All the babble on TV over the five murders of Indian soldiers in Poonch fails to address the basic question. Indians do not retaliate. We rail and protest and do our morchas but that is about it. The enemy knows that. So it wins every time.

If this country had a constant, public policy on Pakistan we would have had the army chief on the TV talking to the nation. We got retired generals reliving their battles. Not policy.

We had defence minister AK Antony dismissing the issue in 120 seconds in a bumbling circus-like speech of no great import. A reflection of the lack of policy.

Where were the leaders of 1.2 billion people? Renuka Choudhary gave an undergrad response tantamount to threatening the school bully and that was the sum total of the Congress presence. So much for power and pelf.
 
Hey Rahul, didn’t you have something to say, mate?

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When the SEALS in the US went to Abbottabad and took Osama the president talked to the nation. Ten minutes after confirmation.

No one talks to this nation. Not the president, as the commander in chief.  Not Sonia Gandhi as the de facto political queen of India. Not the prime minister who should have by now reacted. Yes, reacted. But then, we no longer expect him to say anything of any worth on any subject.

The rest is all froth on the beer. Bubbleheads on TV gobbling like turkeys.

But... and it is a big but. India has to wake up and smell whatever concoction is being brewed.

If they let this go the Congress is mud. And let me tell you who is the biggest culprit: cricket.

Get over that hang-up. Stop playing games with them and having them rule our TV airtime with their commentators. No one figures out how vital the cricket factor is in this ridiculously lopsided relationship. Go over the last decade, we are the victims of the stupid overwhelming game with this neighbour. We mentally make them our equals whenever we play them. That is their only international claim to fame... dry them out. The BCCI is the biggest single entity in ditching India over where Pakistan is concerned.

Then take immediate action. Tonight. Summon the Pakistani ambassador and send him home. Up the ante. If you don’t it is all talk. And idiotic two-digit IQ rhetoric spilling off the screen.

You cannot but get over the fact that playing Taps and or The Last Post and placing the national flag on the coffins or invading the grief of the families is not the answer. But with the official silence this is the only sound bite.

The worst part stays inviolate. Where is the leadership, where are the three chiefs, where is the government in all this? Nowhere, no strong, singular entity telling us to sleep well tonight because we, your elected leaders, are holding the reins and we will persevere. Really?

No one wants to hit back in the same way because two wrongs don’t make a right but this bloody run up to August 15 is now becoming an annual and  distressingly repetitive script. 

Turn the other cheek... we have done enough of that. Wake up, Congress, these deaths, however ghoulish, are the line in the sand. You give India the faith that you mean business you might be in business.

You don’t, call it a day today, you haven’t a prayer.

And don’t you dare fob of this nation with that crappy five lakh ex gratis drivel to the next of kin. That would be unbearable.