1138 POSTS
Shekhar Gupta is Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint and one of India’s most distinguished journalists. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan and multiple journalism awards, he has reported on key events in India and from around the world since the 1980s. At ThePrint, he does a daily online show, Cut the Clutter, in which he dissects, analyses, and contextualises complex daily news developments and current affairs. He also writes his weekly column National Interest.
I have not read the Swiss report. And I believe that I do not need to have read Thucydides or Clausewitz for assessing how fallacious this article is.
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Mr. Shekhar Gupta asserts that a war must be defined by a clear objective. That is inaccurate. It is stupidity to plan a war with any objective that comes to mind, no matter how clear. A war ought to be planned by defining an objective which is not just clear but also worthwhile and conclusive.
Punching a rival with that alone as the clear objective (as the only action intended, and no more) does not preclude all of the possible undesirable results.
Knocking down an opponent in an alley fight does not settle the trouble if that opponent is strutting in the main street the next day, boasting to the belief of many that it was he who had given you a hiding.
This fight was inconclusive. In that regard, the lives lost and resources spent were futile.
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The parallels that Mr. Shekhar Gupta has attempted to draw with the past are specious.
In continuation about “a clear objective” he says, “That’s an entirely political call. It isn’t emotional or purely military.” It is mere verbiage.
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The Swiss report, Mr. Shekhar Gupta states, puts India’s aerial losses at about half of what Pakistan claims. To me, that part of the article highlighted the most disappointing failure of his journalism in this event. I don’t recall hearing his voice among the few that dared to question why the government was refusing to be forthright about the outcome. Why do we need the Swiss to inform us about our losses? What makes them any more credible?
This government habitually hides the truth by being aggressively silent or grossly untruthful. That is a violation of their constitutional duty. That is a mockery of Raj Dharma.
Mr. Shekhar Gupta has a colossal reputation. However, he has often disappointed. And in this case, he has been grievously so.
By lending his silence to the resounding absence of criticism of the government for its failings…which has become the norm…Mr. Shekhar Gupta has signalled that his own dutiful objectives clearly lie elsewhere.
It is tragic how the country’s cause is being abandoned by all those who matter.
The Red Fort terror attack took place exactly six months after Operation Sindoor concluded, or was paused. So in that sense, the military operation did not achieve perfect deterrence for the future.
12 more hours and we could have ended the pak’s utility value ( & hence bargaining power) for USA as a provider of air bases.