Fight fire with fire- terror with terror!

India has a strategic window with respect to Pakistan the like of which has not been seen since 1977. This has to do with sponsoring insurgencies within that country as well as adopting its own Islamist proxies in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and so on. If India takes a leaf out of the I.S.I playbook by making these terrorist outfits financially self-supporting by moving aggressively into extortion, drugs and arms smuggling, there will be the added bonus of exporting its own gangster class along with its lunatic fringe to Islamic countries under the banner of establishing the Caliphate first in the heart-land before then taking the jihad to infidel countries. In order to achieve this objective, India will need to disengage from America- at the publicly visible level- a course made all the easier by the fact that, with the nuclear deal done and dusted, America has nothing to offer in the medium term. Under these circumstances, India can portray Pakistan as an American stooge and reverse the flow of militancy across its borders. However, for the strategy to work the whole operation has to be made ideologically self-sustaining by being crazier than the next guy- that too in a pretty crazy neighborhood- as well as by meta-extortion- extorting the extorters, suicide bombing the suicide bombers unless they pay protection.

The example of Algeria shows how extremism carried beyond the limits of lunacy ultimately burns itself out. Of course, there is a reason why India hasn't already done this- or rather why it drew back from it. India is a democracy not because that's the fastest way to develop but because democracy is essential to its Social and Moral hygiene. I.S.I type criminality and ideological imbecility is a poison as far as democracy is concerned. So, bad luck India. There are no short cuts to National Security for you. You just have to keep plugging away at education, good governance, rule of law etc. etc. Well, Israel managed it and they are all the better for it. Prior to 1967 they didn't get much help from Uncle Sam- in fact France was Israel's biggest donor! Of course, Indians love a nice Uncleji. But, best lesson an Uncle can teach- is do your duty without fear or favour. In that case you won't regret not being given presents.