archive: A question of answers
A question of answers
Editorial
The Free Press Journal
July 28, 1999
Title: A question of answers
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: July 28, 1999
What led to the armed conflict in Kargil? Intelligence failure? A
misplaced sense of complacency? Or the plain perfidy of the enemy who
was bent on fomenting trouble in the name of Kashmir somehow or the
other? Following the end of armed hostilities in the craggy mountains
and the eviction of the last of the intruders, these questions were
bound to engage the attention of the policy-makers. The army has its
own mechanism of accountability and we are certain that it has already
been set in motion. After all, ultimately the policing of the borders
all along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir is the task
entrusted to the army. Therefore, it must pin-point the reason why
hundreds of fully-armed intruders could gain entry deep inside the
Indian territory without being detected till it was too late.
Admittedly, Pakistan was treacherous in exploiting the routine
withdrawal of Indian troops from their frontier posts in the months of
extreme winter to occupy Indian territory. But to have trusted such a
treacherous neighbour in the first place was a great mistake. The
Army has already proceeded against two of its senior officers Who were
entrusted with the task of overseeing Kargil defences in peace-time.
And it is only a matter of time before it got to the origins of the
Kargil aggression and took necessary corrective steps to pi-event its
recurrence.
It is however in the political arena that shrill noises are being made
by some to detract from the success of our soldiers in driving out the
aggressors. Leading the diversionary charge are the courtiers in the
durbar of the Congress Party boss Sonia Gandhi. Throughout the
hostilities the party had raised discordant notes about the so-called
intelligence failure in Kargil. But following the success of
Operation Vijay on all fronts, military, diplomatic and moral, the
Congress Party seems to have lost all sense of proportion. Having
been earlier frustrated in its bid to misuse the forum of the Rajya
Sabha to embarrass the Government at the height of the armed action in
Kargil, the party has now sought to blame the Prime Minister for the
alleged intelligence failure while pro forma congratulating the
soldiers for having vacated the aggression in Kargil. To say the
least, the Congress Party seems to. be Propounding a strange theory
which would, if implemented fully, free the Indian Army of the control
of the civilian leadership. Vajpayee is to be blamed as much for the
failure of intelligence, if any, as he is to be baited for his
statesman-like conductor Operation Vijay on all fronts and its
eventual success.
Precisely because the Congress Party approaches the question of
intelligence failure with ulterior motives, the issue has been
needlessly dragged into the vortex of partisan politics. Otherwise,
there exists a very good case for undertaking a thorough review of the
genesis of the Kargil conflict and to probe the shortcomings, if any,
in the intelligence set-up in the light of the earlier wars with
Pakistan and the lone one with China. The question why we always end
up being taken by surprise by the enemy must be addressed frontally.
Are we too credulous as a nation? Or do we credit to the enemy the
same goodness which we have internalised as a people, that is, not to
covet our neighbours territory. Did the army let its guard down in
Kargil? Did the successive cuts over the years in the Defence outlay
deprive the armed forces of the modern equipment of electronic and
aerial surveillance? Was the intelligence gathered digested properly
at the higher levels in the army and Government? These and other
related questions must be probed dispassionately and without let or
fear.
Admittedly, the constitution of the non-statutory four-member
committee to review the intrusion in Kargil will reflect upon some of
the questions mentioned above. Those seeking a probe by a
parliamentary committee will do well to ponder the disastrous JPC
probe on Bofors. It was an eye-wash. And to this day the
Hendersen-Brooks report into the national disgrace in 1962 in Aksai
Chin had not been made public. In contrast, the Kargil committee
inspires confidence precisely because it is headed by a stridently
apolitical strategic affairs expert, and includes, among others, the
country's most respected and least controversial journalist who has
given a lifetime championing esoteric causes. If the committee is
able to throw light on the question as to why India always ends up
being the victim of aggression it Would have served its purpose.
Meanwhile, mean-spirited attempts to denigrate die Committee ill-serve
the nation's cause.
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