Until the US figures out an answer to the larger Pakistan problem, like India it too will have to resist the temptation of responding to Pakistani provocation with force.
Pakistan’s conciliatory approach towards India is tactical and could change rapidly if the army decides that its interests are better served through a more offensive posture.
The aversion in India to dealing directly with Pakistan's military establishment is entirely understandable, but is also unreal given the power dynamics of Pakistani politics.
By concentrating only on the inequities of the blasphemy law, Pakistani ‘moderates’ and commentators elsewhere are missing the point that the real battle is against radical Islamic thought.
There is really never any endgame in Afghanistan and what might appear to be one today will, in all likelihood, be nothing more than the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. Therefore Chandra's contention that the war in Afghanistan has a long way to go is incontestable, and it is in this context that India's options will always remain alive.
The rise of the jihadist movement in Pakistan is driven primarily by ideological and religious factors. Decades of indoctrination of a virulent version of radical political Islam has motivated thousands of people—young and old—to take the path of violent jihad to capture political power, and through it, transform the society, economy and culture to bring about what they consider to be a pristine Islamic order.
The absence of a credible interlocutor in Pakistan who can exercise effective control over the Pakistan army leaves India with little choice except to open a parallel dialogue with the military establishment in Pakistan.
As long as the sub-conventional deterrence holds, the enunciation of the Cold Start doctrine actually introduces a degree of strategic stability in the region.
India has been fairly successful in firewalling the radical blowback emanating from Pakistan in the past and need not be overly worried about the impending US withdrawal.
A clean-up operation by the Pakistan Army could actually end up sharpening the ethnic polarisation in the city, which in turn could lead to the conflagration that everyone in Karachi fears.
Flailing America Vs Failing Pakistan
Until the US figures out an answer to the larger Pakistan problem, like India it too will have to resist the temptation of responding to Pakistani provocation with force.