INDIA AT WAR III- CALL THE BLUFF

IF OUR HOUSE BE ON FIRE, WITHOUT ENQUIRING WHETHER IT WAS FIRED FROM WITHIN OR WITHOUT, WE MUST TRY TO EXTINGUISH IT.-----THOMAS JEFFERSON

It is more than a month since the terrorists declared war on India. Not that the acts pre 26/11 were not acts of war, but compared to the audacious frontal assault on 26/11, those events can be called mere sorties to judge our defences and reactions. The recce's on India have been carried out for more than 20 years now, through targeted assassinations, explosions, introduction of fake currency into the system, use of the stock markets to launder money and stuff. Our adversaries are now convinced of our muddled approach to an epidemic which is worse than the plague for it affects the mind and the strength to resist.

The events post 26/11 would have reinforced this belief of the terrorists. The defence minister rules out 'War as an option', the foreign minister says that 'All options are on the table', the Prime Minister says something which only he can decipher. The foreign minister is now apparently convincing the 'friends' of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and America to pressurise Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators of this ghastly attack. The Pakistanis are much more focused on their line of defence, which is basically offence. Someday it is 'provide us the evidence', someday 'We will strike back within minutes', to ' we will act in our interest, not on somebody's bidding'.

Great show guys! You really have to hand out to these politicians. Let Thomas Jefferson say what he wants to , we will first enquire as to whether the fire started from our neighbour's house or our own. Then we will judge whether the origin of this fire has its genesis in our own house immaterial of the fact that this raging fire is repeatedly being fanned by our neighbour. This fire has been slowly turning our house into ashes for twenty years but we are so confused about its perpetrators The best part is that rather than confronting this scourge of fire ourselves, we rush to the Mafiosi of the locality, requesting them to ask our neighbour to desist from sending this fire into our house. The whole farce could be called a comedy circus provided the implications weren't as serious.

The show of resolve immediately in the aftermath of 26/11 was impressive. The anger in the common people against the inability of the politicians to provide leadership and security manifested itself in a huge spontaneous gathering in Mumbai, perhaps the largest non political gathering in the country post independence. The politicians closed ranks and countered with a special session of the Parliament to let off a lot of hot air. The 'P.M in waiting' wanted 'every loss of Indian life to be avenged', the 'P.M in hoping' talked of the Kauravas and the Pandavas uniting to fight a common enemy'.

For once, the political class exhibited unity for a day. But as is their wont, they lapsed into the mode of political kite flying soon thereafter. A.R. Antulay is not the loose canon he was made out to be after his 'investigation into Hemant Karkare's death' remark. Old habits die hard, as they say. For all practical purposes, it was a calculated attempt by the ruling dispensation to judge the mood of the people and to confirm its 'SECULAR' credentials. A.R.Antulay is too wily and experienced a politician to shoot off his mouth without a green signal from the very top. The 'conspiracy theory' statement has met with more than an enthusiastic response from the Urdu press. The response gauged, Antulay has retreated back into his shell, apparently convinced of the veracity of the encounter after a rather dull and drab statement from the Home Minister which conveyed nothing which was not in the public domain. That Antulay's irresponsible statement was a well calculated strategy can be judged from the fact that he would have been sacked from the Union cabinet for indirectly casting aspersions on the statement of the P.M who had declared Pakistan to be responsible for this carnage in his televised address to the nation post 26/11, if Antulay had been shooting off his mouth at his own sweet will. Furthermore if he had any evidences to prove his theory the same should have been brought to the public's notice rather than simple circulation of his theories. Please note that Antulay continues to be an integral part of the Union cabinet without so much as a rap on the knuckles.

The fact that this irresponsibility has been utilised by Pakistan to buttress their case before the International community and that it was an affront to the people who laid down their lives in those 60 hours of carnage is nobody's case really! What is the life of people like Karkare, Kamte, Unnikrishnan before the upcoming parliamentary elections and the lure of the the so called minority vote bank. Perhaps the 'P.M in waiting' would like to respond. We have been brought to this abyss by these very acts revolving around this perversion of 'secularism' and its direct linkages with the vote bank.

Pakistan which was bullied into supporting America's war on terror post 9/11 by the famous ' we will bomb you into stone ages' advice from Richard Armitage , is back to its old ways after the initial show of support for India's pain. Apparently Azmal Amir Kasab never existed in the Pakistani records. That those records cover only 30% of the Pakistani population is nobody's case really. The war hysteria being generated across the Wagah border is symptomatic of the mess Pakistan is in. The army which was extremely unpopular after the Lal Masjid face off and was facing desertions because of its operations in the FATA and Waziristan provinces is now shifting the attention of the populace towards the eternal enemy, India. The Pakistani army loves a good war as much as the Indian bureaucracy loves a good drought. Both are extremely beneficial for the economics of the house, you see! Studies have revealed that the Pakistani army is the biggest corporate player in the Pakistani economy. Apparently most of the business in Pakistan is owned by the Army personnel, both serving and retired.

Pakistan is looking for a way to wriggle out of the mess on its North Western frontier province. They have obtained billions of dollars of aid from the U.S on the plea of being a key ally in the American war against terror. But this has made them extremely unpopular in the country. How do you fight your own baby, the Taliban? Pakistan is now using the spectre of a war on its eastern border against India to pull out troops from the border with Afghanistan. This according to the Pakistani army has the double benefit of the populace forgetting the chaos on the North western front. Nothing like the hard core jingoism, you see! Get those adrenaline juices flowing guys, We are at War with India! But another benefit which is being calibrated into account is the paranoia which has set in amongst the American policy makers. They feel that they are at a crucial stage in the war in Afghanistan and any troop pull out by Pakistan may land the Americans in a spot of bother vis a vis Afghanistan. The Americans will do anything to keep the Pakistanis on their side, for they are fighting their own war and not India's.

By a strange paradox, Pakistan will have both the Talibanis and the U.S on its side if their chicanery succeeds. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, doesn't it?

The most worrying signs are emanating from Washington and Moscow. Barack Obama has already shown his willingness to appoint a special designate, possibly Bill Clinton to mediate between the permanently squabbling India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir, so as to paraphrase the American thinking. Pakistan with its present rhetoric of an impending war is sure to confirm the American doubts of Kashmir being a flashpoint which has all the potential of conflagrating a war. This has dangerous portends for India for when combined with the sell out over the nuclear deal, it has the potential to make Indian foreign policy completely subservient to the American vision for the world. India cannot let this idea of an official designate for Kashmir progress any further. But the way we permitted FBI officials to interrogate Azmal Kasab in the hope of obtaining American support for the apprehension of the perpetrators of 26/11 knowing fully well that the perpetrators of this attack are not living in some huts and wild territory, 'stateless' as Zardari calls them, but in the Army H.Q in Rawalpindi, the chances of us fighting our own war and standing up for ourselves appears bleak indeed.

The failure of the Indian foreign policy in putting all it eggs in one basket has resulted in its traditional ally Russia drifting away. The call from Moscow for India and Pakistan to desist from building up tension on its borders is ominous from an Indian standpoint. Note the missing support for Indian restraint and valid attempts for self defence. This is Putin's hint to the mandarins in New Delhi, 'getting too cosy with the Yankees, eh' !!

Indian policymakers have too realize that the war on terror has to be fought by our own selves . 'There are no permanent friends or foes in politics, only permanent interests', they say.

We have to get rid of this approach of looking in askance towards others in solving our problems. Recently released archives from U.S show that Nehru inspite of his feel good policy of non alignment ,desperately sought support from U.S during the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962 and received some grudging support from it. This indicates the wooly eyed approach towards foreign policy.

Matters of foreign policy require hard core professional approach towards national interest and not the please all approach we are prone to take. Sample the condemnation of the Israeli assault on the Hamas in the Gaza territory. The Hamas is as ruthless a terrorist organisation as the Lashkar or the Jaish. I fail to understand how we can call for a ban on the Jamat ud dawah on the one hand and praise Hamas for its resistance. Double standards while confronting terror will lead us nowhere. On the other hand the Israeli support for India in its fight against terror has been unequivocal, while our affinity with the Palestinians for the sake of Arab support for us in our conflict with Pakistan defies logic. On innumerable occasions the Organisation of Islamic countries (OIC) which is dominated by Saudi Arabia has passed uncomfortable resolutions on the issue of Kashmir.We have to shrug this pseudo moralistic approach and move forward. To borrow from George Bush, we have to make it very clear to the world that in this war on terror 'they are either with us or against us'. But for that we need to eradicate our own double standards. A terrorist is a terrorist, period! We cannot have a Lashkar bad boy and a Hamas fighter for freedom and justice.

The country has to realize that this war has to fought on our own. If Pakistan can threaten U.S with its strategy of withdrawing troops from the border with Afghanistan in order to defend itself against an imaginary Indian attack, why can we not clearly tell the Americans to compel the Pakistanis to hand over people like Dawood, Hafiz Saeed to us, dismantle the 'stateless' terror network or else we will not rule out the option of war , for we cannot be expected to bleed indefinitely in order to assist in America's war in Afghanistan. It is time we called Pakistan's bluff. As of now Pakistan is very successfully setting the agenda and we simply follow it.

Apart from the foreign policy, the internal policy has to be set in order. The govt. has promised of the National Investigation Agency, the Maritime Security adviser and stuff. Sounds good doesn't it, apart from the fact that the issue of Maritime security adviser was one of the recommendations of the review committee under the chairmanship of noted defence analyst K.Subhramanyam which was set up to enquire into the lapses which led to the Kargil war, and make recommendations. That was in 1999. Today the govt. when 2009 is about to begin gets back into the rewind mode and dusts the file. Will somebody ask them that if the idea was not good enough for 10 years, what led to this sudden enthusiasm for it? Rest assured some worthy from the navy will be appointed to the post if at all the idea moves forward and there will be a mad scramble for getting appointed for the post and the most pliant of persons will get the chequered flag. The National Investigation agency might already be not worth the paper it is printed on.

The confidence building measures between India and Pakistan were built on the premise of Pakistan not permitting its territory to be utilized for anti India activity. Post Mumbai and the purported mountains of evidence against Pakistan, why have the CBM's not been called off ? How long will we allow ourselves to be bled to death? As rightly observed by the sports minister, ' our team cannot play cricket with them when they send another team to kill and maim our people'.

An informed citizenry is the biggest requirement for the flourishing of democracy. The strength lies within. The pressure needs to be kept on the politicians to take action or else be prepared to face the next assault from the 'stateless actors' from across the border. The national interest has to supersede any other interest, our war has to be fought be us and us alone, at all places, under all conditions. Surrender is not an option.

Please sample the ideology being prescribed to by our 'stateless actors'-

"You do not make treaties with evildoers or try to adjust your conduct to make them like you. You do not try to see the world from the evildoer's point of view. You do not try to appease them, or persuade them, or reason with them. You try on the contrary, to outwit them, to vanquish them, to kill them. You behave with them in the same manner that you would deal with a fatal epidemic--you try to wipe it out."- Al Qaida's fantasy ideology.

Is there a message in this ideology for all of us?

INDIA AT WAR II-DARE TO WIN

“ FACE THE TERRIBLE, FACE IT BOLDLY. THE HARDSHIPS OF LIFE FALL BACK WHEN WE CEASE TO FLEE BEFORE THEM ” ---SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

It was around 125 years back in a village in the then undivided Bengal. A young kid was running desperately , being pursued by a dog. As is the wont of young kids, the terrified kid ran straight towards his mother, crying out for help. His mother did not come running for help but instead asked him to turn around and face the dog. The kid turned around and faced the dog. Lo and behold, the dog took to his heels when faced with this resistance. The kid had learnt an important lesson that day. Never in his life did he ever turn his back towards adversity and instead always faced it with a bold heart. Adversity obviously had to be looked in the eye. The name of the kid, Jatin Mukherjee, who grew up to be known as Bagha Jatin. For the uninitiated, Bagha Jatin grew up into a famous revolutionary who took on the might of the British empire. He earned the nickname of Bagha when he killed a tiger bare handed in the jungle where he had taken refuge from the British army. Obviously he had learned his lessons well in his child hood. It was the spirit infused by revolutionaries like Bagha Jatin which laid the foundation for the independence of the country.

Let us now sample an example from the dog chasing the modern day India: “ Today I announce the break up of India, Insha Allah. We will not rest until the whole of India is dissolved into Pakistan,” let us proceed a bit further with this enlightenment for it shows the true face of this vicious adversity, “ We know that the Hindu genetic make up is of the Bania which knows only how to take account of others, rather than giving of itself. However we wish to tell the Hindu Bania that we are that race which does not forget its history, and reiterate it time and again- for example, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia and Kashmir.”---Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohd. Saeed in 1999.

And the Indian response to this, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his famous “ Pakistan is as much a victim of terrorism as India” speech in 2006. It gets better with pseudo peaceniks like Mahesh Bhatt calling for the ‘people to people’ contact between the civilian population of India and Pakistan to be allowed to continue, he further goes on to advocate the continuation of the ‘cultural contact’ between the two countries, for apparently a moderate Pakistan is our ‘only hope’. Bravo Mr. Bhatt, but please ask your moderate friends in Pakistan to ensure that singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh are also allowed to perform in Pakistan or is this ‘ cultural contact’ a one way street only, as rest of the things in India and Pakistan relations.

Things have purportedly heated up post 26/11, with the common people in Mumbai gathering to force the govt. to hear their voice, a special session of the Parliament being convened in order to show the resolve of the Indian people. That platitudes like “ The govt. working towards the creation of a Federal Investigation Agency”, “ India will be victorious in its fight against the barbaric menace of terrorism,” being passed of as action. Fight!! Did you see any fight friends ? Any action gentlemen?

Well why bother since the people in Mumbai and the rest of the country have gone back to earning their bread and butter and the country is slowly getting into the election mode. But please remember that this silence post 26/11 has a eerie sound and is just the calm before the next storm.

The govt. will of course point out to the ‘action’ taken by the U.N.Security Council in proscribing the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and in further proscribing four individuals of the Jamaat-ud- Dawa, including the chief Hafiz Mohd. Saeed who allegedly is under house arrest alongwith the chief of Jaish-e-Mohd, Maulana Masood Azhar. (Rest assured that while the doors of their houses are locked from the front, the back door and the windows are wide open.). Incidentally, the Pakistani High Commissioner to India in an interview to Karan Thapar has denied that Massod Azhar is under house arrest and has further feigned ingnorance about his whereabouts.

Condoleeza Rice has paid a visit and castigated Pakistan, British P.M. Gordon Brown has publicly acknowledged the role of Pakistan in facilitating the Mumbai attack. John McCain, John Kerry have accepted India’s right to self defence. The present govt. can beat its chest for ensuring that the world has accepted India’s position on terror. But has anything changed ? Anything at all !!!

The Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned in 2002 subsequent to the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar were put under house arrest, funds belonging to the outfit were apparently frozen.

The result: Lashkar changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (the name under which it functions now) and continued to flourish . Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar continued to hold public rallies after they were released within a year, spewing anti India venom.

I would wish to invite the attention of the Indian Muslims towards the sayings of Hafiz Saeed and the defacto policy of the govt. of Pakistan. Please do not consider the word Hindu in its literal meaning. For these terrorists anybody residing in India is a Hindu (and rightly so) inspite of the religious affiliations he or she prescribes to. In case of any doubt please refer to the casualty list of any terrorist attack. The names of the victims tell their own story. Anybody who was not a Hindu in thought and action left in 1947.

The govt. of Pakistan has refused to ban the Jamaat in spite of the UNSC resolution and refused to hand over any person of Pakistani origin to the Indian authorities for investigation. With regards to persons of Indian origin, remember Dawood Ibrahim, well apparently he was never in Pakistan anyway! The residence in the upmarket Clifton area of Karachi indicated by Indian Intelligence authorities belongs to Superman of course!! That Dawood’s daughter was married in a lavish ceremony to cricketer Javed Miandad’s son, in Karachi, is a trivial indeed.

That the same country handed over the murder accused in the Daniel Pearl case, Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, within 3 months to the U.S authorities shows that the Bagha Jatin mentality still prevails. You have to take the bull by its horn.

The sudden interest shown by the U.S and British authorities in the Mumbai case and its aftermath is because of two reasons.

Firstly the lives of a few U.S and British nationals have been lost in the attack and these countries value the lives of their citizens more than we with our concept of atman being eternal, do. But the fact also remains that this is not the first time foreign lives have been lost in terror attacks in India.

Which brings us to the more important second point. The NATO forces led by U.S.A are under tremendous pressure in Afghanistan. The flawed policy of targetting Sadddam Hussain and his country had ensured the thinning out of U.S forces in Afghanistan. This monumental folly has given a fresh lease of life to the dreaded Taliban who are on the comeback trail in Afghanistan. It is an open secret that the ISI under the patronage of the govt. of Pakistan provides shelter to the Talibanis in the Waziristan and FATA provinces of Pakistan. The temperature of this area has been rising in the past few months. Aerial attacks through unmanned drones, commando incursions by U.S forces into Pak territory and incessant U.S diplomatic pressure has bogged down the Pakistani army into an unwilling war with the Talibanis. There have been desertions of thousands of Pakistani army personnel in the past few months as they are not willing to fight against their ‘brothers’.

The NATO forces are using the port of Karachi to land their vehicles and weapons and then progressing to Afghanistan through Peshawar. Shockingly, hundreds of armoured vehicles belonging to the NATO forces have been burnt in their Peshawar storage houses in the past week. The message being conveyed by the ISI is loud and clear. ‘if you do not help us out, this is just a sample, we will make life hell for you in Afghanistan’. The Pakistani army has already issued statements to the effect of moving its forces stationed at the Afghan border towards its border with India post 26/11.

Now you understand the sudden U.S concern for India? These guys will let the rhetoric play out and in fact aid and abet it. But on the other hand they will not let you get down to business.

The war In Afghanistan is much more important for the U.S rather than India’s terror agenda. But can we really blame the Americans for their self interest? Wish we could be as clear headed in our focus towards our interests.

The former U.S Secy. Of State Madeleine Albright has referred to Pakistan as an ‘International Migraine’. But unfortunately it is our head which is aching from this migraine and its undeclared policy of ‘bleeding India through a thousand cuts’.

The existence of Pakistan as a sovereign nation is a truth which needs to be accepted and therefore declaring War will not be a solution to this menace which in reality is the unfinished agenda of the partition. India might attain some benefit strategically but remember four wars (including Kargil) have not resulted in anything beneficial, since the politicians lost at the negotiation table what the soldier earned at the battle field. Besides the Americans will never allow that to happen for their own strategic and national interest. War can only be the last resolve in any situation and should not be taken recourse to without utilizing the alternatives, which we unfortunately with our woolly eyed approach towards matters of national importance have never tried out.

‘Stateless actors’, Asif Ali Zardari calls them, knowing fully well that these stateless actors are not faceless or patronless. The irresponsibility of the Indian politicians can only be matched with their counterparts on the other side of the Wagah border. ‘Stateless’ indeed President Zardari! That is why your government does not permit interrogation of the accused held in the Mumbai attack case as requested for by British P.M. Gordon Brown in Islamabad. Stateless indeed ! For that is why your govt. refuses to freeze accounts of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa inspite of U.N.S.C resolutions. Stateless indeed! For that is why you start releasing the prominent members of the Jamaat even before arresting them.

But can India afford to be part of this shenanigan any longer in the hope of the U.S or any other western power helping us out, or the Pakistani rulers having a change of heart?

‘God helps those who help themselves’ is a saying which couldn’t be any truer in international relations. Israel is a case in point. Surrounded by hostile neighbours from its birth, the nation has taken on them all and not only survived but flourished. When we talk of Israel, the immediate thought which springs to mind is its Army and Secret services, but according to my estimate the advancement made by Israel in the field of Science and Technology (Drip water irrigation, is a small example) and its tremendous record in Democracy is no less significant. Mind you Israel is the only place in the middle east with a truly democratic system of governance.

We therefore keep getting back to the fact of looking fear in the eye and not backing out of a confrontation.

“Brave, bold men and women, these are what we want. What we want is vigor in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas. Avoid all these.”-Swami Vivekananda.

But where are the brave, bold men required to face this situation ?

D. Raja of the Communist Party of India has already suggested to take this matter of the Mumbai attack with evidences to the United Nations Security Council, ostensibly in order to pressurize Pakistan to take appropriate action. Do we remember the experience when we last took a bilateral matter to U.N.S.C? The Indian army was on the verge of driving away the Pakistani intruders in Kashmir in 1948 when Pandit Nehru on the devious advice of Lord Mountabatten referred the issue to the U.N and halted the Indian army in its tracks. It would not be out of place to infer that the terror attacks in India are in part an outcome of that monumental error.

How long will it take to realize and accept the fact that Pakistan is one of the pawns in the chess being played out by the Chinese in their bid to attain international hegemony, duly supported by Saudi petro dollars. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is pumping in billions of dollars in this international market of terrorism being run through the aegis of Pakistan in order to distract the fundamentalists from the issue of control of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. The Chinese will ensure that the matter is internationalized if taken to U.N.S.C by referring to the problem of Kashmir. The consequences need no elaboration. What further needs no elaboration is the close relationship between the CPI and the Chinese authorities. Any guesses on whom the instructions are coming from for people like D. Raja?

Pakistan has once again refused to handover Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed as demanded by Indian authorities. Dawood…..well Dawood was never in Pakistan, so say the Pakistanis. The Indian govt. has faced this predicament before and its cluelessness is again being exposed the moment Pakistanis refuse the handover.

But frankly were we really expecting the Pakistani govt. to arrest these people and let India take over? It is also in our benefit that we have not been granted custody of these criminals for what with our inappropriate laws and the approaching elections would have ensured lawyers rushing in to take up their cases and certain bleeding hearts in the political arena to organize human chains and rallies in their support. We certainly do not need more Afzal Guru’s, do we?

Machiavelli in his treatise, ‘The Prince’ said that the end justified the means. Chanakya’s ‘Arthashastra’ is a predecessor of Machiavelli many times over, what with elaborate study on espionage, political assassinations etc. in order to propagate Raj Dharma. But in our suicidal interpretation of Secularism for political gains and its consequential abhorrence to anything belonging to India’s past, we have all but abandoned veritable goldmines of knowledge like the Arthashastra.

Although this post cannot claim to have the intelligence to interpret these great works, but in my humble assessment, if Chanakya would have alive today, people like Dawood and Hafiz Saeed would have been assassinated in their safe houses by paid assassins who might have been the people guarding them.

Find it fantasy stuff? If you care to study Chanakya and flip through the ascent of Chandra Gupta Maurya and his subsequent gain of strength and then compare it with the sayings of the ‘Arthashastra’ the fantasy would come alive before you. But our ‘Secularism’ blinds ourselves to our own heritage.

This option is better than the ‘surgical strikes’ suggested by a section of the media isn’t it? Why dirty your hands when you can hire people to do the dirty job for you? We can repeat the policy of bleeding through a thousand cuts over its inventor.

Fact remains that once a terrorist is able to get out of his house for his mission it becomes very difficult to stop him, howsoever efficient the security or intelligence agencies might be. The only place to stop him is inside his home only, Get him before he gets you.

But do we really have the will to do so? Will our intelligence agencies for once be made free from their espionage about inconvenient political opponents, and permitted to do their primary duties? Will our bureaucrats for once give up their lust for corruption and take responsibility for their actions rather than hiding behind the politicians? Politicians come and go, but the bureaucracy like Amrit is immortal, unaffected, unaccountable. The Mumbai incident is a an example in this, while The C.M and Dy. C.M were forced to resign, the D.G.P of Maharashtra police and the Commissioner of Mumbai Police continue inspite of this massive failure in their duty.

Questions are many, answers limited. Mumbai has been saved for the time being, India is still unsafe. As we said in the last post, the battle might have been won, but the war goes on.

WHO DARES WINS. LET US DARE, WE SHALL WIN----Motto of the British SAS commandos.

CHAK DE INDIA