The Anatomy of Surgery

THESE days the only topic of conversation in the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding SAARC region is Surgery. The last time when surgery was the cause celebre was in ancient India when Sushruta discovered the art of plastic surgery to reconstruct the noses of unfaithful females, cut off by suspicious husbands.

- Mk Kaw

The lead was given by the fiery Lakshmana, who did not relish the sexual overtures made by the dusky, Dravidian featured Sroopnakha, the princess of Srilanka, and tried to palm her off on his elder brother, the calm Ramachandra. When the younger prince of Ayodhya divested her of her nose and ears, she naturally ran to her elder brother Ravana and accused the Indians of perpetrating terrorism.

At that stage, it was terrorism pure and simple. Later when Rama’s army crossed the ocean to invade Srilanka, it became cross-border terrorism. Yes, Sir! That is how ancient the Indian practice of cross-border terrorism is.

I am not an expert in military operation. So I cannot say whether Lakshman’s cutting of Sroopnakha’s nose and ears would count as a surgical strike within the modern definition of that phrase. If it does, then Rahul can legitimately claim that the country had achieved the triumph of surgical strikes in the reign of his forefathers who had always been ruling India in the pre-BJP era.

So what is Amit Shah talking about when he claims that the first truly wonderful surgical strike was implemented in the Modi period? Does he not realise that he has got to assign the bulk of the credit to the military? He does not have a choice. When Rahul’s ancestor struck surgically, he did not delegate the task to the military. He did it himself. When Lakshmana perpetrated his surgical strike, he wielded the weapon with his own hands. He did not merely take the political decision, leaving the dirty work to the DGMO, as Modi did.