Time to wake up India

The week started with probably the biggest news of the decade (too early to assert, I know) and unless 2012 is for real, I doubt anything can top the much-awaited announcement from the White House confirming the death of Osama bin Laden in a covert military operation by the US. I will not inject my own opinions on this news; too may learned people have spoken and written about it, and the media is still buzzing with the finer details of this operation.

Common sense would dictate that the time is ripe for the Indian government to demand answers to tough questions on the extent of Pakistani military's and ISI's backing to terrorist organisations operating from its territory. While Pakistan has been crying hogwash to continued reports of areas in its posh cities serving as hideouts for leading fundamentalists and terrorists, India is as much to blame for its inability to get the whip cracking. In fact, in the light of horrific events that unfolded on Dec 13, 2001, when LeT terrorists attacked the seat of India's democracy in broad daylight and nearly succeeded in vending mortal harm on our MPs, the central government did initiate military deployment (Operation Parakram) at the Indo-Pak border. Vajpayee made it clear in his address to the nation that water has indeed crossed the bridge, and Pakistan can no longer hide behind the pretext of domestic terrorism marring its efforts. Unfortunately for India and fortunately for Pakistan, the standoff that culminated to serious levels coincided with the allied forces' operation in Afghanistan to hunt Qaeda terrorists, and international powers soon entered the frame in order to cool things down. Since 2001, India has witnessed one terror attack after the other, be it in the form of bomb explosions in the crowded Mumbai local trains at peak service time or the heinous attack on Nov 26 at the CST and the Taj, with the number of fatalities reaching hundreds. And for all talks of diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, the US has showed the way with what is to be done when national and sovereign interests are at stake.

While it was opportune for India to extract the US' help in its effort to bring notorious criminals like Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed to the book, clearly it has not yielded any results. It has been acknowledged that the civilian government in Pakistan is inept at handling or exercising any control over its military establishment, and Gen. Ashfaq Kayani is seen as the de facto premier of Pakistan. Hence, it should be clear that all talks with Pakistan are futile till its military is willing to cooperate. For India, this cooperation should be seen in the form of military operations to wipe out terror camps being run in Pak-owned Kashmir, and weeding out of terrorists who try to cross the LOC 24x7. However, as history shows, Pakistani military cannot be trusted on any of these accounts; the Kargil war was after all waged by a man who later went on to become its president, and is for some reason beyond my comprehension, a noted public speaker and an invitee to talk shows on our news channels. Therefore India should have prepared its own military for any eventuality arising out of Pakistan's miscalculations. Quite the converse, a cursory look on the state of our defense military contracts, out in public domain, show that the government is moving at a snail's pace on this front. Admiral Gorschkov is still savoring the Russian hospitality, the MMRCA contracts are yet to be finalized, and Tejas was only recently inducted into the IAF after being under development for over 20 years.

On the diplomatic front, the Indian establishment has patently developed a blow hot-blow cold methodology to deal with Pakistan. Talks were held and Indian position was ascertained at the Sharm-el-Sheikh conference. Yet, Pakistan has declined to allow Indian investigators on its soil for the questioning of Hafiz Saeed or other perpetrators of 26/11. More importantly, its own courts have failed to deliver a sentence on the charges being leveled on Saeed and the JuD, which incidentally is a pseudonym for an earlier organisation which was banned by Pakistan. This exposes Pakistan's bigotry if nothing else. The right approach forward should be to press for stringent action against the suspects in the 26/11 attacks residing on Pakistani soil, and at the same time reinvigorating India's defensive might through speedy procurements and comprehensive show of military might. Remember, China's advances in indigenously developed military technology is one of the reasons for its march to the position of country no. 2 on the global power list. India cannot afford to sit scooped up between a Pakistan-China nexus, with increasing signs that the US is expediting its operations in Af-Pak to a speedy conclusion. When the time comes, India will have to defend itself, and to do that, it needs to support our brave soldiers with superior technology and a clear-headed strategic policy making. Secret operations might be too risky; why take the risk when we can stand up in the world's view!

PS: In a sad news, a final year IITM student committed suicide today. All my thoughts go out to his family and may his soul rest in peace.