The Long War

Used as we are to wars of a fortnight or three weeks, the Cl Ops against the LTTE in Sri Lanka, which went on for nearly two and a half years, proved indeed tough - and to many, too much. Careerists suffered a great deal. Calculations of many went awry and many were 'found out' if not found wanting. Large numbers felt uncomfortable, dissipated, disheartened. Some were dispirited, on the verge of tears. The contagion spread to the families of not only officers but jawans also. One common question most earnestly asked was:. 'When will our husbands return?' People, village elders, old veterans, friends back home asked: 'What are you doing in Sri Lanka'? We quietly asked ourselves: 'What are we achieving?'

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Communication facilities fortunately, in Op PAWAN were indeed well engineered and quite a few could talk to their families at various locations from where formations had moved. This carried some to the other extreme. Talking every day to the families became a ash ion. Eyebrows would be raised if this was not done. And families would gather at central places where telephone facilities existed and talk to their husbands. If he did not call twice or thrice a week, the wife would be in tears. Some wives specialised in finding out details of not only their husbands activities but also those of their superiors: Where they went, what they did, when, in what manner etc! Notes would then be exchanged. Other wives then would feel offended that their husbands did not tell them enough. This is a peculiarity common to most of our officers' and soldiers' families across the board.

If he did not call twice or thrice a week, the wife would be in tears.

In my long tenure of nearly three and a half years In Nagaland as a Sector Commander, I had been witness to a far higher degree of this tragi-comic practice. Loose talk would be rampant; security rendered weak; and the soldier would start being influenced, biased or affected unduly. During my spots of short leave I thought it appropriate to talk to all the families in their respective family welfare centres. I told them what the war was about, what exactly their husbands were doing, how everyone who went Into war was not going to die, unless destiny willed specifically (in which case one could die by falling down in the bathroom too, why on the battle field?) and how well their husbands were doing In adversity, which after all was war and would remain so. One could not expect the good life all the time! It had to be death, wounds, hardship, blood, sweat and Interminable toil.

That was a soldier’s life, the soldier's lot and the lot of his family. I frankly told them that their 'men' would not be in a hurry to come back; that they had a job to do; that the thought of their return depended on when the job would be successfully concluded; and that we would come back with honour and fame and success. Would not the wives wish that their husbands returned as brave, honoured soldiers with heads high and chests out? How would the husbands be devoted to their dangerous job and pickup courage if the wives pestered them about their return and expected them to speak on the telephone ever so frequently? At the end of such sessions I would invite questions - any question so that I could give an authoritative reply and squash rumours and loose talk.

It was indeed heart-warming to see the response of tile same family, the same Army wife, who could not hide the fact that she was indeed brave and was determined to be even more so, in her own quiet fashion. Most of them were ignorant and unaware of what was happening on the Island; nobody seemed to have told them what the whole thing was about. Almost all wives of the Commanding Officers and Brigadiers said so. No senior Generals and their wives from higher HQ seemed concerned or thought it fit to speak to the families and explain why their husbands had been away so long.

In the final stages the gunner had to coordinate with the Naval Guns, Air Defence Guns, Armed Helicopter, Mechanised Columns, Infantry rear parties. Air Force, various commanders at different echelons and reserves.

For them it was enough to be photographed with patients in hospitals or while giving sewing machines and solar cookers to the war widows. But what about the large number of families of men who were alive; yearning, tense, apprehensive, shuddering and nervous? Somehow our ideas of a human approach to a soldier's life, welfare of his family and developing that dynamic of belonging among them are skewed, even absent. We do not go to the root of it, to the practical aspects, relevance and reality. We could have done with much more robustness, professional approach, a greater businesslike attitude and vigorous pursuit of the job on hand on a firm war footing than our predilection for taking shelter under peacetime practices. We fought this war with a peacetime outlook.

This war was fought by the Infantry. It also demonstrated its concomitant overuse. Engineers came very close to Infantry in most of the Infantryman's domain, a credit I admit to with great admiration. The Sappers were remarkable indeed in almost every sphere, including many of the Infantry's. The Artillery, though little in quantity, did a good job with the resources they had. It was more a rule that the guns deployed in troops and not conventionally in batteries. That increased the pressure on and demand for larger number of gun position officers and observation post officers. The gunner in great demand was the Artillery Air OP (Army Aviation) since most of the shoots were in the jungle, along the sea coast and lagoon marshes. In the final stages the gunner had to coordinate with the Naval Guns, Air Defence Guns, Armed Helicopter, Mechanised Columns, Infantry rear parties. Air Force, various commanders at different echelons and reserves. It was a unique experiment actually structured, deployed and employed on the ground for the first in the' Indian Armed Forces combat history.

Communications within the Island and between it and Madras, Delhi and Pune were indeed another remarkable feature of Op PAWAN the Signals had a tricky and difficult job and rose to it manfully. Some highly ingenious structuring, engineering and routing was done. Mechanised forces - the tanks and the mechanised infantry - somehow held back. Terrain and the nature and scale of operations did not enable their classical employment. And that is the aspect their commanders harped upon, saying that there was no scope for their classical use. How can you have massed mechanised forces operating in a Cl Ops environment against armed civilians moving about in small groups in jungle and built-up areas? Mechanised troops perforce had to undertake dismounted action far more frequently, using their armoured fighting vehicles as fire platforms, communication points and in open areas as roving platforms.

Wherever there were bolder, inquisitive and innovative minds and command encouragement, they improvised tactics, evolved operating methods and took on tasks; even suggested, 'them to their formation commander. But such leaders were few. Largely they preferred to remain idle, stagnant, wishing for a classical role which would not come their way. The Services too did a conspicuously good job, particularly in adjusting to the hostile environment and an invisible enemy all around. They provided their own protection, shared combat patrol duties. ambushes, road opening, small-scale searches, etc. It was pleasantly reassuring to see an ASC or AOC vehicle with an LMG mounted on it and manned by their personnel, speeding up and down.

A few statistics would be relevant at this stage. In the two and a half years In Sri Lanka more than a hundred infantry units went through operational experience as a result of normal turn over. Of the ten GOCs of the four divisions which operated in Sri Lanka, only one was an Artillery officer, the rest being infantrymen. Of the more than 40 Brigs who went through operations as Brigade Commanders and Deputy GOCs of divisions, only one was from the Armoured Corps and one from the Engineers (both were deputy GOCs), while the rest were Infantrymen. The Armand Corps Brig stayed a few months and went off on a long course. In my 14 months as GOC in Jaffna. I saw three Deputy GOCs!