A Bloody Nose...

New Delhi will want a biting response, diplomatically and militarily.

- Pradip R. Sagar And Rekha Dixit

The Pulwama attack, coming on the eve of a general election, has caught India in a bind. It has to hit back—militarily and diplomatically—at Pakistan. But it finds itself left with few options.

There is hardly any major diplomatic activity between the two countries that could be suspended so as to hurt Pakistan, except perhaps breaking offrelations completely. That would lead to foreclosing all attempts at finding solutions, and the rest of the world is unlikely to take it kindly.

For now, India is resorting to within-the-box measures—wooing world opinion, cancelling Pakistan's 'most favoured nation' status in trade, imposing a 200 per cent duty on imports from Pakistan and so on. The latter two are viewed as cosmetic measures as there is little direct trade between the two. The move would only help countries in the Gulf, through which third party trade has been going on.