no walls must be allowed to come up that could have the effect of isolating Jammu and Kashmir. Because that would be exactly what the terrorists and their handlers intended. The united political front in the wake of Pahalgam not only empowers the government as it hunts the terrorist down, it should also stand for an unequivocal assertion of the nation’s spirit that will never be broken.