M A I N   N E W S

Kashmir problem due to lack of strategic direction: Naval Chief
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 1
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash today said that the “Kashmir problem”, which had bled the country for six decades, was a result of lack of strategic direction from the country’s “political and military” leadership during the 1947-48 operations.

Addressing a seminar organised to mark the 40th anniversary of the Institute of Defence Studies and Anaylses(IDSA) here the Chief of Naval Staff, the first serving chief to say so, said in the 1947-48 operations in Jammu and Kashmir, the country’s nascent political and military leadership had given no strategic direction leading to a haphazard ceasefire line being drawn, which he claimed had led to the creation of the so-called “Kashmir problem.”

“This problem has festered and bled the country for six decades and currently appears to have become an open-ended issue”, he said. In an address which apparently came straight from the heart, the Naval Chief went on to describe the defeat in 1962 to China as “military defeat and humiliation” for the country. He further added that although the finest hour of the country’s armed forces came in 1971, but even there the nation had faltered in the end game as there had been no “war termination strategy”.

Going further on his views about strategic planning he said though 1980 saw major weapons platform acquisition by the country, there was little change in strategic thinking. This he said had led to India’s military might seen as threat by countries like China, Australia and others in South East Asia.

The Naval Chief was of the view that if India aspired to don the mantle of even a regional power it needed to set up a rapid deployment force and boost its sealift and airlift capability to have sustainable trans-national capability. “We have to shed our diffidence and find not just the ways and means, but the will to project our power overseas,” he said. The Naval Chief said India’s power projection was a must also in the context of galloping oil prices, which could trigger a major crises for the country, as New Delhi currently was the world’s sixth largest energy consumer and by 2010 it would be fourth largest.

With great foresight, the country’s planners are pursuing oil projects in West Asia, Africa, Central and South East Asia, which would make it imperative on the country’s armed forces to safeguard these. “A rapid deployment force with trans-national capabilities would be ideal for such a purpose”, said Admiral Prakash who is also the Chairman of Chiefs Of Staff Committee. He also advocated robust deterrence against any threats of first use of nuclear weapons in the neighbourhood. The Naval Chief said India’s second strike capability should be “well protected” and “overwhelmingly devastating”. “Nuclear deterrence lies in the mind of the adversary. To deter someone, you must be able to convince him that the consequences of using a nuclear weapon will be so horrible and devastating, that he should never contemplate it”, the Naval Chief said, pointing out that India was faced with a nuclear opponent who has in the past threatened first use. Elaborating on the nuclear deterrence, the Naval Chief lamented that in the years following Independence, the country had moved from idealism to a quest for a western nuclear umbrella and it was only through Pokhran II that the country had come to a clear defining moment.