Smoke rising above Delhi, the night lit up with flames. Even as we host the President of the United States. Who would want this?

The Constitution of India begins with the words “We the people.” Implicit in this assertion is the idea that we are one nation, one people, even one family if you will. And if there is one thing we know about a family, it is that we never bring out our differences before outsiders.

The anti-CAA rioters in Delhi yesterday did the exact opposite. They knew that India was busy hosting a very important guest. That the eyes of the whole world would be upon us. They used this opportunity to create large scale violence in the national capital, leaving the administration squirming in front of US President Donald Trump. And leaving every Indian in pain as the world media gleefully twisted its knife into our side.

Pakistan’s hate and jealousy does not hurt this much. It hurts more when those who claim to be our own stab us repeatedly and deliberately in the back.

Surely, the people who did this do not think of themselves as Indians. Am I supposed to believe they care about their Indian citizenship? Ha!

But then, what do you expect from a movement that encourages mothers to let their babies die as a gruesome public spectacle? The little one who died at Shaheen Bagh didn’t even lose his life in one swoop. The mother kept bringing the baby outside in Delhi’s harsh cold, night after night, exposed to the elements, slowly dragging the life out of a four month old.

Read: Shaheen Bagh: Despite the death of an infant, the ‘celebration’ continues, quite literally

A movement that has torn apart the most sacred bond between mother and child; do we expect them to stand up for the honor of Bharat Mata?

The protest had been happening for months. So why the conflagration today?

Only one side had something to gain today from all this violence while the President of the United States is visiting.

But gain what?

Yes, it is to make India look bad in front of the whole world. But there is more than that. Think deeper.

What does Pakistan want with Kashmir? They want to occupy all of it. Sure. But as a first step, their priority is that they want to internationalize the Kashmir issue. But we insist that Kashmir is a bilateral issue, something to be resolved between India and Pakistan. This is one of India’s key foreign policy goals. But Pakistan tries to take Kashmir to the UN, the European Parliament, or any other international forum. That is why Pakistani diplomatic missions fund protests over Kashmir on the streets of New York and London.

Now you see what the anti-CAA rioters were doing. By burning Delhi during Trump’s visit, they wanted to internationalize their issue. They want the global media and capitals across the world to get involved in our domestic affairs. They want to destroy our sovereignty.

How else does Pakistan go about its affairs? We are all aware of its policy of bleeding India by a thousand cuts.

What are the anti-CAA rioters doing? They shut down part of this city, this road, that metro, here and there, doing whatever they can.  Bleeding India by a thousand cuts. They find the weak spots in our armor. The rest of India is connected to the North East by a thin corridor of very high strategic value. Pakistan has long fantasized about ways to cut this one off. The Indian establishment has spent decades worrying about this spot and considering options to keep it secure in the event of war.

Bang! The anti-CAA rioters start outlining strategies to cut off the chicken’s neck. And no, you can’t play innocent and say they were planning a regular “chakka jaam.” India is a big country. You can do chakka jaam anywhere to make your point. Selecting a strategic military asset for your protest is not innocent. We were not born yesterday.

The more you look, the clearer it is. The parallels between Pakistan’s strategy and that of anti-CAA rioters could not be more obvious.

We all know that Pakistan maintains a strategic asset of liberals inside our borders. Sections of liberal media, think tanks, columnists, intellectuals, who are wined and dined at ISI funded fests all over the world. Some of the agents managing this network have even been convicted in the United States.

In return, this squad of liberals works on deepening the faultlines within Indian society. And their most important task is to intellectualize terrorism, including left wing terrorism.

What we are seeing today is that the Dantewada model has been brought to Delhi. Yesterday, liberals would intellectualize the killing of police in the forest of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. Today, they are doing the same in Delhi.

Read: From Dantewada, ‘liberals’ shift to justifying violence in Delhi

They used to intellectualize left wing terrorism by using what can only be called urban guilt. The fact that some parts of India are doing a lot better than other parts, which remain desperately poor.

Now they intellectualize terrorism on the streets of Delhi by using what can be called Hindu guilt. The ‘guilt’ that a Hindu majority has managed to survive in India (or whatever remains of India) despite centuries of oppression.

The anti-CAA rioters cannot be seen in isolation, or as concerned with any one issue. This is part of a much larger, more systematic and more sinister revolt against the Indian state.

They have bared their fangs.  The onus is now on the Indian state to respond. Right now, we are helpless because we have a VVIP guest to host in India. But he is leaving by tomorrow. And then, it will be time to crack the whip on anti-national elements.