Comment: India and Pakistan can’t afford a war

In India, emotions and tempers are running high over the dastardly attack in Pahalgam by armed militants who killed at least 28 unarmed Hindu tourists, and injured many more.

Indian politicians and media, and others have blamed Pakistan, and there are hawkish calls by many for a military strike on Pakistan. Now, three things must be said regarding this demand for war on Pakistan: one, wars are very expensive affairs, and both India and Pakistan are poor countries which can ill afford them.

Two, wars have unpredictable outcomes. It is easy to begin a war, but one can never say how it will end. Napoleon and Hitler invaded Russia expecting quick victories, but we all know how their invasions ended. Three, both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers.

So it is silly to talk of going to war. In my opinion, the best course was what happened after the Pulwama attack in 2019, when tempers were running high in India.

Pakistan’s prime minister of the time, Imran Khan, had said he understood the pain of the Indians on the killing of so many of their troops in the Pulwama attack. The former Pakistani PM had also said that Pakistan too was a victim of terrorism, and that Pakistan was willing to cooperate with India in any kind of investigation India wanted to trace out and identify the culprits.

The Indian government has announced some measures against Pakistan, and Pakistan has reciprocated with some measures against India. I am not going into the legality of these, but I submit they are knee-jerk reactions, which will only exacerbate the situation and harm the poor people of both countries.

For example, many parts of Pakistan are already reeling under severe water shortage, and Sindh and Punjab are fighting over this issue. The Pakistan government has declared India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty as an act of war.

Now, if the water coming from the upper riparian country (India) is stopped or reduced by suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, parts of Pakistan may well become another Karbala. It is not the rulers of Pakistan, but the poor people who will suffer thereby.

Both India and Pakistan are poor countries. Poor people must join hands and fight together against their common enemy -- massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc, instead of fighting each other.

I respectfully appeal to both countries to cool down and adopt the wise and statesmanlike course of action suggested by Imran Khan after the Pulwama attack in 2019.

Justice Katju is former judge of the Indian Supreme Court.