EDITOR'S NOTE
A heedful article by Gp Capt A G Bewoor. He draws comparisons between the ambience that prevailed in Britain, France and Germany during the First World War and the surrounding influence and environment that envelopes India during our wars and uninterrupted terrorism. The article puts before readers how both authorities and the public at large, seem unmoved at the wasteful loss of lives in 1916 and 2016. Those who have the capacity and power to bring about changes in India's security environment are silent, just as it was a hundred years back in Germany, France, UK. The author asks then, what has changed over these 100 years?
Do read and circulate to interested readers . Comments are welcome !
Editor,MVI
In 1916,108 years back, two savage battles took place at Verdun & Somme during the 1st War. By 1916 soldiers of Britain, Germany & France concluded that their generation was stuck in the muds of Europe. What caused the war in which 17 million including 74000 Indian died? It was those ill-conceived defence agreements compelling the one to support the other. These were; Russia and Serbia, Germany with Austro-Hungary, France and Russia, Britain-France-Belgium and Japan with Britain. But what has all this to do with Pathankot (PKT) in 2016, very much as we go along.
By January 1916, more than a century ago, Britain, France & Germany were convinced that the war could be won only with a massive offensive actions and therefore the two horrendous confrontations at Verdun & Somme. What is pertinent for us today after PKT, Gurdaspur, Mumbai, Pulwama, Reasi, Parliament and others, is that politicians, business magnates, financiers, legal luminaries, intellectuals, writers, artists, cinema actors, sportsmen, bureaucrats, technocrats and the voters have absolutely no idea what these violent incidents mean for India. They thrive in the ignorance about what is it that truly creates and protects India’s well-being, her image, her security, her pride, her self respect and the happiness of 140 crore citizens? All these men and women are blissfully unaware and worse, unconcerned in finding this out and we are in danger of becoming insensitive to these attacks.
This is exactly what was happening in France, Germany and Great Britain in January 1916. Soldiers were dying in trenches; those at Home were doing what they always do, paying their taxes and thus contributing to the War. Like in India today. If you drive correctly, pay digitally, order food on-line, work with Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and of course pay all your taxes you are doing it right. That you are disinterested on what constitutes the security of India and Indians, does not matter one bit. What an awful state we have descended into?
The infamous Gallipoli misadventure ended on 09 Jan 1916 where Australians / New Zealanders retreated after heavy casualties in a supposedly brilliant campaign to defeat the Ottoman Empire, it failed miserably. On the Western Front in just eight months of 1916, Germany / France / Britain lost about 2.2 million men. At Verdun, Germany wanted to bleed France to death and at Somme on 01 Jul 1916 Britain suffered more than 57000 dead in just one day, picture the land littered with human corpses. Introspection and critical reviews exposed unjustified human loss; flawed tactics, callous military leadership with support from politicians. But most of all the public was mute.
Like us Indians in 2016? Every British / French / German has been fatally impacted by wars, which is not the case with us Indians, so PKT has footling meaning for most Indians. More than half a century before 1916, on 25 Oct 1854 at Balacalava, the Charge of the Light Brigade killed more than 120 British cavalrymen. Their job was to harass a retreating Russian artillery battery, but unclear orders, turf battles, personal animosities, enormous egos, sent the Light Brigade against entrenched Russian artillery with devastating results. This unclear order giving, messaging via different persons, having too many Bosses is typical of us Indians. We love to designate each appointee, NSA, IG NSG, Defence Secy, Home Secy, DIB, Director RAW, GOC-in-C, Corps Cdr, Division Cdr based on the IAS hierarchy of Secy to Under Secy, and decide who is senior here & now. We are terribly appointment / rank conscious and even more so in the Fauj. We will never know who said what, when and to whom during PKT, IPKF, Kargil, Kandahar, Cox’s Bazaar, Jaffna and Ichogil. Such bloomers were frequent in 1916, and therefore the commonality between Verdun of 1916 and PKT of 2016, nothing has changed? Did you know that Lord Cardigan who led the Charge of the Light Brigade was the brother-in-law of Lord Raglan the overall Commander, and they intensely hated each other.
What were the equations between all the PKT players, who disliked whom, who stepped on whose toes, who felt threatened by whom? Recall the crotchetiness and disdain between higher & lower commanders during IPKF. In 1988 a Major who I dined with in Madras during the tank inductions into Jaffna / Trinco, said that the higher military leadership were totally detached from reality and while sitting in Delhi, were fighting our battles in Sri Lanka. Exactly like it was in London / Berlin / Paris in 1916. His words, “no one is serious about this operation”, still ring in my ears. The OROP / 7th PC disagreements have only added to the abrasiveness between the designated custodians of India’s security, the civilians of MOD, and actual executers of India’s security, the Armed Forces. Our parliamentarians are blissfully unconcerned. Are they even bothered? Just as was the British Parliament in 1916? Politicians love to ensure discord between various agencies that make up a Government, just to keep their ‘gaddis’ safe, what a terrible breed. Now that we can see and hear them in Parliament, the poor conduct of so many is in full view and we know when they tell it right and when they mislead India. Can anyone of them, Treasury or Opposition benches, speak responsibly about National Security? The one thing that all elected politicians do right after they are elected, is start working towards getting reelected, the perfect hallmark of all professional politicians.
The flaws and bloomers of Kargil, IPKF, Jaffna, Mumbai and other badly documented operations, have all been repeated at PKT. The chain of command & control is strange if not comical. Here is an illustration from my personal experience as COO Palam. There were two unsuccessful hijacks during 1993. When a hijack happens a committee meets under Cabinet Secy and another committee meets at Delhi airport with DGCA / Secy Civil Aviation in a Situation Room (SR) with a HF set to contact the Captain of the aircraft. Representatives of security agencies are in this SR at Palam. The Bosses of all these security agencies are sitting with the Cabinet Secy. The COO Palam is the sole IAF fellow in that SR. His job is to understand what is happening and advise Air HQ about the situation, because very soon airlifting of troops will happen.
At the SR a DGCA man talks with the Captain once the aircraft is on ground, to ascertain what the hijackers want. When the Captain explains the demands of the hijackers, all those security guys would rush to a single landline to be the first ones to brief their Bosses sitting with the Cabinet Secretary. The alacrity with which they scrambled for that single phone at the right moment is like a comic movie. The desire to become the first to tell their Boss is intense, who in turn would be First to Report the ‘actual’ situation to their committee. Balle balle. Very much like every TV channel saying, “as first reported by us“. It would take a good 10 minutes for all of them to return. There were no mobiles or pagers in 1993. By the time they got back, the Captain of the hijacked aeroplane had given more inputs and this rushing to the phone and back into the SR would carry on. The amazing truth is that there were no military or anti- hijack experts in either committee. And because these two 1993 hijacks fizzled out, there was no effort to make the system more effective, robust and swift.
Is it a wonder that Kandahar unfolded the way it did in 1999? We allowed the aircraft to take off after it had landed at Amritsar? Would any self respecting security system permit such a monumental blunder? Worse dear readers, not one neta or official got sacked or punished for this shameful goof up. It is true that the decision makers in the Cabinet Committee and at that SR at Palam have zero knowledge about military history or civil-military equations during all the wars in the last 100 years. They study nothing on matters military, and are incapable of taking swift far reaching decisions in very short time spans to launch military ops, because they are never exposed nor trained for it. Yet they are the custodians and decision makers for India’s defence & security. The fault is in the system. If changes are made to make things better, skeletons of earlier goofs will spill out. So make no changes In the intervening six years from 1993 to 1999 no one did anything, no changes were even contemplated. Somme in 1916, PKT in 2016, nothing has changed. How uncaring we Indians are about national security? Question today therefore is, what about the concern Indians have about security in 2024?
Where do we look after PKT? How do we come out of this quagmire? The only thing that everybody did during PKT was to lambast the Govt, the Army, the NSG, the IAF and the killed officer. The media honchos with their on-site ‘chamchaas’ and so called experts sitting in the studio, talk as if they have 20 years expertise in such matters; the questions they ask make it seem they have participated in Courts of Inquiry into terrorist operations and are privy to secret deliberations. What cheek & impertinence? How much ‘ahankaar’ will they display? As correctly written at that time by Air Marshal Jayal in the Telegraph, the enemy is laughing at the discomfort generated by the media. And what about the security agencies cleaning up and getting their act together? In 1916 there were three Armies, with many Field Marshals & Generals who along with their imperialist political masters, destroyed a whole generation, because they were not willing to change. Look at PKT, we are not willing to change; the turf battles between BSF / Army / NSG / MOD / MOH / IB / RAW / PMO / IAF / State Police that persist is shameful and dangerous. The glory depicted on Rajpath during the Parade is misleading Indians to believe they are in safe hands, it is not so. The citizens are least concerned because they are fed lies and crores of Indians are working very hard to feed and clothe themselves and their families.
They have no time to protest against poor security, besides who will tell them it is poor? The super-rich could not care less though they have both the time and ability to make that difference. But being in cahoots with the powers, they shy away. How about giving a decent opportunity to the Armed Forces / BSF to create that security? How about getting involved in generating that security? It appears that the netas and babus sitting in those responsible chairs have not even begun to understand the basics to fight the terrorist menace that plagues India. Worse they all refuse to consult those who can give sane advice. Exactly as it was on the muddy plains of Flanders where more than a million people suffered untold misery during the War to End All Wars. Today untold Indians also are overwhelmed by misery because of the callousness of those who can make the change, but do not make the effort. There is much hope among those who understand that the realignment of political equations in J&K could slowly but surely arrest the threat and end this wretchedness. Can that change happen? Who all are willing to invest in those changes? One day we must be able to say with pride, yes the change has started.
Having sympathy for the Armed Forces / Paramilitary Forces / Police is fine but forcing the politico-bureaucrat-business cartel to make the security scenario safe is imperative. Getting women to pray at Shanishignapur or Sabrimalai especially during menstruation captures the imagination of Bharat. We protests against suicide of students and farmers, rapes, hike in college fees, food prices, ban on pornography, exam paper leaks, utterances in Lok Sabha and the media dilates them into larger than life events. But sadly observe, not one protest that our security / intelligence apparatus is badly managed.
The hurt and savage destructive nature of war has not touched us Indians. In 1962 we refused to use the IAF because Calcutta may be bombed? So what if Kolkta had been bombed? In World War II 60 million died with another 20 million, due war related disease & famine. Indian households have hardly been touched by war and terrorism, in some parts of our country; a terror related death is unknown and irrelevant. This is why the events at PKT have no meaning to most Indians. Has anyone asked why? The simple reason is that has any terrorist killing in J&K adversely impacted these unaffected peoples’ ability to eat, travel, earn, protest, pray, procreate, cheat, study, rape, and most important play politics? In 1916 too, no one protested about the wretchedness and futility of the ongoing savage war. Do we show gruesome pictures of our soldiers killed by terrorists? Never. But we do show bodies of terrorists killed by policemen, and sympathy is generated for the slain terrorist, never for the killed jawan.
This is the freedom of expression and right to information that we want? What will it take to get our people of their butts and onto the streets demanding better intelligence / weapons / communications / manpower to protect India from the only war being waged against us, the terrorist’s war? That is what our TV debates should be about. The media has to find the correct people who will illuminate us on this aspect of how to become stronger to tackle / intercept / neutralise / destroy terrorism both external and internal. Media has to light a spark in the hearts of us Indians to demand it from Govt and force them to restructure the system.
Big business houses also carry this burden, they have high calibre goal driven employees to pressurise Govt. The intelligentsia and personalities who have the ear of the common man have to encourage lakhs of Indians to ask for better security and lead them onto the streets. Sadly unless a few of the “darlings” of India’s adoring millions are not killed by terrorists, we are least bothered. Not one celebrity died at Taj Hotel. Just consider if a Bollywood celebrity, a cricketer, a TV anchor, a MP / MLA, corporate maharaja or a famous Godman, had been murdered that night; what would been the reaction of Indians?
That ,dear readers is the connection between Verdun & Somme of 1916 and PKT in 2016, apathy, misinformation, mulish obstinacy. The absence of a political leader to remedy this situation; and the media’s unwillingness to tell India that indeed there is an inherent dangerous flaw in our security shield, spreads a false blanket of calmness. Regrettably even Modi and his team seem defeated by this apathy in Govt and the public. Will India and her people remain a ragdoll to be constantly bashed by terrorists as in PKT in 2016, just like the millions who perished at Verdun and Somme in 1916, a Hundred Years back? When will we make the change?
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