India Reacts ...

The North and South Blocks of the Central Secretariat building which houses various ministries of the Government of India.
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The Indian government had been stunned to learn of the Indian Navy's use of nuclear weapons in the Laccadive Sea, some 200 miles south of the southern tip of India. The Russian Embassy was screaming, the United States was asking difficult questions, and, worse yet, the Chinese were threatening war.

Prime Minister Priya Chetti could hardly blame them, they had lost at least three warships. She had been informed not an hour earlier that INS Chakra had failed to report in. Admiral Ganesh Raj had reported that Chakra had failed to check in for over 36 hours. The Navy considered the boat lost at sea.

She turned to one of her aides, "I need to see Admiral Raj and General Gupta at once!"

The aide nodded and said, "Both are on their way here, Madam Prime Minister. Also President Malhotra is coming, he wishes that the government present a united front, no matter what is decided."

"What do you think, Amar?" Admiral Raj was concerned about a report he had received 30 minutes ago, the report which made him call General Malhotra to suggest they immediately go to the Central Secretariat and meet with the Prime Minister.

"I think it's the damned Khalistanis, Ganesh. We have a man inside the BKI, he has reported that part of the Navy was determined to go over to the separatists. We haven't been able to get any more details as our man seems to have gone missing, offline if you will."

Raj stopped dead in the hallway. Malhotra looked at him expectantly.

"The captain of the Chakra is a Sikh, Commander Ramdeep Singh Kharral, his Number One is Commander Yadbir Singh Asra."

"Two Sikhs? What of it? What about the rest of the crew?" Malhotra asked with concern.

"I had the records pulled, they are in this folder, much of the crew is from Punjab."

"They're all Sikhs?" Malhotra gazed at the admiral with a look of panic on his face.

"We're not sure, many modern Sikhs no longer use Singh, Kaur for the women, so it's hard to tell at a glance."

"Dear Lord!" Malhotra gasped.

"Indeed." Raj said as he continued down the hallway.

"India has a separatist movement?" President Nakagawa asked, totally unaware of such a thing.

Bill Aspinall scanned the briefing book he'd had the staff prepare, he read verbatim from the report ...

The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno‐religious sovereign state called Khalistan (lit. 'land of the Khalsa') in the Punjab region. The proposed boundaries of Khalistan vary between different groups; some suggest the entirety of the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab, while larger claims include Pakistani Punjab and other parts of North India such as Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Shimla and Lahore have been proposed as the capital of Khalistan.

"Seriously?"

"Well, according to the footnote, it's from Wikipedia."

The President grimaced. Aspinall continued, "CIA confirms that. For what that's worth these days."

"Well, so far those fellows have behaved themselves, not that we could prove otherwise anyway." Nakagawa hit the button on the intercom for his administrative assistant, he'd been chastised the other day for referring to her as "his secretary."

"Yes, Mr. President?"

"Nancy, I need to talk to the Prime Minister of India."

There was a pause, "That would be Prime Minister Chetti, Priya Chetti. I'll get her on the line, Sir. I'm sure she'll know why you're calling. The submarine business, yes?"

"You should be running the CIA, Nancy."

"No Sir, I like this job just fine. Please hold, Sir."

"I hope you don't mind, Mr. President, but I would like Premier Liu of the People's Repiblic of China to be involved in any official conversations regarding this incident in the Laccadive Sea. After all, her country is, I dare say, the injured party here."

"Certainly, Madam Prime Minister. My people tell me that she has restored order in Beijing and in many other of the major cities in China. So, de facto, she's in charge."

"Yes, that is our assessment as well, here in New Delhi. What I propose is we set up a Zoom conference call for tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM. That would be 6:00 PM in Beijing and 3:30 PM in New Delhi, I know that's rather early, Mr. President but ..."

"No, no, Madam Prime Minister. That works very well. Would you do the honors of initiating the call?"

"I'd rather you Americans did so, Mr. President. You are neutral in this matter. I hope."

"Until I know all the facts, Ma'am, we are indeed neutral. Right now this is a matter for India and China to resolve, peacefully I ..."

The line cut off. Nakagawa looked at the phone on his desk, puzzled, but worried as well.

"Nancy?"

"The line was cut on their end, Mr. President. I'm contacting our ambassador in New Delhi right now."

The intercom went silent, Nakagawa looked at Aspinall. "Do I know our man in New Delhi?"

"I don't think so, Mr. President. His name is Vishnu Gupta, career State Department, an honest man from what I've been told."

"So we wait. Contact the Pentagon, I want us at DEFCON 2¹ ASAP."

"Yes Sir."

¹ The final DEFCON level short of nuclear war, the military needs to deploy and be ready to engage within six hours. The United States went to DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.