Dr. Sudershan Kumar
The recent ironic and thought provoking incident where the father of an army officer had to knock at the doors of the Supreme Court for quashing the FIR lodged against his army officer son, reflects the complexities and intricacies of the situation in Kashmir valley and the adversities faced by the Indian army. In fact as per reports the army jawans had opened fire to disperse the unlawful assembly of stone pelters and prevent any infliction of damage to army jawans and government property. Moreover the recent successful conspiracy to engineer the escape of dreaded Pakistani terrorist Naveed from police custody should act as an eye opener for policy planners and strategists who are responsible for framing the state related policy in country. Also the recent terror attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) at army camp in Jammu further authenticates the advocation of revision of the Pakistan policy. In fact the Pakistani army and the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) work in consortium towards enkindling internal turmoil in J&K and at the same time keeping International border and Line of Control (LoC) searing through frequent ceasefire violations. Moreover the intensity of ceasefire violation has escalated manifold i.e. in the year 2018, from 1 January to 10th Feb the figures were touching 250. Although the valiant Indian army is retaliating massively and effectively causing heavy causalities to their side yet it is not deterring Pakistan to mend its ways. Therefore, it is high time for policy planners in Modi Government to rework their Kashmir policy and adopt a hard line approach towards Pakistan.
Needless to mention here that the dominance obtained by security forces by eliminating 213 terrorists in the year 2017 through operation ‘All Out’ has been marginalized by adopting soft approach towards stone pelters. In fact unconditional release of stone pelters and anti India slogans raised by Kashmir centric politicians has further emboldened anti national elements, Pak hawks and fundamentalists to carry out subversive activities and attack on security men and their camps.
It is heartening to note that even on media debates, the representatives of certain national political parties have the audacity to scrutinize and question the action of our valiant soldiers rather than imparting appreciation, pride and having cognizance of the inhospitable conditions they work in. Many of them advocate for talks with all stake holders including separatists, anti-national elements and Pakistan but talks with whom is the big question. Is it the Civilian Government or Pakistani army or ISI or fundamentalists/radicalists. At one side the Pakistan civilian government has no say. It is the Pak army which decides the foreign policy concerning South Asia i.e. India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The writ of fundamentalists/ radical elements have a considerable say. The declaration of Hafiz Saeed as international terrorist has been ineffectual and he continues to spit venom against India.
Turning the pages of history we find that Pakistan was born as an insecure state in 1947 and it remain so till date. It has always considered India as it eternal foe and has remained skeptical of India’s dominance. In its quest to quench its insecurities, it has pursued the path of guerilla warfare, proxy warfare, terrorism, low intensity conflicts and even full scale wars with India over a period of seventy years. Besides, Pakistan has also backed openly an army of Islamist militants proxies that operate not only in Kashmir but throughout India as part of their foreign policy to send terrorists across the border to create disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir. To accomplish this Pakistan agencies has established 55 terrorists camps along the line of control and Pakistan occupied Kashmir and also erected large number of terrorist launch pads(temporarily erected post for pushing terrorists in to Indian side). Through the launch pads they push terrorists inside the Indian territory under the cover of cease fire violations. Their army Generals are pursuing this policy with a clear mindset that in case of full scale war they will nuke India with tactical weapons. These low yield nuclear weapons and their delivery systems have been developed with the support of China and North Korea.
As per unconfirmed reports Pakistan posseses around 120 – 140 tactical nuclear weapons. They have kept them at nine different places and launchers inside the bases with robust command and control system. This nuclear arsenal is directly under the control of Pak army. Further indirect support from China has emboldened them to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir valley and push terrorists for carrying out fidayeen attacks on army installations in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
Besides Pakistan has also adopted similar approach towards it neighbour Afghanistan by providing safe havens to terror groups viz Taliban, Haqqani and many other splinter groups. Theses terror organisations orchestrate terror attacks at Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan. This was endorsed by none other than American President Donald Trump.
Therefore the above stated facts further give affirmation that it is high time that the Government of India adopts a hard line approach towards rogue nation Pakistan. India must vouch for strong action and take steps to make Pak realize that, it is much weaker than India as it’s GDP is only 11 percent as compared to that of India.
Its army is less than half. Its navy is one third as compared to that of India and also the number of air crafts are half to that of India. India must envisage the fact on Pakistan that its policy to bleed India with thousand cuts will not work. For any of it’s misdeeds, the repercussions would be inconsolable. Besides the government of India must explore other options such as declaring Pak as terrorist state ,removal of most favoured nation status and also exploring the option of re examining Indus water treaty. The author is of the view that it is high time that government of India must adopt an offensive strategy towards rouge nation Pakistan so that it could feel the punch of it.
(The author is former Director General DRDO & Special Secretary MOD GoI)
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