:: Balbir Punj

We won Kargil war, so why the silence?

Balbir K. Punj

July.31 : This week several organisations are remembering and commemorating the sacrifices of our soldiers during the Kargil war, fought in the summer of 1999. Every Indian is proud of the achievements of our armed forces. The precipitous, snow-clad hills, especially Tiger Hill and Tololing, are the pride of every Indian.

During the last few weeks many have recalled stories of valour that our jawans and officers exhibited in treading and recapturing treacherous hills in the face of constant fire from well-entrenched Pakistani forces and beating them at their own game. The one absentee from all these functions has been the Government of India.

A function was organised at the Kargil headquarters in Drass where the Army had organised an impressive parade. Neither Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, defence minister A.K. Antony, nor Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor were present. Former Army Chief Gen. V.P. Malik (Retd), who had led the Army during the Kargil war, was in attendance.

Of course, Dr Singh paid tribute to Kargil heroes in a traditional salute at New Delhi’s Amar Jawan Jyoti, but nothing beyond that. The passion of the moment was seen in the presence of the relatives of the martyrs who had sacrificed their lives for our safety.

All this is rather intriguing. Is the government not proud of the Indian Army’s achievements? Why is there a studied silence? Is this symptomatic of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government succumbing under pressure from the United States which does not want to rub the Pakistan government the wrong way at a time when it is engaged in the US-inspired crackdown on the domestic Taliban on its western front?

Pervez Musharraf — the big player in the Kargil war from the Pakistani side — is, in fact, boasting that it was his side that won the war. South Block has not made an issue of this blatant lie. People have the right to know the reason for this "official silence". Especially since this is happening at a time when not only the Opposition in Parliament but even many within the Congress Party are unable to support the joint statement issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on July 16.

Congress MP Rashid Alvi had let the cat out of the bag in an interview to a TV channel: "Kargil isn’t a thing to be celebrated. The war was fought within our territory. We didn’t come to know when the Pakistani Army crossed over and built bunkers inside our territory. It’s only the National Democratic Alliance which may celebrate". Clearly, the Congress and the UPA government are politicising achievements of the Indian Army. But that alone does not explain why the government is ignoring the success of Operation Vijay on July 26. To understand the mindset of the Congress and the UPA, one has to recall a bit of history.

The alibi that the intruders were not armymen was blown to shreds when the Government of India released a transcript of the conversation between the then Pakistan Army Chief of Staff Pervez Musharraf in Beijing and his second-in-command in Rawalpindi. Pakistan’s then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had gone to Beijing but found no support for his Army’s adventure. Pakistan did not find support in Europe either or at any other international forum. Finally Mr Sharif invited himself to Washington in early July 1999 and managed to get US President Bill Clinton’s attention on July 4, America’s Independence Day.

Having seen that Mr Sharif was in hot water and that the Pakistani game in Kargil was facing defeat, Mr Clinton agreed to play peacemaker. Keen to take credit for bringing this war to an end, he invited India’s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Washington to negotiate a way out of the war. But Mr Vajpayee firmly refused. Immense pressure from the Americans could not move him. True to his name, he remained atal. The war was initiated by Pakistan and it was for Pakistan to withdraw, Mr Vajpayee told Mr Clinton in no uncertain terms.

Mr Vajpayee’s firm refusal to negotiate denied Mr Sharif the face-saver that politicians seek in such situations. An exasperated US President was now telling Mr Sharif to end the war and go back to the Line of Control (LoC). Mr Sharif had little time and choice.

Pakistan announced its retreat from Kargil Hills and the decision to stay behind the LoC. Mr Vajpayee allowed Pakistan in retreat to withdraw their dead and injured soldiers without destroying them on the spot.

To complete the picture we should recall that at that time the Vajpayee-led coalition government was on a caretaker basis. The coalition had nearly two dozen parties in it. Yet not a single word of dissent was heard and the head of the government was in command all along. If Pakistan had hoped that a coalition Indian government would be too unstable to deliver a diplomatic response as well as ground action response to its wily plan, it was proved wrong.

Newspapers report that a high-level meeting was called recently by the Congress to fend off criticism and give a credible explanation for its faux pas on Kargil war’s 10th anniversary.

Politicians in Islamabad are laughing about their diplomatic coup in the Indo-Pak context. After showing Dr Singh the dossier on the 26/11 accused and getting his blink, Pakistan has gone back and postponed the resumed trial of the accused Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and others by a month, leaving Dr Singh, already under criticism at home, in a "Trishanku" space.

Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com