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The Pioneer :: Home : >> Lets treat our forces better
Let's treat our forces better
September 24, 2010 3:09:58 AM
Hiranmay Karlekar
Forgetting the signal contribution of the Armed Forces to the country and running them down will prove disastrous
September 22 came and went. Who remembered it? Not the television channels, nor the print media. This is a shame. On that day in 1965 the second India-Pakistan war was ended by a cease-fire. Neither side had gained a decisive victory but India clearly had the edge, holding 1,800 sq km of Pakistani territory against, 550 sq km of Indian territory held by Pakistan at the end of the war. And this despite the fact that the Pakistani Army was much better equipped. It had M-47 and M-48 Patton, M-4 Sherman, and M4 Chaffee tanks. India had to make do with M-4 Sherman, Centurion, AMX and PT-76 tanks. The Indian Air Force played an equally glorious role, particularly in halting thrusts by Pakistans armoured formations in the plains of Punjab and the Akhnoor sector in Jammu, and damaging Pakistans airbases. There were no major naval conflicts.
It was mainly because of the valour, courage and resourcefulness of the officers and men of the Indian Army and Air Force that the country could hold its head high at the end of the war. Yet, India did not remember them on the 45th anniversary of the cease-fire. No memorial ceremony was held to honour those that fell; not a word was said in praise of the gallantry they displayed. There was, of course, nothing surprising about the amnesia. The nation lionises personnel of the Armed Forces during conflicts and forgets them in times of peace.
Nor has the political leadership shown anything near the urgency it should have in ensuring that the Army, Air Force and Navy have the best weapons, combat vehicles, aircraft and naval vessels available globally. This holds even now, when the country faces a surge in Pakistan-sponsored terrorist strikes as well as the possibility of things erupting in a full-fledged India-Pakistan war, in the next couple of years, a war which Pakistan will fight with its arsenal swelled by massive military and financial aid from the United States. Instead, a vocal section talks of reaching out to organisations in Kashmir that seek Jammu & Kashmirs secession from India, demands the abrogation/ significant dilution of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and calls for the withdrawal of the Army and para-military forces from the State.
It is not difficult to foresee the consequences of acceding to their demands.
The withdrawal of the Army and the para-military forces from Jammu & Kashmir will mean that the mountain passes along the Line of Control and International border will not be Indias line of defence against terrorist infiltrators and invading Pakistani forces. They will come down virtually unopposed to the plains of Jammu using the road infrastructure built in the State for development and defence. The revocation/modification of the AFSPA will handicap the Army whenever it is called upon to fight insurgency/terrorism, not only in Jammu & Kashmir but wherever it is deployed for the task. Equally, it will be a vindication of those who have been trying to tar the image of the Armed Forces and project them as trigger-happy and prone to atrocities, which in turn is liable to demoralise the forces, inhibit their actions and further undermine their counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations. This is something the country can hardly afford.
The point needs to be made because the Armed Forces have been repeatedly sent to fight wars and undertake counter-insurgency operations with one hand tied behind their backs. In 1962, they were sent to the heights of the Himalaya ranges, ill-armed and ill-supplied. They had .303 Lee Enfield rifles, when the Chinese had semi-automatic ones. They had in most places two-inch mortars when the Chinese not only had eight-inch ones but in much larger numbers. One reason for this was that our ordnance factories were making coffee percolators when they should have been making guns and munitions. In places like Se-La pass, jawans had to pull the 25-pounder self-propelled guns physically through roads hardly equipped for taking them up. Many of them were not used to the great heights to which they were catapulted from the plains and had only summer uniforms to protect themselves against the freezing cold. Everywhere, they were hugely outnumbered by the Chinese who were much better armed, clothed, and supplied as their supply lines were much shorter. Yet in most places, they fought almost to the last man and the last bullet. The battles at Goswamy Hill, Rezang-La, Gurung Hill, Dhola and Walong will forever stand testimony to the valour, fighting ability and patriotism for which the officers and men of the Indian Army are justly famous the world over.
As seen above, they performed remarkably well in 1965 when they were relatively less disadvantaged. And they won a decisive victory in 1971 when they were prepared and were aided by Bangladeshs Mukti Bahini, whose personnel provided valuable field intelligence inputs and combat support in the eastern sector.
Apart from outstanding performance by the Army and the Indian Air Force, the war saw, for the first time since independence, the Indian Navy engaged in major operations. In an operation code-named Operation Trident, the Western Fleet devastated the Karachi harbour, destroyed several Pakistani naval and commercial vessels and critically important reserve fuel tanks on the night of December 4-5, 1971. In Operation Python, the Indian Navy attacked Karachi roads, destroying the remaining fuel tanks and three merchant navy ships, on the night of December 8-9. Operating in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, the Eastern Fleet played havoc in the Chittagong area as well as off the Kulna coastline besides sinking the Pakistani submarine, PNS Ghazi. It suffered a major loss when INS Khukri went down in the Arabian Sea with the loss of 18 officers and 176 seamen. The Kargil story is too fresh in peoples minds to require re-telling.
The threat India faces from Pakistan, Al Qaeda and the Taliban will grow in the next several years if the Americans withdraw from Afghanistan with a face-saving treaty that enables a Taliban / Al Qaeda take-over of that country. There may even be a war. India will then require its Armed Forces to be adequately equipped and their morale high. Forgetting their signal contribution to the country and running them down will then prove disastrous. So will be indulgence to organisations that will sabotage Indias war efforts.
Let's treat our forces better
September 24, 2010 3:09:58 AM
Hiranmay Karlekar
Forgetting the signal contribution of the Armed Forces to the country and running them down will prove disastrous
September 22 came and went. Who remembered it? Not the television channels, nor the print media. This is a shame. On that day in 1965 the second India-Pakistan war was ended by a cease-fire. Neither side had gained a decisive victory but India clearly had the edge, holding 1,800 sq km of Pakistani territory against, 550 sq km of Indian territory held by Pakistan at the end of the war. And this despite the fact that the Pakistani Army was much better equipped. It had M-47 and M-48 Patton, M-4 Sherman, and M4 Chaffee tanks. India had to make do with M-4 Sherman, Centurion, AMX and PT-76 tanks. The Indian Air Force played an equally glorious role, particularly in halting thrusts by Pakistans armoured formations in the plains of Punjab and the Akhnoor sector in Jammu, and damaging Pakistans airbases. There were no major naval conflicts.
It was mainly because of the valour, courage and resourcefulness of the officers and men of the Indian Army and Air Force that the country could hold its head high at the end of the war. Yet, India did not remember them on the 45th anniversary of the cease-fire. No memorial ceremony was held to honour those that fell; not a word was said in praise of the gallantry they displayed. There was, of course, nothing surprising about the amnesia. The nation lionises personnel of the Armed Forces during conflicts and forgets them in times of peace.
Nor has the political leadership shown anything near the urgency it should have in ensuring that the Army, Air Force and Navy have the best weapons, combat vehicles, aircraft and naval vessels available globally. This holds even now, when the country faces a surge in Pakistan-sponsored terrorist strikes as well as the possibility of things erupting in a full-fledged India-Pakistan war, in the next couple of years, a war which Pakistan will fight with its arsenal swelled by massive military and financial aid from the United States. Instead, a vocal section talks of reaching out to organisations in Kashmir that seek Jammu & Kashmirs secession from India, demands the abrogation/ significant dilution of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and calls for the withdrawal of the Army and para-military forces from the State.
It is not difficult to foresee the consequences of acceding to their demands.
The withdrawal of the Army and the para-military forces from Jammu & Kashmir will mean that the mountain passes along the Line of Control and International border will not be Indias line of defence against terrorist infiltrators and invading Pakistani forces. They will come down virtually unopposed to the plains of Jammu using the road infrastructure built in the State for development and defence. The revocation/modification of the AFSPA will handicap the Army whenever it is called upon to fight insurgency/terrorism, not only in Jammu & Kashmir but wherever it is deployed for the task. Equally, it will be a vindication of those who have been trying to tar the image of the Armed Forces and project them as trigger-happy and prone to atrocities, which in turn is liable to demoralise the forces, inhibit their actions and further undermine their counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations. This is something the country can hardly afford.
The point needs to be made because the Armed Forces have been repeatedly sent to fight wars and undertake counter-insurgency operations with one hand tied behind their backs. In 1962, they were sent to the heights of the Himalaya ranges, ill-armed and ill-supplied. They had .303 Lee Enfield rifles, when the Chinese had semi-automatic ones. They had in most places two-inch mortars when the Chinese not only had eight-inch ones but in much larger numbers. One reason for this was that our ordnance factories were making coffee percolators when they should have been making guns and munitions. In places like Se-La pass, jawans had to pull the 25-pounder self-propelled guns physically through roads hardly equipped for taking them up. Many of them were not used to the great heights to which they were catapulted from the plains and had only summer uniforms to protect themselves against the freezing cold. Everywhere, they were hugely outnumbered by the Chinese who were much better armed, clothed, and supplied as their supply lines were much shorter. Yet in most places, they fought almost to the last man and the last bullet. The battles at Goswamy Hill, Rezang-La, Gurung Hill, Dhola and Walong will forever stand testimony to the valour, fighting ability and patriotism for which the officers and men of the Indian Army are justly famous the world over.
As seen above, they performed remarkably well in 1965 when they were relatively less disadvantaged. And they won a decisive victory in 1971 when they were prepared and were aided by Bangladeshs Mukti Bahini, whose personnel provided valuable field intelligence inputs and combat support in the eastern sector.
Apart from outstanding performance by the Army and the Indian Air Force, the war saw, for the first time since independence, the Indian Navy engaged in major operations. In an operation code-named Operation Trident, the Western Fleet devastated the Karachi harbour, destroyed several Pakistani naval and commercial vessels and critically important reserve fuel tanks on the night of December 4-5, 1971. In Operation Python, the Indian Navy attacked Karachi roads, destroying the remaining fuel tanks and three merchant navy ships, on the night of December 8-9. Operating in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, the Eastern Fleet played havoc in the Chittagong area as well as off the Kulna coastline besides sinking the Pakistani submarine, PNS Ghazi. It suffered a major loss when INS Khukri went down in the Arabian Sea with the loss of 18 officers and 176 seamen. The Kargil story is too fresh in peoples minds to require re-telling.
The threat India faces from Pakistan, Al Qaeda and the Taliban will grow in the next several years if the Americans withdraw from Afghanistan with a face-saving treaty that enables a Taliban / Al Qaeda take-over of that country. There may even be a war. India will then require its Armed Forces to be adequately equipped and their morale high. Forgetting their signal contribution to the country and running them down will then prove disastrous. So will be indulgence to organisations that will sabotage Indias war efforts.
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