As BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi take the Congress over its government’s purported kid-glove treatment of terror in the run-up to elections, especially of the variety emanating from Pakistan, the autumn in the calendar year could well mean spring season for the centre’s Pakistan policy. If it wants to, that is.

For starters, the setting could not be more perfect despite the renewed ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and fears of a violent winter in the state with renewed infiltration attempts before the chill sets in. Sample these events this week:

* On Monday (October 21), Omar Abdullah made what can only be construed the strongest anti-Pakistan statement by a political leader from the Valley. Asserting that India would "respond in kind" if the repeated ceasefire violations persist, Omar said: "This cannot be a one-sided affair. It cannot be a situation where we are at the receiving end and no response is given.”

* Though he clarified that “wars are no solution to any issue” at a public rally two days later at Tangdhar (Karnah), a town bordering Pakistan in Kupwara district, Omar added, with a not-that-veiled reference to Pakistan: “Friendship is like the clap, needing two hands.... If one side extends the hand of friendship, the other side also needs to reciprocate.” * As Pakistani troops continued their shelling across the LoC on Monday, it was still Sunday some 11,000 km way in Washington when Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif arrived for his official state visit after assuming charge. Responding to Sharif’s comments during a stopover in London en route to Washington – to the effect that though India does not want it, world powers should get involved in resolving the Kashmir issue, hours before his meeting with US president Barack Obama – a senior US administration officer said, "On Kashmir, our policy has not changed an iota.” Encouraging dialogue between the neighbours, the official said, "The pace, scope, and character of India and Pakistan's dialogue on Kashmir is for those two countries to determine with each other."

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/images/cleardot.gif* Within hours of that statement, India issued a joint statement with Russia, after prime minister Manmohan Singh’s longer-than-expected meeting with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, that indicted Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, without naming the neighbour.

* On October 23, even as Nawaz Sharif remarked while addressing a Washington think-tank that “with its growing influence in India, the US has the capacity to do more to help the two sides resolve their core disputes, including Kashmir”, foreign secretary Sujatha Singh told the media in Beijing, following talks between Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang, that India raised the question of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

While all these are interesting developments unto themselves, taken into account as a series that comes at a time of renewed cross-border firing and reported attempts at infiltration, they constitute more than a cursory message: that New Delhi can think of talking tough with Islamabad. While peace and dialogue should never be given a go-by, as Omar Abdullah said on October 23, what the UPA government needs to understand is that it has never perhaps had more support in thinking of reciprocating in other ways, as Omar had said on October 21.

Yes, there are chances of a bitter harvest to be had while toeing that line – as both moderate and hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference’s criticism of Omar Abdullah’s attempt at seeking “other options” bear out. But what Messrs Manmohan Singh and home minister Sushilkumar Shinde – who made strong remarks during his October 22 visit to Samba district, where 12 people, including three militants, died in a terrorist attack on September 26 – should understand is that New delhi never had so many allies ready to okay a tough stand, if ceasefire violations continue, in a long time.

There have already been more than 150 such violations so far this year – the most in recent memory – and while it might not stop immediately, chances are they will only increase in number, and casualty, unless India takes a stand. A tough stand, for a change.