Lessons from Kargil

MR Atal Behari Vajpayee’s recent statement ruling out any negotiations on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir is well-conceived. There is now an urgent need for a tough stance on the issue.

I fully agree with Mr Hari Jaisingh (“Lessons from Kargil: perils of a soft state”, June 11) that the nation is paying a heavy price for the sins of omission and commission committed by our earlier leaders (including Jawaharlal Nehru). The failure of India to clinch the Kashmir issue during the Tashkent discussions in 1966 and more so during the Indira Gandhi-Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto negotiations at Shimla in 1972 speak volumes of India’s political and diplomatic gullibility at the highest level. With 96,000 prisoners of war of Pakistan and a few hundred kilometres of occupied territory of Pakistan, India failed to get a written commitment from Bhutto about the LoC becoming the international border. India could have held on to the captured PoWs and the territory until something concrete had emerged on those lines.

The two leaders signed the Simla Agreement in July, 1972, and committed both countries to work for a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian side proposed that “the de facto line of control was to be graduated to the level of the de jure border”, but Pakistan was not agreeable. Later, on the night of July 2, Bhutto agreed that the LoC would be gradually endowed with the “characteristics of an international border”. All this was unwritten and everything was repudiated by Pakistan later.

In the meantime Pakistan has organised a number of launching base camps for armed infiltrators across the LoC enabling them to cross into Kashmir. They have built their bases on the higher reaches. Had the Indian government located and liquidated these bases earlier the present war-like situation would not have arisen.

The Nawaz Sharif government has opted to tread a dangerous path of “intrusion” for which it has eaten a humble pie, earning worldwide condemnation. Even its friends and allies — the USA, Iran and China and several members of the OIC — have rejected the Pakistani thesis and advised Mr Nawaz Sharif to pursue serious bilateral negotiations with India as agreed at Shimla.

As of now, the position looks pretty hopeless with little prospects of a fruitful discussion. India must, however, come out of its conch-shell of “a soft state” and pursue more resolutely the line of action adopted by consensus at the recent meeting of the leaders of all political parties.

K.M. VASHISHT
Mansa

OPPORTUNE MOMENT: We have noticed that Pakistan has always been at war with India though in a proxy way. Now they have started trouble in the Kargil and Dras areas, and we have been informed that the forces from Pakistan have entered our area violating the Line of Control. We have been fighting with them for the last one month, and we have lost so many valuable lives. Some of the soldiers had been taken as prisoners, were tortured and their bodies mutilated and then returned to India to make us feel the revengeful attitude of Pakistan.

When we have talks among each other, we are told that this is the most opportune time when we can recapture the whole of Kashmir. If we lose this opportunity, the part of Kashmir which is occupied by Pakistan would never come to India.

DALIP SINGH WASAN
Patiala

MISSING IDEALISM: The large size and complex topographical variations of the country and an absence of right thinking and coordinated action have created a war-like situation of varied complexities in the Kargil sector. Moreover the idealism and commitment to one’s motherland are conspicuous by their absence particularly in our political leadership. The country has already paid a heavy price in terms of economic stagnation and socio-cultural degeneration through casteism and religious fanaticism perpetrated by political leaders for their own gains. It is unfortunate that our politicians display the same kind of ad hoc and narrow political considerations in defending the country’s borders against a hostile and diplomatically cunning neighbour.

For once the Defence Minister needs to self-introspecting. There was a time when even a rail accident could make the Railway Minister submit his resignation on moral grounds. But now it is highly immoral permutations and combinations or political elements that dominate our polity, including the defence of the country.

It is high time the Prime Minister apologised to the nation for our debacle and delayed action in Kargil. Instead of being humane and cordial with a very treacherous enemy, we need to be ruthless and pragmatic in a professional manner.

VED GULIANI
Hisar

TIME TO BECOME PRAGMATIC: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is a duplicate of the late General Zia-ul-Haq though in civilian clothes. He has set his mind on completing “Operation Topac” worked out by the late General way back in 1988.

Since we are basically a soft state, and a soft state cannot protect its interests adequately, India’s policy-makers have to be pragmatic and ruthless. As of today, we don’t need Nehru’s “panchsheel” but Sardar Patel’s iron hand.

At the moment, there is better appreciation of India’s stand on Kargil. what is needed now is a proper projection of the Indian viewpoint at home and abroad.

Talks are only talks. The nation trapped in talks wants action. There is no Kashmir problem except that Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has to be vacated. The armed forces have been given the powers to decide upon the line of action.

S.S JAIN
Chandigarh