Author: Vikram Chanda -Book Review
Publication: The Indian Express-
Express Magazine
Date: September 2, 2001.
Tom Clancy's Op Centre - Line of
Control would have been a great read had the master novelist had paid more
attention to detail, says Vikram Chandra
TOM Clancy is one of the world's
leading novelists, and when he lends his name to a new Op-Centre thriller
set in Kashmir, expectations are bound to run high. Till page 13 at any
rate. After that, your jaw is likely to drop in disbelief as you scan the
pages in vain for some traces of reality.
Let's start with the blurb on the
back cover -''It's a mission that only Striker, the military arm of Op-Centre-can
handle: the capture of an Islamic Cleric who is stirring up a rebellion
against the Indian government.'' Having thus induced you to buy the book,
not one of the inside pages have ANY reference whatsoever to any clerics,
Islamic or otherwise. Perhaps the blurb-writer read a different book.
Lucky him. What Op Centre - Line
of Control is actually about is a plot by an Indian defence minister (John
Kabir, the man who hates China!) to frame a Pakistani terrorist group for
the destruction of a Hindu temple and the killing of several Hindu pilgrims.
Why would he want to do so? Well, because that would give India the excuse
to fire 79 nuclear missiles at Pakistan. Why India would need to frame
a terrorist group instead of simply taking advantage of the hundreds of
all-too-real militant attacks is never explained. But the stage is now
set for a team of red-blooded Americans to fly into Kashmir to help the
terrorist group to escape, so that the world is made aware of the truth.
So much for the plot. What about the setting? This is after all the first
time that a major Western writer (or his team) has condescended to base
a thriller here in India. All one can say is that a trip or two here would
have been a great idea.
Catch this description of Srinagar.
''Distant artillery fire was constant. So were the muted pops of land mines
in the hills. During early morning there was the scream of jets and the
distinctive whumping of their cluster bombs and the louder crashes of their
guided missiles.'' That doesn't sound like the Srinagar we all know and
love. It doesn't even sound like the Line of Control or Kargil during the
war. But hang on, it gets worse. The next page informs you that most foreign
tourists stay in the Centaur Lake Palace Hotel (it's actually been taken
over by the security forces), and that the city's open air market is full
of women in saris!
And a few pages after that, there
is a stirring account of how two brave Indians villagers were killed while
making Molotov cocktails for the ''resistance movement'' during Pakistan's
invasion of Kargil. Um, but weren't those Pakistani invaders only way up
there on the mountains, miles away from any civilians? Yes, but let's not
be churlish. What's a few kilometres between friends? Especially as the
author goes on to inform us that the villagers here in Kargil take the
eggs their hen has laid to the market in Srinagar. Let's see, Kargil to
Drass, from there up the Zojila Pass, down to Sonamarg and another three
hours to Srinagar. Those chickens could soon be hatching. But then geography
clearly isn't a strong point. The latter half of the book is, to be fair,
a gripping account of how the terrorist cell, and its American backers,
are fleeing west from Srinagar, heading frantically for the Line of Control
and skirmishing with Indian soldiers on the way. Making matters worse is
the fact that they have to cross the Siachen Glacier before they reach
safety. Unfortunately, one's attention is diverted just a touch by the
realisation that Siachen lies to the EAST of Srinagar, and that only a
cartological miracle (or a black hole through time and space) would match
the brave band's travel path.
But you do learn a lot from the
book. Lots of details of how the American strike force functions. And some
details of the Indian forces as well. I'm sure the police in J&K would
be delighted to learn that they now have helicopters which can hover low
over a market place taking three-dimensional photographs of everyone so
that a terrorist can be ''face-printed''. If they don't know about this,
then they should check with the author. The army would also be delighted
to learn that it can track a terrorist group in Kashmir by monitoring their
cell phones. There is a lot in the book about cell phones - not surprising,
considering that India is going mobile phone crazy. Just one small problem,
though. Kashmir doesn't have cell phones, yet!
The pace and writing style in the
book are great, and in the ultimate analysis Line of Control would have
been a great read, if only more attention had been paid to facts. Tom Clancy
has built his reputation on painstaking attention to detail, and most of
his books are brilliant on that account. These Op Centre thrillers are
written by someone else, and Clancy lends his name to them. He better start
being a little more careful about quality control.
The reviewer is with NDTV and the
author of The Srinagar Conspiracy
