While we revel in festivities today, let us spare a moment for to remember a young teenage boy, Hakeekat Rai who chose to embrace death instead of leaving his faith and converting to Islam.

    Hakeekat Rai was the only son of a rich man, Bhagmal Khatri of Sialkot. He became a Sikh under the influence of his mother. During Mughal rule, kids went to study Persian from Maulvis. Hakeekat Rai also did so.

    He was the only Sikh in a class full of Muslim students.

    One day when the Maulvi had gone out, he got into an altercation with them after they insulted the Hindu Mother Goddess. He retaliated, calling names to Fatima.

    After thrashing him, his classmates complained to the Maulvi that Hakeekat had  committed blasphemy.

    Hakeekat Rai got arrested and the administrator of Sialkot declared that he either convert to Islam or face death. Yes, that was the ‘choice’ offered to a young teenaged lad by the bigots that ruled these sacred lands at that point of time.

    The case was then transferred to the court of Governor of Lahore. The Governor, Zakaria Khan, upheld the sentence and beseeched him to convert for sake of his life.

   The young Hakeekat Rai asked, “Shall I never die, if I become a Muslim?”

    When Zakaria Khan replied in negative, he said, “If this be the case, then why should I sacrifice my great religion for the sake of Islam?”

    That night his parents came to meet him and his mother, Goran said to her son, “No doubt I shall lose a son by your death but if you give up your faith, I shall be called the mother of a deserter and a faithless son. I pray to God to bestow upon you the will to keep your faith even if you have to sacrifice your life.”

    Next day he was again brought to court and asked to convert. The young lad stood firm in his decision. He was finally ordered to be handed over to the Mullahs to be punished as per Sharia.

    The boy was buried upto his waist in the earth. He still retained a smile on his face. The fanatical crowd then started throwing stones at him. Death finally came when a soldier decapitated him.

    It was the day of #BasantPanchami.

  Subsequently, a samadhi was built at the spot of his martyrdom. Till the time the nation was partitioned, Hindus / Sikhs from all over Punjab would gather there to pay their respects to the teenaged ‘Dharamveer’ on his martyrdom day.

    And then some people say the ISIS is a recent phenomenon .. History might beg to differ a bit, though.

    Incidentally, part of the reason why many in Pakistan seek to curtail #BasantPanchami celebrations is that according to them, it glorifies victory of a young child over their faith, Islam.

    God bless the soul of Hakeekat Rai & countless like him that have fallen in this long running war on the very soul of Indian civilization.

    Jai Hind

So this (LINK) is what the Chief said three days back, and it set a lot of knickers on fire, unsurprisingly, on BOTH sides of the border.

In light of this, just letting out some thoughts on calling Pakistan’s Tactical Nuke threat that I had tweeted some months ago.

There was a recent spate of statements from Pakistan, threatening pre-emptive use of tactical nukes against Indian forces even as they might be in their barracks / staging areas.

Firstly regarding the preferred delivery mode – the Nasr missile. With a diameter of just about 30cm,I find it laughable that Pakistan actually has a working bomb of such dimensions. I may be wrong out here, but would be willing to hedge my bets on this account due to the fact that they’ve not tested since 1998, and are working at best, on unproven designs.

Secondly, despite a stated first use policy, they’ve been silent on what constitutes their red lines. In case of a stand-off that might play out on lines of Op Parakram, wherein strike elements actually moved in close to borders, a pre-emptive use by a panicked field commander might lead to a bloody war instead.

Thirdly, in case a Pakistan justifies a pre-emptive strike on account of a threat in being of an Indian attack, can the same premise – an imminent nuclear strike, as proclaimed by Pak – not be used as a premise for a ‘pre-emptive retaliatory strike’ by India, as part of its NFU doctrine?

Fourthly, if Pakistan Army truly believes that even a dozen sub kiloton nukes can actually stop the might of Indian strike forces, they are going to be in for a rude shock. They know it too. And if they don’t, well @bennedose explains it quite well in this video below

That brings us to the next question – ‘What Next?’

Stated Indian Nuclear Doctrine doesn’t differentiate between tactical nukes or any other type of nukes. Massive retaliation is the response that will visit them soon thereafter. Given a military machine which has such strong survival instincts that it is not beyond sacrificing its own pimps in AfPak & elsewhere, or even disown its own soldiers in Kargil, to expect Pak Army to risk its very existence is a fallacy.

Lastly and most importantly, is the reqmt of making the sponsors of Pak nuclear pgme pay in case nukes gifted by them to Pak (Ref Lop Nor, May 1983 – Para 14 here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/pakistan/nuke.htm …). Here’s a screenshot from that, even though the entire report is a highly recommended read:-

Nothing fancy, but just an ‘innocent’ statement to this effect by one of the many semi-govt ‘loudmouths’ in reply to such statements from Pak would surely raise hackles in a LOT of world capitals. Given blatant nuclear proliferation in arming their cat’s paw, they too deserve ‘some’ anxiety atleast, given that India is forced to live with a nuclear armed mad man at its doors.

Talking about ‘Cat’s Paws’, had put out a BLOG post some days back about China engaging Indian security apparatus by its hired lackeys. May have a look.

But coming back to the topic at hand, once we have atleast a half dozen or so Arihant class boats prowling the seas with an assured second/third strike package, perhaps then the nuke benefactors will feel some bit of ‘anxiety’ that I talked about earlier.

Bottomline – Nuclear sabre rattling is just like riding a tiger. Nukes are NOT to be used in a war, unless it is the ‘very last’ war this world sees. Don’t do it. Tomorrow a rabid, brainwashed population may not leave you with a way out. Then you will have no where to hide.

Period.

JMTs

(Oh, and talking about ‘brainwashed population’, THIS three part blog series chronicles some interesting facts).