At a little past 11.30 pm last Saturday, an SMS came from Sudheendra Murali, a friend in Bangalore: “Kargil Forgotten.” To a South Indian with not a single member of the family in the fauj, and therefore without that emotional connect with matters military, the message made little sense.
Truth to tell, with one beer too many at a restaurant called ‘It’s Greek to me’, the message seemed all too Latin.
A Google search the next morning cleared the haze in 0.13 seconds. The day gone by, July 26, was the ninth anniversary of the Kargil triumph—the day ceasefire was declared in the war against Pakistan in 1999; a day since then observed as ‘Kargil Vijay Divas‘.
What my IT friend was saying was that in between Blasts A and Blasts B—while we were selfishly, shamelessly, secretly wondering when and where a bicycle might knock us dead—an ungrateful nation had forgotten to salute a famous victory against Pakistan.
A victory in achieving which 562 soldiers had bravely, selflessly, unquestioningly laid down their lives for their country and countrymen, i.e. us, in the cold heights of Kargil.
Even for a “leftover liberal” with scarcely any militaristic sentiments, it seemed too obvious an event for the political class to miss, especially given the rap they had received for their disgraceful sendoff to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw in June.
But the Sunday papers provided little proof that old habits die hard.
For starters, there was not a sentence about ‘Vijay Divas‘ in 78 pages of the world’s largest selling English daily. Not a word in its competitor with historic links with the Congress. Not a word in the house journal of the BJP. Not a word in the emerging (unofficial) mouthpiece of the CPI(M).
What little notice the Delhi media took, it took through the lens of its photographers.
The Asian Age had a single-column picture of BJP president Rajnath Singh offering a floral tribute to the martyrs at the party headquarters. The Indian Express carried a five-column picture of a solder in front of the flame at India Gate in its Delhi Newsline supplement. And The Hindu had a 3-column picture of the army chief, the navy chief, and the vice chief of the air staff paying homage.
Only The Sunday Tribune, had anything by way of text accompanying a six-column picture (above) of a Network18 cameraman filming naval officers lined up to pay tribute to the martyrs at India Gate, along with an accompanying story form Dehradun.
From a media point of view, the poor coverage was understandable, indeed even justifiable.
There was nothing newsy, nothing sexy about the anniversary, which had been overshadowed anyway by a dastardly attack that killed so many in two big cities. Television and newspapers cannot keep filling their time and space with something so maudlin, can they?
Yes.
But if, after 11 years, they can still squeeze their lachrymal glands enough on June 13 every year for the 59 who perished in the “Uphaar Fire Tragedy” in 1997, how difficult is to remember the 562 who died for cause and country In 1999?
But our crib is not with the media, it’s with our netas.
Where were our “leaders”, the people who, by the nomenclature thrust on them, are destined to lead us, to show us the way, on Saturday, July 26?
Where was the President and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Pratibha Patil? Where was the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh? Where was the defence minister, A.K. Antony? Where was the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit?
Yes, there was a celebration in the BJP office with Rajnath Singh in attendance, but was there any commensurate celebration in the Congress office? Was Congress president Sonia Gandhi present? Was there any celebration in the CPI or CPI(M) headquarters? Were Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan there?
And so on.
If the leaders and their parties did observe Vijay Divas, their media minders have done a splendid job of hiding it from public view. If they didn’t, the nation is entitled to ask why: Has the Kargil victory become something to be ashamed of for most of our political parties?
The Ahmedabad blasts cannot be offered as an excuse because they happened long after sunset on Saturday. The Bangalore blasts cannot be offered as an excuse because it killed but one (or two). Even so, since when did “national pride” fall victim to “national mourning”?
Or, has the Kargil victory, like so much else, fallen prey to petty, partisan politics?
Those who cover the defence beat say the Kargil victory is now viewed as “an NDA/BJP victory” with which the UPA/Congress wants to have no part. “The Congress has its 1971, the BJP has its 1999,” says one award-winning reporter.
(That the Congress which does not want to remember 1999 could not even remember the hero of the 1971 victory properly tells its own story.)
But if true, how pathetic as a people can we be getting, that we view the triumph of the nation, the sacrifice of our soldiers, not through a wide, collective prism, but through a narrow, constricted aperture of the government of the day?
Certainly, critics, sceptics and cynics in the military, media and polity have plenty of questions over how the Kargil victory was achieved: The intelligence and strategic failures, the antiquated techniques in capturing Tiger Hill (the site of most of the casualties), etc.
Plus, there is the coffin scam over which the Congress walked out of the House each time then defence minister George Fernandes got up to speak.
Much as those questions may be important and need to be answered, how do they take the gloss away from a great victory? And how do they make a meaningful observance meaningless?
What kind of signal is such peevishness sending to the jawan in the field, and to potential recruits? What kind of impact does it have on their morale and motivation to be reminded that they are not fighting for the nation at large but for the coalition in power?
Is this something over which our parties should try to score silly points?
Is this how we show how much we value the armed forces?
This is not to suggest that the President and Prime Minister and Defence Minister and Congress president must drop everything and break out into a bhangra every July 26 for the benefit of the television cameras. But what do they lose by gracefully acknowledging Kargil’s place in our contemporary history?
Especially at a time when insurgency, homegrown terrorism and cross-border terrorism are on the up?
# At the first anniversary of the victory, the then President K.R. Narayanan, vice-president Krishan Kant, prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, defence minister Fernandes, and the three chiefs of staff were all present.
# At the second anniversary, in 2001, the vice president, Prime Minister, defence minister, minister of state, service chiefs and defence secretary were slated to pay homage at Amar Jawan Jyoti.
The gracelessness and tactlessness are obvious. What is not so obvious is the window something like this offers on our hopelessly polarised politics—and the manner in which the liberal-left is ceding ground to the right by turning patriotism and the national interest into the sole proprietorship of the BJP.
If TV channels can realise the benefits that can accrue to their TRPs by carting cinema and cricket stars for the benefit of the jawans, how difficult is it for our political parties and politicians to realise the jump their TRPs might see if they are seen and heard making a rousing speech or gesture?
Parties and politicians are divided the world over, and our country is no different. But does only the party which was in power in 1945 Britain celebrate V-E Day? Does the Labour Party boycott it because Winston Churchill was in charge?
Hopefully, this August 15, the BJP won’t return the favour and boycott Independence Day, just because that victory was achieved by the Indian National Congress.
This piece also appears on rediff.com
Photograph: courtesy The Sunday Tribune/ Chandigarh
just because that victory was achieved by the Indian National Congress.
Polemicist! If you could put Google Adsense on this blog then you would be too rich! :-)
BJP knows that independence was not got only by INC(which has outlived its expiry date :D ).
Looks like you people haven’t read history. INC didn’t alone win the independence.
The last para was uncalled for.
Well it’s undeniable that Independence from the British was achieved under the leadership of the Indian National Congress ( That the current avatar of the Congress- I is morally and politically a different animal from the INC is another thing). The BJP and it’s predecessors certainly had no role and apocryphically an anti- freedom struggle role in that process!
But I agree with KC the alst paragraph was uncalled for.
It is perfectly understandable that the UPA and the Congress should want to downplay the celebrations of the Kargil victory, but not because there are questions about it, but because it is in the interests of the Republic that we strive to be demonstrably less militaristic.
There are very good ways of keeping the armed forces happy and motivating the jawans. By paying proper salaries, by providing better leave and travel facilities, by improving working conditions, by creating room for personal improvement, etc.
Standing up and making grand speeches on Vijay Divas might make a nice photo-op but what does it achieve? A little bit of gratitude, yes, but that could come even without the public ceremonies. Then again, this is not the only mysterious thing done by this faceless government.
It is this apathy to the sacrifices of faceless men in uniform as well as anonymous civilians that is behind the gorwth and growth of terrorism in India. Everything is viewed through a political ‘page rank’. Only that which can get good political dividends is focussed upon by politicians. Rest doesn’t matter to them alright. But it gives an opportunity for Indians with a conscience to at least express theri dismay. This is not ‘page ranked’ at all!
but because it is in the interests of the Republic that we strive to be demonstrably less militaristic.
agree, we should just disband the army and instead pump that money in the bamboo and candle and cotton industries.
There are very good ways of keeping the armed forces happy and motivating the jawans. By paying proper salaries, by providing better leave and travel facilities, by improving working conditions, by creating room for personal improvement, etc.
yeah that is why i did not join the army. bcoz the salary and perks were not good enough. atleast if they had promised extra 72 raisins, i could have considered. but even that they didnot offer. what ya.
who asked to them to die? who asked them to defend in the first place? those stupid 562 jawans. nobody asked them to die. they had no sense.
if they had gone to proper schools and nicely read and written and if they were exposed to excellent education, they would have known that the idea of an army itself is atavistic, forget joining it. Atleast once in, they should have had the common sense to stage a hartal and walkout. better yet they could have flung huge tomes of theories from below the hills. or like rajanikanth used the books to fend of bullets and mortar shells.
First
Kargil was NOT a “victory”. It was the unnecessary loss of life in retaking positions already within Indian hands before the battle. In any another military, in any other time, the persons in charge would have been facing a firing squad or at least dismissal.
Second.
Kargil was not a “war”. It was an extended skirmish involving fewer than 20,000 soldiers on either side in actual combat. Admittedly it involved use of heavy artillery and aircraft at least on one side, but the theater of battle, the size of the forces involved, the relative scale of the combat make it hardly a “war” even by 21st century standards. Bangalore loses about as many Indian citizens to road accidents in a year.
Third.
Lest we forget, the Congress had brought down the government with the help of a certain Mulayam just before the combat, tried its best to act divisively by pointing fingers and throwing around accusations during the war, while playing petty politics in the hope that a defeat/and or lots of deaths will mean more votes for it.
Fourth.
The BJP, for all talk of nationalist-internal security-pride-crap had failed to even do the basic job of ensuring that our borders were properly guarded. It of course tried to hide its blunders and incompetence through bluster and jhanda-maro-Pakistani-maaro sloganeering but anyone with brains and eyes could see through that crap. Besides, for all talk of “being tough on Pakistan” didn’t even have the balls to cross the LoC to meet strategic objectives. Actually, scratch that. They did not have any strategic objectives when in power.
Fifth
JP Dutta made a butt blisteringly long, brain-freezingly bad movie based on Kargil. Every two bit, half paise “actor” and “actress” in Bollywood fell over each other trying to get a scene or two and therefore we ended up with possibly the worst jingoistic war movie ever made… even by Bollywood standards. If remembering Kargil means being subjected to this monstrosity playing on all channels all day (or that other stinker, Lakshya) then I think our soldiers would prefer a quiet moment of reflection and post or two on a blog.
…and we found out, depressingly, that eloquence, for Indian youth, even at the moment of great victory, is spouting an ad slogan.
It’s probably just as well that Capt. Vikram Batra died nobly on the cold slopes in the service of his country.
Otherwise I can’t imagine the indignities he would have had to live with as the Indian Army’s official spokesperson for Pepsi.
Nice try – I wondered what happened.
Ultimately, in the last para you showed your credentials :)
Half facts are worse that lies. Author points to Coffin Scam but fact is Defense ministry under Pranab Mukherjee gave undertaking before SC that there was NO worngdoing- and Mukherjee was hackled inside parliament by cong members for that. Remember?
Congress opposed Pokhran-II, did not support the Govt when Kargil War was going on. Similarly victims of terrorism goes unnoticed by a section of media.
As author has opined in the last line, Cong thinks Indian independence movement, nationalism was its sole monopoly.
Well none of the politicians have their sons in the army to really understand the pain of losing one their only concern is mera bharath mahan karthe hain mala mala yehan! jai hind
agree with N …
Also, its pretty obvious, Indian National Congress of pre-independence era and today’s congress ARE NOT SAME. There were tallest of leaders then who believed in varrying ideology but had same conviction who came together to serve the nation, its freedom.
Its simply outrageous to even think of equating them unless somebody is like DK BArua who said: India is Indira and Indira is India.
Would a Patel, Rajaji, Bose……….remained in Congress if its leadership is outsourced to a family ?
…the antiquated techniques in capturing Tiger Hill (the site of most of the casualties), etc.
Plus, there is the coffin scam… KP, I thought you ignorant when you penned thus, but reading Alok, I realise I must not be so harsh. Alok sounds like such an ass that anything can be forgiven.
So KP first. Tiger Hill. No one fights – battles or wars – at these heights. As a general rule, a defending force has an advantage of 3:1 over the offensive force., i.e., it takes 3 times as many men to overcome a well defended position. In higher altitudes, a defensive force enjoys three times as much of an advantage 9:1. So far, some of the Central Italian battles during WW2, and the battle for Haji Pir, which India took, in 1965, have been considered the textbook cases of high altitude warfare. Kargil rewrote that. Simple. No one has deployed airpower at such altitudes, leave alone successfully. And the use of artillery that tipped the ground war is a first. There is no other way to overcome a high altitude position. Witness the difficulty NATO is having in Afghanistan. There have been some excelent papers on the Kargil War written by officers from military institutes both in India and the US. Bharat-Rakshak is the place to find them.
The coffin scam was no scam at all. George Fernandes’s appalled at the tea crates being used to ship soldiers’ bodies, decided to order some caskets from the US, as caskets of that quality aren’t made in India. And it is a fact that these caskets do cost a lot of money – in the 1000s of $. Some ignorant babu in CAG, without doing his homework simply redlined the quotations received and cried, Scam! That’s all. Chidanand Rajghatta did some good groundwork on the subject in the US, and wrote an excellent rebuttal to the smears that were floating around.
Alok, your total cluelessness bordering on the stupid doesn’t merit a rebuttal. It’s not even worth laughing at. You are free to watch the movies you like and ignore the ones you dislike. You must be a particularly stupid guy to have watched Lakshya after sitting through LOC Kargil for three hours, a movie genre you supposedly dislike but understand? Maybe you have a lot of time on your hands!
I completely disagree with Gaby..
Every indian until 1947 fought for independence. It was a collective effort!!
India would have attained Independence with or without Gandhi or INC for that matter!
India at that time was much bigger than Gandhi or INC.
INC may have organised some of the efforts or played a role in mobilising the masses.
Also post independence the current congress party should not have been allowed to use the name…
Nothing surprising. Kargil took place under BJP-led NDA.So Congress and other secular zealots will ignore it in a shameless display of their petty-mindedness.
But why Kargil alone ? Systematic efforts are on to play down National Technology Day started by the NDA to mark the anniversay of Pokhran-2.
The BJP and it’s predecessors certainly had no role and apocryphically an anti- freedom struggle role in that process!
Yaake ninge schoolnalli haagantha gut-tE maaDislilva? che! :'(
nee kappo biLipo? :-?
@Kadana,
>India would have attained Independence with or without Gandhi or INC >for that matter!
>India at that time was much bigger than Gandhi or INC.
>INC may have organised some of the efforts or played a role in >mobilising the masses.
Yes INC & Congress-I are two worlds apart now but belittling INC and Gandhi contribution in the freedom struggle this way is equivalent to dishonoring soldiers who fought the war.
KK just having Kutuhala is not enough-you should show a litlle bit of grahana shakti too. I said Gandhi and the INC played a leadership role in the freedom struggle and not acheive it all by themselves. The Second World War, predisposition of the Labour Government etc also played a role.
If not Gandhi and consequently the INC who would you attribute leadership in that process to? I wonder…..
As far as the person who asks the color of my skin when I point out a fact of history I can only ask back- what he has been taught about the role of the predecessors of the BJP in the Freedom struggle!!!!
“just because that victory was achieved by the Indian National Congress”
How much more do we have to pay for that fight? We already accommodated four generations of a family that is not even worth being mentioned along with MK Gandhi and Sardar Patel (Nehru omitted due to present mess. No disrespect to him). One starts wondering, if we should really stop celebrating Independence Day now. This single-mindedness about INC may prove more harmful than what East India Company or Mughals succeeded in inflicting upon us. Time to call for a second freedom struggle? This time may be from our own century old ethos?
Churumuri – just a suggestion.
Your post was great but it is one very long post – I lost is somewhere after fifth paragraph. You have great points but please try to make your posts shorter. For starters there is something called “bullet points” you can use.
Gaby>>role of the predecessors of the BJP in the Freedom struggle!!!!
What about role played by Communists? What would National leaders like Patel, Rajaji….have done if somebody were to become a Congress President because she is wife of pilot son of Nehru’s daughter? Or somebody is son of pilot son of Nehru’s daughter? Huh?
BJPs pedigree?
RSS founder was baptised into Indian Nationalism as a student of Cacutta Medical college during tumult days of Partition of Bengal in 1905. He worked with revolutionaries of the stature of Aurobindo Ghosh, Sister Nivedita and so many others.
Seond RSS guru was direct disciple of Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa.
There is hardly any parallel to revolutionaty like Savarkar in the world history.
Many congress presidents like Lala Lajpat Rai, MM Malviya were members of Hindu Mahasbha…or for that matter Sardar Patel would have joined BJP if they were alive today.
Leaders like SP Mukherjee, Deendayal Upadhyay founded BJS, BJP’s forerunner.
Today’s congress has neither any ideology, nor any programme. Time has come to fulfil Gandhiji’s wishes- disband congress.
Agastya
When Vajpayee was in power, 25 years of Pokhran 1 was completed. Indira Gandhi made the world look up in awe with her Pokhran blast in the seventies. Sadly, pettily, shockingly BJP did not even celebrate or acknowledge Indira’s Pokhran blast.
Shame !
Thathaghata
There is hardly any parallel to revolutionaty like Savarkar in the world history??????????????
Was Savarkar’s revolutionary methods greater than Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India?
You say today’s congress has neither ideology nor any programme.
What does BJP have?
Compromising on everything it stood for, just for naked lust for power?
Today’s paper scream about several Congress and JDS corporators in Mysore being poached (read bought over) by BJP…
BJP, in a bid to look at fresh vote bank like the Muslims, have started to oppose the nuclear deal in the name of American imperialsm! Strange how a section of fundamentalist muslims and BJP think alike on the nuclear deal.
This is blatantly pandering to Muslim Vote Bank by BJP.
“Is the Kargil victory something to be ashamed of?”
YES!
For Sonia and her gang any thing which doesn’t have any Nehru Gandhi connection is not worth their ‘precious time and efforts.
PI.
Thathaghata you say, “Also, its pretty obvious, Indian National Congress of pre-independence era and today’s congress ARE NOT SAME.”
The BJP of the 80s is NOT THE SAME as the BJP of today.
1. Today’s BJP is a deeply divided house. In terms of discipline, clearly BJP is THE WORST. Here’s why: In no other party has the maximum number of ‘tall’ leaders revolted against its own party. These leaders are of the level of CM. Shanker Singh Vaghela, Suresh Mehta, Keshubhai Patel, Kalyan Singh, Madan Lal Khurana, Babulal Marandi, Uma Bharati ….(I am merely talking of dissidence at the highest level….and the lower levels it is even worse)
2. Today’s BJP is steeped in corruption. BJP has had the MAXIMUM number of corruption cases in the cash for questions scam. BJP has the MAXIMUM number of MPs caught in the MPLAD scam. BJP’ s president was caught on camera, with his two greedy hands grabbing one lakh rupees. NO other party chief has been caught on camera in such a fashion. Ananth Kumar HUDCO scam, Ram Naik Petrol Scam..the list is endless
3. Today’s BJP has the maximum number of MPs and MLAs charged with criminal behaviour. Respected MP Navjoth Singh Sidhu has even got away in a road rage case, by killing a hapless innocent guy.
4. Today’s BJP will do anything to come to power. They shall sacrifice everything they stood for, throwing every moral to the wind. BJP was the first party which adulterated Indian politics in a manner never seen before. They supped with 24 different parties, with different ideolgies, just to sit in power. They were willing to sacrifice Ram Temple, article 356, uniform civil code and all that it stood for, merely for the sake of power. Contrast this with congress. They refused to compromise on nuclear deal ..but BJP compromised on all that it stood for.
5. BJP has started minority appeasement in a big way. Making Abdul Kalam the president, giving 150 crores for minority fund, giving tickets to congress rejects like Najma Heptuallah, attending muslim women’s conference and pleading with them to vote for BJP, repeatedly praising Jinnah. And surprisingly, even when it comes to the nuclear deal, some fundamentalist Muslims and BJP think alike…both are against the nuclear deal. Clearly, this is muslim vote bank politics practiced by BJP.
6. BJP IS THE BIGGEST supporter of Dynastic politics. They gave their full support to a non entity like Biju Patnaik, who did not even know how to speak Oriya when he became CM. They gave their full support to all sons and sons in law and of politicians like Kumarswamy, Omar Abdullah, Udhav Thackeray, Vasundhara Raje Scindia (daughter of former Cabinet Minister Vijayaraje Scindia), Om Prakash Chautala and several other sons of prominent MPs like Jaswant Singh are reportedly being given tickets.
7. BJP is the biggest supporter of Gandhi Family. This time they are giving tickets to two Gandhi family members. Maneka and Varun Gandhi. They even had one of them as a cabinet minister for five years.
8. BJP is incapable of making its mind and is willing to bend at any angle to accommodate allies. Mayawati was in. out. In. out. In out. In out. Mamta Banerjee was in out. In out. In out. In out. Ditto Jayalalitha and scores of other political parties. BJP revels in revolving door policy.
9. The BJP when it was in power, conveniently forgot to celebrate 25 years of Indira Gandhi’s Pokhran I blast. I mean how can the ruling party forget such a deely nationalistic event? Indira Gandhi made India proud with the first Pokhran blast in the seventies but sadly, it was forgotten by BJP.
All the above are objective facts. None of which are my personal opinion.
@kaangeya
At least come up with something coherent in the form of a rebuttal ..
If you had actually read anything that I had to say, you would realize that we shouldn’t have lost the heights in the first place, AND once we did, should have hung the “intelligence” officers who were outperformed by a semi-literate goatherd.
That we couldn’t think of anything new or innovative than charge up the mountain and lose several young officers through WW 1 style tactics is damning to the military.
At the end of the skirmish, we lost two aircraft, multiple helicopters, one pilot, several hundred soldiers and officers, loads of ammunition spent, and what was our position at the end of the war?
The same as it was in the beginning.
If we had, say, taken the opportunity and destroyed the terrorist camps in PoK, or changed the LoC to our benefit and ensured that Pakistan would never be in a position to threaten our supply lines, yes, that would have definitely been a victory.
Just preventing defeat is not always victory.
If anybody “won” it was Musharraf.
He showed the world how incompetent and impotent Nawaz Sharief was.
He pulled off the Hindenberg trick (withdraw forces and blame it on civilian authority).
He was able to ride the anger against the civilian authorities to mount a coup.
Last heard, he’s still Pres.
>>Was Savarkar’s revolutionary methods greater than Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India?
Indian freedom was not won by Gandhiji or by revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Savarkar, Subhas Bose……alone. Everybody contributed in their own way.
Time has come to comeout of history imposed from the top.
BJP inherits nationalism primarily from revolutionaries of bengal , punjab, maharashtra – particularly Pune (all URBAN CENTERS then). Swami Vivekanada, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sister Nivedita, Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Tilak, Savarkar…..
In the words of Ashis Nandy, BJP represents the UNFINISHED fight between two ideologies prevailing in first half of 20th century. Gandhi came and changed the course for next few decades/ But its anything but over.
With rise of indian middle class, economy, urbanization…etc etc, its BJP that WILL prevail.
Its a historical change Indian society is undergoing, and Sonia is too little to stop that. Neither dividing Hindus along caste will save the day, as RSS has successfully grown to the grassroot and raised people like Modi, Uma Bharati, Govindacharya ……from socalled SC/OBC sections.
Alok,
When you are faced with facts you run away creating a smokescreen of lies! Read Kaangeya’s post carefully and you will learn something! The whole World has acknowledged the brilliant fight back by the Indian Army after initially being out smarted by the Pakistanis. Your man Musharaff is still President sure he is but under what humiliating circumstances…you do know that don’t you? Their Army is being rented out for ‘catching terrorists’ wages and they are being asked to do the ‘dirty work’ on behalf of their masters all the time:)..You are quite intelligent but twisting the facts will do you no credit…
Thanks DB, but I am not twisting facts here.
The fact remains that those responsible for Kargil (on both sides of the border) walk free while soldiers have paid the ultimate price.
We saw the perils of this when Parliament was attacked. Not only did our intelligence agencies fail, again, but our response was even more impotent than the last time. That we failed to seize the opportunity presented to us during Kargil to destroy pakistan’s terror infrastructure in PoK saw India being humiliated in front of the world when despite mobilizing our army, et al, we couldn’t respond to a direct attack on our democracy.
So 9/11 happened and made Musharraf and the Pakistani army America’s soldiers for hire. What of it? We indirectly benefited (if it can be called that) because of events totally out of our control. Who doesn’t?
It has been nine years since Kargil and it is time for us to take off the jingoistic, chest-beater hat and soberly analyze why and how Kargil happened.
It’s easy to get carried away in the euphoria of combat and put up big “Mission Accomplished” signs and strut around for cameras. Doesn’t mean we necessarily “won”.
From your comments I take it that you are a perfectionist. Sure in an ideal world all terrorists are caught before entering the Parliament and all intrusions are detected at the border. The reality is different. People don’t expect treachery from your neighbor and ordinary folk tend to get on with their lives. I do agree our reaction was impotent and Vajapayee could have imposed severe costs on Pakistan. I cannot even speculate why he didn’t…But winning back our positions against great odds is worthy of celebration. Our Army fought with great courage. Now if you trivialize everything by saying …”The fact remains that those responsible for Kargil (on both sides of the border) walk free while soldiers have paid the ultimate price. ..” I expect in your prefectionist mode you want Indians to be less human; avoid all human contact with Pakistanis; ban everything from the blighted country and so on. Then if we did that you will start screaming from roof tops that we are eternally hostile to peace loving Pakistanis. You cannot have it both ways!
Sure the mission was accomplished in Kargill. Our Army got a reality check and be assured we will be ready for more on either side of the border (West and East) in future.
It was Indian Army that defended India. It is quite amusing to see Musharaff claim that some irregulars went and occupied these positions…and to think that somehow our Army’s performance melts away in the tactical brilliance of Musharaff’s ‘Hindenburg Trick’ is being too clever by half…
My response is to Alok and everyone else, who argues over whether it was a war or a skirmish in Kargil and who won the Independence. I think it is a complete waste of time to argue over technicalities like that. Soldiers died protecting us. Does anyone here want to explain to their families, why we didn’t think their loss of lives was not importan enought for a 2 minute silence in India? We are an ungrateful nation, who squabble amongst ourselves and bow to more powerful enemies instead of uniting against them. For this exact reason, Indians have always lost to outside invaders through out history.