Karan Kharb
The splendid record of
Indian Army's performance in wars and times of crises should be a source of
great inspiration for the military personnel on the one hand and bolster
people’s pride and confidence in their Army on the other. Quite on the
contrary, however, serving military personnel and ex-servicemen are all visibly
unhappy.
The rising trend of
litigation and complaints of grievances against higher authorities also point
towards declining morale and growing resentment. The present Government seems
to have woken up to address some of these harsh realities but what is actually
needed is a shift in the traditional political-bureaucratic mind-set about
military vis-à-vis nation's defence needs. Be it war or other catastrophic
situations, military is the last resort at the disposal of the government. Military
aspects must therefore outweigh all other considerations because any compromise
on military preparedness will imperil national defence and security.
Proxy
war is more sinister than conventional war in many ways. In a direct
military-to-military confrontation, the enemy is clearly distinguishable from
the civil population because in a conventional military scenario capturing and
holding of territory dictates manoeuvres. In the proxy war scenario, the
terrorists merge with the population and have no interest in holding territory.
They operate in small groups, carry out their terror tasks and easily melt away
in the masses. Besides, the conventional enemy would be logistically organised
and self-reliant whereas the terrorists depend on the local sympathisers and
havens in towns, villages or bahaks (shepherd huts in forests). Whereas
the enemy supply lines would be discernible in the former case, there are no
'supply lines' in the latter case.
In the wake of counter
terrorist military operations, freedom of people is frequently curtailed. Sometimes,
innocent citizens get killed in the cross-fire between the army and the
terrorists. There have also been a few cases where local informants have fed
false information to the army units to get their rivals killed by planting
credible evidence. Two fallouts of these
non-stop engagements are now having telling effects on the Army and the people:
firstly, the Army is getting tired and frustrated; secondly, the local
population is also becoming restive and anti-army.
Military personnel are
frequently taken to task for operations gone awry for want of workable
intelligence or due to informer’s deceit. There are many cases filed against
military personnel in various courts of law for ‘offences’ during operations.
J&K and North East lead in such allegations and court cases against
military personnel. Imagine soldiers having to operate under constant
apprehension lurking to implicate them for excesses on innocent civilians.
These are inevitable operational hazards that mar soldiers’ confidence in their
commanders. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar recently informed the Lok Sabha
that as many as 108 military personnel committed suicide during 2014 as on
November 21.
What will further
complicate the army operations in the affected areas is rising public opinion
against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which is perceived as
granting carte blanche to the Army. That
this perception is grossly misconceived is clear from the number of soldiers killed
in J&K alone in the last 25 years: 7,443 (as in Feb 2014) as against a combined
total of 6387 Indian soldiers killed in the three Indo-Pak wars - 1965, 71 and
99 (Kargil). And while the Army's performance in the wars was spectacular
earning the soldiers love and pride of the people, the attrition suffered by
the Army during the last few decades has dismayed and disappointed both –
people and the army.
Rekindle Offensive Spirit
One of the basic doctrines
of war is that the side that the army that has the initiative and carries the
war into enemy territory enjoys the advantage. In the given context, Pakistan
has the initiative and all the fighting takes place on the Indian territory.
The Pakistan Army selects, trains and pushes armed proxies not only into
J&K but also to attack eminent targets in Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere leaving
India to react to devastations planned in Pakistan and enacted here from
time to time. The effect is that India has been chasing these so-called
'non-state actors' raised and deployed by Pakistan for over 25 years now and
the end of this dirty war is not in sight yet. India cannot win this war
conclusively unless Pakistan is convinced that investing in such initiatives shall
be retaliated most fiercely imposing costs that Pakistan cannot afford.
Professional modern armies
like the western armies and the Israel Army have evolved decisive response
system to deter perpetration of state sponsored terrorist acts. Israeli
response to any provocation from any source has always been devastating. In its
latest retaliation against Hamas kidnapping three Israeli teenagers in July
2014, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched an offensive into Gaza which left
more than 2,000 Gazans killed. Israeli casualties were comparatively
negligible: 66 Israeli soldiers and 5
Israeli civilians killed. After the 9/11 WTC disaster, the US Army invaded
Afghanistan and continued man-hunt for the disaster's mastermind Osama bin
Laden until the Navy Seals got him deep inside Pakistan in Abbotabad.
In contrast to
this India's response has always been feeble and only defensive. In 1999 when
India was already a nuclear power, Pakistan Army dared to intrude and occupy Indian
territory in Kargil. Rather than reacting fiercely against this misadventure,
the Indian Army fought with self-imposed restrictions and lost nearly 600 lives
only to regain its lost territory and 'refrained' from crossing the LoC 'to
avoid escalating the conflict'. Again, responding
to the December 2001 terrorist attack on its Parliament, the Indian Government
ordered what is known to be the biggest military mobilisation since 1971
against Pakistan. The Army remained deployed for nearly a year without
achieving anything. Pakistani troops have frequently ambushed and even beheaded
Indian soldiers on Indian soil in J&K. But retaliation even to such highly
provocative acts has been no more than registering diplomatic protests and
raising the volume of cross border firing.
Feeble response to these misadventures has established a pattern that
has degraded the soldier's fighting potential and destroyed India's credibility
as a military power in the region.
Expecting
Pakistan to punish Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and his associates is naïve and
ridiculous. The Army commandos and Special Forces of India are fully competent
to undertake special missions to strike at designated targets deep inside enemy
territory. Special missions must, therefore, be considered and undertaken to pick
up or liquidate criminals like Lakhvi and to destroy terrorist training camps
in Pakistan. It is intriguingly self-defeating that instead of Nuclear India
deterring Pakistan misadventures; Nuclear Pakistan has been deterring India unfairly
but more effectively. Indian military
authorities and Special Forces must work out a more effective response system
that should compel Pakistan to negotiate peace with India. Most politicians and
military generals in Pakistan have fair assessment of India's nuclear
capabilities vis-à-vis Pakistan. It is therefore unreasonable to suspect that
any decision maker would be so insane there as to think of nuclear option to
retaliate against India's covert raids on precisely designated small targets
like proclaimed offenders and terror breeding camps.
Pakistan Army's view
notwithstanding, the pro-peace lobby in that country is growing with
politicians, business community and intelligentsia favouring cordial relations
with India. Fresh peace initiatives, therefore, should be India's first option
but from a position of strength.
Preparing the Army for coming
Challenges
The practice of
deploying the Army in the interior civilian areas for protracted periods is a
flawed concept which must change. Army's war fighting potential is degrading
because in dealing with own civilians the soldier's 'killing instincts'
are replaced by 'kinder restraint'. The awe and respect for the Army in
the civilian mind also diminishes gradually. Therefore, dealing with security
situations in the interior civilian areas should remain a police
responsibility. The Army should be left to concentrate on what is most expected
of it – come into action only as a 'last resort' to deal with exceptionally
grave situations. After accomplishing their task, the Army units must quickly disengage
and return to their primary role at the LAC, LoC or cantonments to train and
prepare for bigger roles.
Although India's relations
with China are apparently thawing, we still have claims and counter claims on
territories across the 4,056 km Line of Actual Control (LAC). Frequently, Chinese troops have intruded to
stake claim on the Indian territory in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. Development
of rail-road network and military infrastructure in forward areas of the Tibet
region has been a cause of concern for India. Despite fast growing trade and
economic cooperation between India and China, they have contentious issues spread
from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean besides the existing border issues.
Even more serious are the
developments taking place further north where the Karakoram highway has been
upgraded from 10 m to 33 m wide two-way road trebling its transport capacity
and linking China to the warm water port of Gwadar. While Pakistan has already
ceded Shaksgam Valley to China, there are also reports of Pakistan leasing the
region of Gilgit Baltistan to China for a period of 50 years. With the
Karakoram highway now upgraded from 10 m to 33 m enhancing transportation
capacity by three times, China now has easy access to the warm water port of
Gwadar. Its rising domination in the Gilgit-Baltistan-Karakoram region while
China continues to hold the Indian territory of Aksai Chen is a matter of
concern for India.
Steadily, China is
encircling India strategically from all directions. It is aggressively expanding
its reach in Myanmar, Srilanka and other island nations in the Indian Ocean. Until
now India had ignored the creepy Chinese advance that could result in India's 'continental
isolation'. Thankfully, the Modi Sarkar now appears to have woken up to the
emerging geo-political scenario in the region as indicated by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's thrust in revitalising India's relationships with SAARC
countries and island nations in the Indian Oceans.
A crucial fact that has
been overlooked by strategists in India is that while there is always a strategic
military component woven into development projects China undertakes in the East
and South Asian countries. China negotiates partnership and retains long-term
control of the facilities created through joint projects ranging from mining to
infrastructure development, ports and highways. In the Indian context even
today, it would be unthinkable to have a military say in foreign trade,
commerce or matters relating to diplomacy and foreign relations. It is the flawed
politico-bureaucratic perception of successive governments that has not allowed
the Military to disentangle from the environs of insurgency and proxy war to
prepare and attend to larger national interests on and beyond land borders. Diplomacy, foreign trade and relations shall yield
more if backed by credible military potential particularly when a number
India's neighbours look up to it for support.
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