Given our experience of the past decade wherein we have generally remained on the back foot it is time we took some bold steps”¦To launch the process we invite the Pakistani Army Chief to Delhi to be followed by a visit by the Indian Army Chief to Pakistan. It is time we opened a new chapter in our bilateral relations where we shift from a reactive phase to a proactive posture.
Throwing responsibility to the winds Pakistan began to brandish its nuclear weapons capability in a manner similar to the revolver in the holster of the Wild West. So while nuclear weapons were expected to keep us militarily paralyzed, the offensives into India were to be executed by the Jihadists, the Mujahedeen, the terrorists, the militants or the insurgents. Give them whatever name you will. It is through these groups that Pakistan has been waging a relentless war against us for the past twenty years.
We should not forget that the idea of using irregulars is not new to Pakistan. Within months of gaining independence the Pakistani military launched its first offensive into Kashmir which was spearheaded by the tribal people. In 1965, the plot was almost identical. But it is only after the success against the Russians in Afghanistan that the Pakistani Army came to the conclusion (howsoever flawed) that the basic methods used in Afghanistan could be used effectively to bleed India. In Afghanistan it took ten years against India they obviously are committed to carry on for longer.
How have we responded against this protracted offensive of a thousand cuts? Perhaps the Army’s Exercise Brass Tacks conducted in the eighties when we sensed the new game plan of Pakistan was our first military move on the chess board. Whatever we tried to accomplish- misfired. The second was Operation Parakrama. There isn’t any consensus on what this massive mobilization achieved. Politically the Agra Summit was path breaking. Its failure was perhaps ordained.
Clearly our problem is the Pakistani Army. And the answer is in either changing its mindset or in transforming Pakistan into a more effective democracy where the Army ceases to call the shots. These two alternatives have to be concurrently addressed by us, as well as the international community. On both counts we require sophisticated strategies and equally sophisticated implementation mechanisms.
In this context a small first step could be to explore the option of military to military interaction. I believe the idea had been tossed around tentatively and somewhat discretely in the past and dropped for reasons that may have now lost their relevance.
Given our experience of the past decade wherein we have generally remained on the back foot it is time we took some bold steps. Let the Government announce that to build confidence and address the prevailing trust deficit it proposes that the two militaries engage in discussions and have delegations visit each other. To launch the process we invite the Pakistani Army Chief to Delhi to be followed by a visit by the Indian Army Chief to Pakistan. It is time we opened a new chapter in our bilateral relations where we shift from a reactive phase to a proactive posture. Maybe the Pakistani Army will spurn our offer. If they do, I am sure, we can come up with another box to be opened.
Finally a view on dialogue: the solutions we seek should not be limited to the disputes as we see them but importantly it should also address mutual sense of ill-will and wrong-doing. In that an effort should be made, by both sides to bury the unpalatable parts of history and accept the geographical reality as it exists.
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