Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 16 The Basement of the Prime Minister's Mansion
9 am.New Delhi, the basement meeting room of the Prime Minister's Office.

None of the senior officials present at the meeting thought that the Prime Minister would choose this place for the meeting. Prime Minister Kahan is a politician who is well versed in the way of governing and has a lot of tricks. It's different, but Lieutenant General Aspad's view of his arrangement today is nothing more than to remind all officials that it is already a wartime system, and he is the leader in wartime.

After all the cabinet members and the generals of the armed forces were seated, Prime Minister Kahan walked to the edge of the podium.This is an old man with a thin figure and a gray beard. He looks knowledgeable and kind, but this is just a deception.Seidheid Kahan, the prime minister's political line has always been known as the toughest.In his first year in office, he inspected the military base in Srinagar twice, publicly calling it India's bridgehead against China.Immediately afterwards, the navy and air force base was expanded in the Andaman Islands, which almost strangled the throats entering and exiting the Bay of Bengal. The Islamic faction in Pakistan connives at the burning of mosques by Hindus and fosters radical Hindu groups. The "National Volunteer Service Corps" and "Hindu Datong Association" have almost become quasi-militia organizations that are not bound by the law.Repression eventually led to retaliation. Two weeks ago, nearly a hundred militants armed with rifles and explosives set off from the coast of Pakistan, sneaked into Mumbai, and then went on a killing spree. The number of casualties exceeded 2.With an overwhelming majority, the House of Peoples passed the latest anti-terrorism bill, granting the Prime Minister the power to deal with almost everything on the fly.

Now, three days after Prime Minister Kahan was given this power, he has decided to escalate the conflict to the level of state-to-state confrontation. The war bill is still in the parliamentary stage, but he has a plan for it.

"Everyone, today is the first special security meeting convened by the National Council of Ministers. It is not open to the public. It is not limited to general executive branch officials. Senior officials from the military and intelligence agencies will participate." Prime Minister Kahan said slowly.

Aspad had already seen many senior military officers outside the civil service system present, and he was not the only military officer.

"Dear gentlemen, two weeks have passed since the inhuman massacre, and we have waited for justice and justice with the utmost restraint. But what have we waited for patiently? I can tell you that the mediation representatives of the United Nations A few hours ago, it landed in Pakistan.” Kahan paused, and the ministers below were not too surprised, because the UN’s itinerary was public, and it was originally planned to go to India first, but was vetoed by the Prime Minister himself.

"Since the United Nations believes that it is more important to listen to the nonsense of the perpetrators, our government cannot accept the neutral position of this mediation..." Prime Minister Kahan said, beating the table with his withered fist.

It is clear from the beginning that what the Prime Minister wants is not peace. Everyone understands this. This is the same as the first paragraph of his speech in Parliament a day ago, implying that India will skip the United Nations and take unilateral action.Kahan is proficient in political operations, and now is the best opportunity to retaliate. The whole of India has fallen into anger. From ordinary employees to students at the University of New Delhi, they are all discussing war and revenge recently.

"...Now that the international community has been blinded, India will unilaterally take all effective actions to defend our justice, and the blood of the Indian people will never be shed in vain. Of course, blindness and impulsiveness are our great enemies, and the basis of our actions The cornerstone is not our anger, but our intelligence unit, political or otherwise," Kahan said, casting a glance at his intelligence chief.

Director Charmain sat in the shadows in the corner, smiling back at the Prime Minister on stage, who had mentioned his department at the beginning of his speech.There is a notebook spread out in front of the director, but there is no word in it. Charmain is used to recording everything with his brain instead of pen and paper, and carrying the notebook with him is just like he wears plain glasses. It makes me more like an administrative bureaucrat.His position has been under the control of the Ministry of the Interior for a long time, but after Kahan came to power, this unbearable situation finally ended.The Prime Minister needs the intelligence unit to report directly to him, so the actual status of the Intelligence Bureau has surpassed the Ministry of the Interior, and Charman himself has become the most important person to Prime Minister Kahan after Defense Minister Singh.

Kahan's speech continued, and he was making a big detour. The topic vacillated between diplomacy and counter-terrorism, but most of the participants could guess that the prime minister's ultimate goal was to go to war. What everyone didn't know was just How big will the war be.

Aspad noticed that in Prime Minister Kahan's lengthy speech today, he repeatedly mentioned the words of solving the problem once and for all, which made the chief of staff of the army sitting below feel that all his ominous premonitions would definitely come true.

"...Since the collapse of Al Qaeda, the value of Pakistan to the United States is diminishing... no, I think it is actually disappearing. The Americans of course know that this **** is hiding 60 kilometers north of the **** Fort, it is completely Pakistan It was arranged by the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency because they belonged to the same group. India will become the strongest ideological ally of the United States in the future, but the United States has not fully realized it yet, so our actions have caused some diplomatic problems in a short period of time. However, we will eventually make our friends understand our painstaking efforts, and our purpose is the same as theirs, which is to solve once and for all South Asia, which is also the largest hotbed of terrorism in the world." Kahan finished a paragraph, It stopped, unlike the scene where he was speaking in the parliament, there were no cheers and applause below, only Defense Minister Singh was putting on a nod, and most people just whispered anxiously.

"So, anyone who is worried about international interference has actually deviated from the simple fact that India is the biggest cornerstone of the democratic world. Our foreign ministry must keep reminding the West that the only nuclear arsenal in the world is In pakistan, soon pakistan will secretly sell nuclear weapons to iran or terrorist organizations, this is the most real threat to the civilized world, and if india can remove such troubles for the whole world once and for all, i believe, in the long run, the western world Will understand our difficulties..."

Aspad turned his head slightly, glanced at Foreign Minister Chandra, and found that he was constantly wiping sweat, and his face was as white as a piece of paper. He was probably frightened by Prime Minister Kahan's random war mobilization up.

"... Ladies and gentlemen, you should know that any powerful country has the right to do what it wants, just like the United States did to Afghanistan or Iraq. There is nothing embarrassing to admit that India is already such a powerful country. Please remember Take my word for it, listen to the people on a regular basis, listen to what they think, so you don't feel the fear."

Kahan's war declaration had no effect on Aspad. In the view of the Chief of Army Staff, the so-called people's ideas are nothing more than the inevitable consequences of the Bharatiya Janata Party's frenzied incitement of populism after it came to power.

"Now, everyone can talk about what do you think about our further actions?" Prime Minister Kahan finally came to an end in his speech, and he scanned the venue to know the audience's reaction.The audience began to whisper.

(End of this chapter)