Pulwama again. Less than five days after, and just 15 kms away from the site of the most severe terrorist strike in some three decades of militant violence in Jammu and Kashmir. With their ever-incisive hindsight, the spin-doctors are making much of a top JeM commander, Kamran, and two of his co-conspirators having been gunned down near Pinglena village on Monday ~ yet that “success” cannot cover-up the fact that the Army lost a Major and three other soldiers in the encounter. In addition to a policeman and civilian being killed, and a Brigadier and a DIG of police injured. Body-bags are of limited relevance ~ did the suicide-bomber know he would be slaughtering at least 40 CRPF men when he blew up their convoy? What must cause worry is the reality that the militants, or terrorists, virtually lampooned the laxity of the security effort when it ought to have been at it most vigilant.

That a group could gather so close to the blastsite makes a mockery of the talk of “blood boiling” and all but mutes the sound of the drums of war rolling down Raisina Hill. And punctures the bubble of military muscle sought to be blown up to exploit public sentiment in an emotionally-charged atmosphere. Rightly did the Opposition and the media pull their punches briefly, but Pulwama-II exposes the bitter truth that jingoism and rhetoric do not frighten militants ~ not when they are so radicalised as to deem being eliminated a shortcut to their version of paradise.

No doubt Pulwama-II will accelerate the process of exercising the military option since the diplomatic and economic moves will not produce immediate and dramatic results: which is all the more reason for the retaliatory action to be more decisive than the over-hyped surgical strikes of 2016.

Yet with public frenzy having reached feverpitch, the risk of a hasty, politically-levered move increases. Alas, the top military leadership does not convince too many that it can resist pressure and avert a misadventure. “Time and place of our choosing” is sound philosophy, but such muscleflexing is not open-ended.

The leadership deficit could prove painful ~ not too many will buy the Mamata line that the terror strikes were the poll-targeted handiwork of the NDA’s Dirty Tricks Department, yet some will suspect a political underpinning to the attacks on Kashmiris (students in particular) outside the Valley. There would be some cheap thrills over students vacating hostels etc, but every young person who returns home under such circumstances becomes ripe for radicalisation.

The political leadership needs to be reminded that no war has been won when local sentiment is unfavourable ~ neither in Afghanistan nor Vietnam. There is no elected government in J&K at present ~ hence no alibi for the laxity at Pulwama. Bombast has added to the acidity of the test being faced by the nation.