Talking to Pakistan

Lt Gen (Retd) Prakash Katoch.

Farooq Abdullah is going shrill in recommending that talking to Pakistan is the only option. One wonders if this noise is being made to obfuscate the happenings in Kishtwar, graphic photographs and narratives of which, including the role of the minister present, have gone viral on the web. Our politicians could learn from China who with all her prowess in cyber warfare and technical knowhow is unable to control citizen exchanges on the social media. What Faroukh Abdullah should be addressing instead is who rigged the 1987 elections in J&K that ushered in militancy, political patronage to terrorism in J&K and recent revelation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that the Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Fund Trust has in the last 10 years collected huge sums of money which has been diverted to Pakistan based militant groups and that in all Rs 600 crores has been pumped in for terror operations since the last two years through donations and relief funds, the Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Fund Trust topping the list having transferred 95 crores – right under the noses of Farooq and Omar Abdullah. No wonder the hardcore Hurriyat feel so smug, freely travelling to Pakistan and conniving with terrorist organizations. Is his political party sponsoring Hurriyat members to Pakistan to meet Hafiz Saeed and apprise him of the state of impotency of our politicians? But then political response to the NIA findings would be no surprise. These can well be visualized like “NIA has overstepped its authority”, “NIA findings have no basis”, “The money transferred is notional”, perhaps even alleging “The figures were supplied courtesy a conspiracy by Modi or BJP” and what have you.

Coming back to Farooq’’s rant that talking to Pakistan is the only option, would any self respecting nation want to do so and that too at this point of time notwithstanding the fact that the paid media is going full hog in building public opinion to facilitate Manmohan Singh’s trip to electrify his native village in Pakistan, not that the Prime Minister needs to earn any limelight, himself having sailed through nonchalantly the two tenures in robotic fashion. And who are we going to talk to? Nawaz Sharif for : taking no action against perpetrators of 26/11; refusing to acknowledge any cross border raids, killings, beheadings by the Pakistani military; not shutting down 42 terrorist training camps in POK; Naik Sule Khandan’s televised bragging of how they killed Captain Saurabh Kalia and his patrol; his constituency officially doling out millions to terrorist organizations; permitting terrorist mullah Hafiz Saeed’s anti-India ravings and rallies; permitting an anti-India resolution while his military supplies terrorists to India, infiltrates the top scum of Pakistan to India laced with drug and fake money? The list is endless.

What India fails to acknowledge is that Nawaz Sharif and his administration are mere puppets in Pakistan with Kayani the puppeteer, as would be the latter’s successors. The military’s private business-industrial-corporate worth in 2007 was pegged at US$ 20.7 billion and there is no way the military will permit peace with India and Afghanistan that can result in their being returned to barracks. A Pakistan which underwent a political uproar when it acknowledged publicly that the US was operating drones from bases within Pakistan now does not mind Chinese military digging 22 tunnels in Gilgit-Baltistan while Pakistani nationals cannot even enter these areas – all facilitated by the Pakistani military. It is not without reason the recent study titled “Pakistan: Dynamics of a Failing State Theory’ by the South Asian Inter-Scholastic Association (SAISA) describes radicalization of Pakistan army, common recruitment areas for the army and LeT, tilt in balance from the military to the jihadis and expresses fears that the situation can become “disastrous in a three to seven years time window should Pakistan find another Zia-Ul-Haq in the army.

Ironically, our astrologers who predicted military coups in the past while serving as paid media too are chorusing with Farooq Abdullah that we must talk to Pakistan. Some even propose we talk to Kayani, Musharraf’s protégé. What good that would do is, however, not predicted by these pundits. We certainly are not the US and if we want to talk to Kayani who is masterminding all these brazen anti-India activities then we might as well talk to the whole range of this galaxy gentlemen with dubious distinctions – Kayani, Hafiz Saeed, Asim Umar, Ayman-al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, Dawood Ibrahim et all. Our Defence Minister has stated that the Army is free to retaliate but retaliation by itself can hardly suffice any more. To this end, the ‘free hand’ should include pro-active options by the Army where needed to send the right message. An animal gone rogue needs to be battered to some extent till it can be tamed. If battering is too scary terminology then shall we say the rogue be administered anesthesia in required doses or at least be drugged periodically.

There is also the need to examine establishing a no man’s belt own side of the border where any movement would invite fire. This issue has been ignored because of politics at the J&K State primarily because political will is absent to finish insurgency and terrorism which has been converted into an industry for fiscal gains and retaining political power. Therefore sparse habitation and isolated houses in proximity of the LC continue to be used as staging posts by Pakistani infiltrators provided shelter under fear of the gun barrel. Significantly, this issue was raised by officers attending the National Defence College Course in year 2000 to Farooq Abdullah who had come to address them as Chief Minister of J&K. A British Officer asked him why a two kilometre no-man’s belt could not be created when J&K has ample land to re-habilitate the sparse population in this proposed belt to the hinterland since the population would be more than happy in avoiding the vagaries of a volatile border. His sheepish response was that there were many villages and for shifting one village he has demanded Rupees 120 crores from the Centre. Well that was 13 years ago, zero rehabilitation has taken place and how many civilian houses are in the two kilometer belt can well be counted. 

The crux of the problem why we are being perpetually bullied is, however, not confined to our weak hearted hierarchy. The hard fact is that this is an era of unconventional wars which cannot be countered by conventional and nuclear forces. This is something our politicians and bureaucrats continuously fail to acknowledge or understand. Pakistan and even China have developed substantial unconventional warfare capabilities that they will continue to optimize to bleed and humiliate us till we can remove this asymmetry. Despite Pakistan’s head start all that we need is political will and a small gestation period. Talking to Pakistan or Nawz Sharif is pointless without this. Border talks with Pakistan have been held many times in the past including increased surveillance, joint patrolling, hot-lines, the works but to what end. What do you want to talk in the first place when Pakistan says it is the most peaceful country in the world, does not indulge in terrorism and has never violated the ceasefire? Does Farooq Abdullah want to open the dialogue with Pakistan to find out how much of the Rupees 600 crores transferred to terrorist organizations from J&K, as revealed by the NIA, has actually reached on ground?

Prakash Katoch is veteran Special Forces Lt Gen of Indian Army.