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Opinion | India-Pakistan crisis: Modi is gambling with nuclear stakes
- The tensions between nuclear armed neighbours India and Pakistan may have eased slightly, but misjudged political rhetoric could still force them into a dangerous spiral
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The face-off between New Delhi and Islamabad may appear to be winding down, but domestic rhetoric in India is only rising. On Thursday, after Pakistan announced the release of a captured Indian pilot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a crude pun to an audience of scientists in Delhi: “This was just a pilot project. We were just practising. Now we will carry out the real thing.”
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For Modi, the personal political stakes could not be higher. As India and Pakistan edged closer to full-blown conflict, 21 opposition parties came together to publicly criticise the “blatant politicisation of the sacrifices made by our armed forces by [the] leader of the ruling party”. Political gamesmanship could still force the situation to spiral into full-scale hostilities.
But for now, the tensions appear to be falling, beginning on Thursday afternoon when Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced in Islamabad that the Indian Air Force wing commander who had bailed out over Pakistani-controlled territory the day before would be handed back to India on Friday.
New Delhi reciprocated within hours, with a statement read out by a senior Indian military officer that committed the country’s army to “maintaining peace and stability in the region”.
Don’t be fooled. The India-Pakistan crisis has only just begun
The statement reserved the right to “continue to act against agencies who harbour inimical designs against India”, but the prospect of a full-blown shooting war between the two nuclear-armed adversaries is clearly receding.
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