Kargil - A Decade Later

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of our victory in the Kargil war, one question which begs an answer is “ Can the nation be reassured that there would be no more Kargils in the future, even though the former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf, has gone on record saying, that “ Till the Kashmir issue is not resolved , more Kargils cannot be ruled out.”

These words coming from non other than the chief architect of Kargil war, should not be dismissed as yet another statement aimed at playing up to the gallery.

While reflecting back ten years ago, what is indeed astonishing, is the kind of bon homie we witnessed in Indo Pak relationship , just three months before we went to war to counter the infiltration by the Pakistani Army across our side of the LoC, with a clear mandate to cut off Leh from Srinagar by targeting NH 1.

The much hyped bus ride ferrying some of our VVIPs across the Wagah border, turned out to be an exercise in self deception, as it became clear later on , that hectic preparations were going on simultaneously for the Kargil Misadventure by the Northern Light Infantry Regiment of the Pakistan Army..

Political naivety apart, the Kargil war proved it beyond doubt, that our entire intelligence machinery was woefully ill prepared to detect the movement across the LoC, and above all, our mission in Islamabad perhaps also miserably failed to notice the hectic military activity close to the LoC. The price which the nation paid for such pathetic show of incompetence was especially in terms of loss of precious lives of some of our finest youth, who in the highest traditions of our armed forces, took on the enemy from a severely disadvantaged position, and in the most inhospitable climate with freezing temperatures at night. It goes to their credit that they ultimately managed to evict the intruders, at the cost of huge sacrifices made by them.

The ruling NDA alliance celebrated the victory by calling it “Vijay Diwas” , but failed to fix responsibilities on those who had miserably failed in discharging their duties to detect such intrusions on a timely basis, besides of course offering an answer to the nation, on what went wrong in their overall assessment of the intentions of the Pakistani leadership vis a vis India, and to what extent was our mission in Islamabad was to be held accountable for such lapses.

Sadly enough, answers to such questions are still awaited. That we were no better off at least till November 2008, especially where our overall abilities and capabilities to thwart off such nasty surprises from Pakistan were concerned, needs no further elaboration. Add to the fact the mass killings of our police personnel by the Maoists, which of late have become routine news, exposes the utter state of our helplessness to tackle such threats from within as well.

Such balant example of political indifference towards our overall security (both internal and external) environment , and absence of any clear strategy and vision to preempt any nefarious designs from across our borders aimed at creating mayhem in our soil, is alarming indeed, and does not inspire much confidence amongst ordinary citizens, regarding the security of our lives and our borders.

Yes, we are indeed proud of our defence personnel , who could be counted upon to meet any challenge or threat to our security and sanctity of our borders/LoC. But then, do we need to tolerate a totally inept and incompetent bureaucratic and intelligence apparatus, alongwith a relatively indifferent political leadership, just because some of the brightest youth of the nation, who too have loved ones back home, and who perhaps despite stiff opposition from their families, chose to serve our motherland through our defence forces, and are even prepared to make the supreme sacrifice, should the need so arise ?

A serious nationwide debate, and a sincere introspection on this issue, alongwith a changed mindset, and priorities at the level of our political leadership and bureaucratic intelligence apparatus on this front, would be a true homage to all those who had to lay down their lives at the prime of their youth, for the sake of our motherland and we citizens of India, just because of the incompetence or overall indifference of some powers that be.