Thread by @Vidyut

Some thoughts on today's attack.

First, calling it a terrorist attack may be good TV, but it blinds us to what is going on.

It is not a random attack on civilians to spread fear, it is an armed attack on armed forces. Militancy. This matters.

While no one likes seeing piles of dead bodies, while the militants are attacking the armed forces and not civilians, they are able to pass themselves off as a freedom struggle among the locals.

Whether well advised or ill advised, is a different matter.

For those who see India as an occupying force, the attack is more like the attacks on British convoys by our freedom fighters than an act of terrorism.

Even those who did not advocate violence did not see the attackers as the "enemy". This matters. Perception.

While we continue to call it a surgical strike and focus on Pakistani "moral and diplomatic" support that can be breathtakingly bloody, we will continue to think the solution lies in an attack on Pakistan or Pakistan controlled Kashmir.

War, surgical strike, whatever.

Indian freedom fighters too had support from foreign powers. It makes about as much sense to attack Pakistan as it would have been to attack some other country to regain control of British India.

The ONLY way would be to win perception war.

And the British had far more fans in the India they ruled than India has in Kashmir. And still, look how well their efforts to control went.

We cannot alienate and demonize Kashmiris while laying claim to Kashmir.

THIS is the crux of the issue.

Yes, there are violations by armed forces against Kashmiris. There is no point denying that, but that too is a symptom, not the disease, though it doesn't endear them to the locals.

The disease is that they too are placed in a no-win situation. The solution must be political.

And the fact is that India is growing further and further away from a political solution. Previous governments at least made half hearted attempts. This one has pretty much gone at Kashmiris with no holds barred. For little more reason than cheering supporters in rest of India.

You can't expect to use military force to simply freeze an entire region into a limbo and a country with a freedom struggle in its own past should know that.

You can't tie Kashmiris to jeeps, call them jihadis in colleges, attack them without consequence...

... and expect them to have a problem with an attack on the most visible manifestation of the country in their environment.

Cheap TV thrills and political hate mongering are losing India real ground. And the loss may be irreparable.

There have been attacks during all governments. But never has a government made such a brazen, chest thumping "victory/defat" thing out of it. THIS is a real problem with this government.

Anyone willing to see Kashmiris as human are STILL being called "terrorist sympathizers"

But here's the thing. We can't have Kashmir unless we have Kashmiris. We can chest thump all we like, we can unleash hell on them, we can call them terrorists or worse, and the only people paying the price will be the armed forces who are POSTED there to do our dirty work.

And that too will work for only so long. Soldiers posted in Kashmir are suffering too. Suicide rates. PTSD. Disabilities, injuries. The constant unnerving LIVING among potential threat.

Even the living ones are paying the price, not just the 40 dead.

If India wants to fix the Kashmir and militancy problem, it doesn't need surgical strikes and war, it needs to start dealing straight with the Kashmiris ASAP.

Stop calling them names, attacking them to get cheers from supporters. Stop attacking them without consequence.

And most of all, stop demonizing and penalizing anyone willing to see them as human, because the political mileage is in gamifying them as targets.

Done.