Some of the recent terrorist attacks on India – Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Pampore, and now the Uri attack – have a very demoralising common thread running through them. The Indian establishment routinely roars out rhetoric of giving “a befitting reply”
to the perpetrators, etc. But beyond this, no active measures are perceived on the ground, which is becoming frustrating and such a sham that it has become a catastrophical embarrassment for Indians.
We seem to have hit a roadblock in our ability to out-think the enemy. We depend instead on going through the motions every time and simply wishing away such future aggressions. For we have drawn a very limiting red line for ourselves when it comes to teaching Pakistan a lesson for their misdeeds. That red line is that we won’t retaliate in a similar manner. Why? Because, for one, Pakistan is a state that has nuclear capability which, unlike the Indian doctrine of “no first use”, they have often foolishly threatened to use, and seem to be reckless enough to deploy against India.
Normally that would demand a different strategy to pay put to Pakistani aggression. But when empty rhetoric is the only answer we have after each degrading attack which makes sacrificial lambs of our bravehearts, it becomes increasingly evident that we don’t have workable answers. We don’t have standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place that would be our first and ready shield in case of attacks. Being well prepared is supposed to be half the battle won.
In most of the attacks we find that the handful of terrorists are extremely well prepared. So much so that they know the terrain almost like the ‘back of their hands’, while our media says that “the terrain is very difficult”. They know the layout of the bases they attack so well that just four or five of them can (like in Pathankot) keep our multitude troops at bay for days on end. They know the routine followed by our soldiers so well that (like in Uri yesterday) they caught them off guard early in the morning, while they were busy filling up fuel, unarmed and hopelessly vulnerable. 14 of the 17 martyred soldiers were instantaneously burnt alive by the 17 grenades lobbed on them in just 3 minutes.
The seeming inaction on India’s part to address the situation effectively is perceived from the following facts.
Even after knowing that patterns followed by the terrorists are mostly similar, we haven’t been able to place measures to counter further such aggressions. Why we can’t identify and protect vulnerable entry points to our bases is inexplicable. Now, after the Uri attack, we say that walls will be erected on the boundaries of all bases. The Uri base had only a barbed wire boundary around it.
Why can’t all special features regarding layout, etc., of at least our military bases be carefully identified and a rapid action force special to each military area, be formed and trained to crush any attack instantly? It being our base, we should be able to have, and utilize, such intricate details to our advantage.
Every time Pakistan goes to the UN or any other international forum with the Kashmir issue, we tend to laugh it off dismissively, and also don’t respond to it, on the complacent and perhaps mistaken belief that the “whole world accepts Kashmir as an integral part of India”. This may, in fact, not be the reality on the ground. And the way things work in international politics, is it wise to not respond to Pakistan’s manouvres? Former diplomat Rajiv Dogra says it isn’t.
His point is that it is a deliberate strategy by Pakistan who have thought it out well and with such efforts are gaining more international listeners to their view on the Kashmir issue. We are happy to call “Pak Occupied Kashmir” as PoK, believing that it is an international assertion of illegal occupation of that part of Kashmir by Pakistan. But we miss out that on international platforms, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, and the social media, many have begun referring to Jammu & Kashmir as “Indian Administered Kashmir”. Silence isn’t always golden in international politics.
Retired Brigadier Mahalingam says our repeated failure to only promise retaliation but do nothing more than that is making us look weak, and unempathetic to the sacrifices of our brave soldiers and martyrs who make the supreme sacrifice for the motherland. Retaliation, concrete and assertive, should be done within 48 hours to serve any meaningful purpose, according to him.
He goes on to add that the meeting to discuss the Uri attack should have been called by the Defence Minister. But today, when everyone assembled at the Home Minister’s place for the meeting, it clearly indicated a state of confusion (still) existing in our establishment, despite their being so many such previous attacks where the correct protocol could have been ascertained.
Retired Maj-Gen G.D.Bakshi was once reduced to tears on a TV debate at the other panelists’ petty blame games and wild accusations of alleged excesses by our security forces. “Alright”, he had screamed, weeping, “okay, so we soldiers now know that we are alone when we risk our lives for the motherland.”
Is that the perception that the Indian establishment wants its people to feel?
Our forces are perhaps the last bastion of hope for the people of our country. We must, starting now, begin to stop considering them as dispensable collateral in our inept handling of the war against terrorist attacks on us, and the perpetrators.
We need a fresh look at the matter and fresh ideas to crush this scourge. Even the man in the street feels we are fast losing the perception battle. That we revel in the belief that the past battles won against Pakistan make us invincible. Unfortunately that is not true.
As much of a failed state that they may be, Pakistan have a geo-political strategic advantage that we must counter with tough and apt measures to hold our own heads high. So far in this race, they have held on to the handicap advantage that they strategically enjoy. We must rush ahead of them at the bends.
