Nationwide drills in 300 districts aim to prepare civilians for modern threats from across the border
It has been decades since anything like a civil defence drill has been carried out nationwide, in about 300 districts. Among India’s ageing generations, there may be a few million who remember the last time that the air raid sirens went off, and that was in 1971, at the time of the India-Pakistan war in which East Pakistan was liberated and became Bangladesh. Today’s generations may have heard what an air raid siren sounds like only in war movies and experienced blackouts only in power cuts.
To be prepared amid the escalating tensions with a terror-sponsoring nation like Pakistan would not be such a bad idea, even if it may sound somewhat alarmist for the many millions who may be living far from the reach of our neighbour’s ballistic missiles. But, given the march of technology, particularly in the offensive capabilities of the military-industrial complex that makes modern-day arms, the wiser option would be to get ready for any eventuality.
Such is the unceasing obstinacy in Pakistan that it should keep eyeing Kashmir, that has been an integral part of India since Maharaja Hari Singh decided to throw his lot in with Bharat on October 27, 1947. In the intervening years since the first India-Pakistan war of 1947-48, in which Pakistan occupied areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), no territory has changed hands. And yet, a campaign based on an insatiable territorial ambition is what is driving a nation that has often come to the brink of economic collapse.
As the officials would have it, “new and complex threats” have indeed emerged, and the drills planned for three days are part of a process by which India will be better prepared to withstand whatever consequences may arise if the country gives a fitting reply to the nefarious designs of Pakistan in exporting terror to Jammu & Kashmir. To have an idea of what the civilian population must do in the event of an attack is what the civil defence drills are about, and it will be a novel, though scary, experience for those who have never had to worry about air raids and wars. Such are the times we are living in.
