The chill of late 2001 and 2002 has returned in India-Pakistan ties, though mercifully the situation is not as grave as it was 13 years ago when the then NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had mobilized troops on borders with Pakistan under Operation Parakram.

Scientists say nothing in this universe can be colder than minus 273.2 degree Celsius or minus 459.8 degree Fahrenheit. They should ask political scientists who would say it is plausible if only they were to look at India-Pakistan bilateral relations.

The already frosty India-Pakistan relations are poised to become frostier. The chill of late 2001 and 2002 has returned in India-Pakistan ties, though mercifully the situation is not as grave as it was 13 years ago when the then NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had mobilized troops on borders with Pakistan under Operation Parakram.

The Ministry of External Affairs launched a frontal assault on Pakistan on Friday, hours after a bloody terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir and a day after designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed, chief of the proscribed Jamaat-ud Dawah, addressed a public rally at Minar-e-Pakistan ground in Lahore spewing venom against India and the United States.

MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, asked to comment on Hafiz Saeed’s public rally in Lahore on Thursday said the event was nothing short of "mainstreaming of terrorism". He twisted the knife by pointing out that Pakistan government had provided train services to ferry people to the rally venue addressed by an individual who has been designated as a terrorist by the United Nations. Akbaruddin also remarked thus: "This (Saeed’s public rally in Lahore) took place at a national monument in Pakistan, in which a large amount of police were deployed, it was advertised all across Pakistan and was an event by an organization proscribed by us, the United Nations, the USA and Australia."

Akbaruddin’s description of the Lahore rally as "mainstreaming of terrorism” is indicative of India upping its ante when two top world leaders – Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama – are scheduled to arrive in India soon, Putin on 10 December and Obama on 25 January 2015. Evidently it means that Indian leadership would be pitching upfront Pakistan’s brazen acts of omission and commission on the terror front in their conversations with these two leaders.

India taking up Pakistan’s terror-related shenanigans with Russian and American presidents at this point of time would acquire added significance. Both Russia and the US are cajoling Pakistan. Russia has recently signed an unprecedented defence pact with Pakistan while the see-saw kind of Pakistan-US ties are on a high currently after Pakistan’s tacit support to American airstrikes in Af-Pak border areas.

Both Russia and the US are sweet-talking Pakistan because of substantial thinning down of American/Nato troops in Afghanistan. Both these powers have deep stakes in Afghanistan and are aware of strategic heft that Pakistan has in Afghanistan.

In a way like the Chinese, the Russians and the Americans too have purchased an insurance policy from Pakistan wherein the Russians pay the premium in kind by way of a defence pact while the cash-rich Americans pay $2 billion every year to Pakistan as military and economic aid.

China too recently reportedly agreed to invest $42 billion in Pakistan. These countries’ magnanimity for Pakistan stems from their anxieties over Afghanistan sans US/NATO troops. I discussed this point in some detail with respect to China here http://www.firstpost.com/world/china-buying-42-bn-insurance-policy-pakistan-1795665.html

India has rightly upped its ante vis-a-vis Pakistan at this point of time. Four terror strikes took place within 12 hours in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday in the middle of assembly elections, which shows Pakistan’s growing level of desperation. Separatists have been totally sidelined and over 70 per cent of voter turnout has been reported in the two rounds of polling in the state thus far.

Moreover Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been frequently touring Jammu and Kashmir, a frequency unmatched by any Indian Prime Minister since the state got into the throes of militancy a quarter century ago. Modi is scheduled to visit the state again and address an election rally close to the terror strike venue in Uri.

Four terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir on one single day (Friday) would not be able to deter India from completing elections in the state. This is something that Pakistani military establishment is also well aware of. Rawalpindi knows that on 23 December a duly elected assembly would be unveiled for next six years. After all, how many countries in the world have the capability of holding free and free elections in a state that has been rocked by terrorism for a quarter century?

That would be New Delhi’s way of projecting its approach before the world: India’s ballots versus Pakistan’s bullets.