Talk to Pakistan, we must. We are neighbours, after all. We are the bigger nation, in any case. We have our own Muslim population to take into account, as Digvijay Singh seldom lets us forget. So we must not let occasional, even frequent, acts of aggression from the other side shake our resolve to talk. We can always make a distinction, can’t we, between Pakistani army and the Pakistani government, the anti-India terrorist organisations and the Indian films-watching general public, the anti-India ISI and the freelance terrorists it has spawned, and so on. And, while we are at it, we must ensure that talks are uninterrupted and uninterruptible. If there’s nothing else, we can just keep talking about talks. Remember, the world is watching us. Don’t forget, the US of A is nudging us.

None of this will wash after the Sunday night raid in Abbottabad.

As the fabled Team Six of US Navy Seals swooped to take out Osama bin Laden in a purpose-built hideout barely yards away from Pakistan Military Academy, it also unmasked Pakistan’s double game in the US-led war on terror for the entire world to remember forever. Even as much of the rest of the world recoiled in awe and horror, though, Pakistan’s complicity did not come as a revelation to India.

Yet, successive governments in India have played along with the charade of a possible India-Pakistan amity that will somehow materialise from India’s magnanimity and relentless pursuit of talks as a substitute for a coherent policy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, not unlike his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has gone out of his way and often against national sentiment to build bridges with a hostile Pakistan. Just like Vajpayee before him, Singh too has been feted by a vocal minority that refuses to face facts and keeps inventing excuses on behalf of Pakistan.

Now that Indian diplomacy’s cover has been blown so comprehensively, is it too much to expect a review and a long overdue correction? Remain sceptical, very sceptical.

Even the spectacular Team Six mission may not be able to fix something that has survived the Pakistani perfidy in Kargil, attack on Indian parliament and 26/11, to name just a few body blows.