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'We salute Major Wangchuk and his men'
E-mail from readers the world overDate Sent: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 21:34:14 +0530
The article was really very inspiring to read. We should all salute Major Wangchuk and his men, and the Indian army in general, for the bravery they are showing in giving a suitable reply to the Pakistanis. Thanks, Rediff, for bringing out such stories. Kiran Date Sent: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 10:50:02 -0500
Dear Sir, I am an Indian student in the US. I really appreciate this kind of inspiring article. It would be wonderful if you could bring out more such articles about our brave soldiers. When an Indian sees it, it really inspires him to do something for these heroes and India. What we Indians lack is patriotism. These articles will definitely kindle them. Sridhar Date Sent: Sat, 31 May 1997 00:31:42 +0530
I totally agree with the views expressed by the retired officers. I was not aware about the gathering in advance; otherwise I would have attended it too. We in the armed forces have repeatedly seen that what we earned by sweat and blood on the battlefield has been squandered by the politicians on the negotiation table. 1948,1965 and 1971 are examples of the ineptitude of the politicians in dealing with Pakistan. It is time the politicians stopped making irresponsible statements and let the armed forces get on with the job of dealing with the enemy. I would like to add my name to the list of soldiers in volunteering to serve anywhere anytime in any capacity in defence of the motherland. I am physically fit and mentally tough. I have served in Kashmir many a times and also specifically in Dras area. Maj Gen D N Varma, AVSM (Retd) Date Sent: Mon, 31 May 1999 19:16:14 +0100
I would suggest that you explain a thing or two to Mr Kampani, who seems to have neither his facts nor his thinking in order. We need to settle this issue as soon as possible because the cost of fighting insurgency is very high for India. The only point where I would disagree with you is about allowing Kashmir to become independent. Not only will it be a breeding ground for Pakistani terrorists, it will also serve China's interests to have a weak state in that region. Pakistan will continue to be an irritant, and will have the additional gloat factor of having won the ideological battle. China stands to gain from a weakened India. China has been exploiting the Nepalese disaffection with India (a legacy of the unthinking Rajiv Gandhi). It has also cemented ties with Myanmar after India shied away from ties with the military junta there. We will only admit our weakness by giving up Kashmir. India is perceived as a namby pamby state, both within and by other states. This is why we have these ridiculous levels of crime and corruption in the country, and why we have every tin pot little country threatening us. A state never becomes strong by showing restraint (remember the American reaction to Pearl Harbor?) We have to junk this Nehruvian ideology of Panchshila -- it doesn't work in today's world (it didn't work in 1962 either). India has to be a strong state. And if that means crushing our enemies, then so be it. An aside: Those like Mr Kampani who claim how our nuclear status has not given us any edge in this conflict, I would like to refer them to Rajiv Srinivasan's excellent article on Pokhran II. Reflect, you simpletons, on where we would have been if Pakistan had the bomb (like they obviously did), and we did not. Sharif would not be sending Aziz over, he would be attacking us with his missiles, maybe even missiles tipped with nuclear warheads. Ruchira Raghav Date Sent: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 16:21:58 -0400
Dear Rediff, India may lose, if at all, the so-called PR or media war, neither because the government brief the media improperly nor because there is the inevitable secrecy, early indecision and some contradiction inherent in such situations. It is more because some in the media are either totally ignorant of what emergent and unforseen warlike conditions entail or because they are immature and consider themselves too important. The media war is also more likely to be lost because of the 'chest beating' by the media, such as in this article, and also because some in the media have concentrated their attack on the government for purely political reasons. I see more damage being done to the 'fighting forces' and to India by articles like the one by Sreedharan, many others in the Indian media and by some irresponsible criticism levied by the opposition, than by the action -- or lack of action -- of the government. Sitting 10,000 miles away in the United States, we have a pretty good picture of what is possibly happening on the front based on the reports released by the government from time to time. This is simply because we fully understand and appreciate the current situation, what it could be, are fully cognisant of the difficulties the services and the government could be facing in these early stages, and have no political or professional axes to grind. Even when we are so far off, many of us are doing our best to gather support for the country and for the servicemen and their families. The government has released bad information in bits. That makes sense. Releasing the worst news early would only create panic. They are better prepared to absorb the bad news now than they were in the beginning. The important thing is that the troops in the field know the facts they are facing, and are now dealing with them. Internationally it is well known who the aggressor is. International opinion, particularly in the western media, has never favoured India for the last 50 years. It is for the first time that western government spokesmen have spoken what India wanted to hear, and that's a great credit to the Indian diplomacy. Indian media would do well to support the Indian government, than criticise it, if they are serious about International opinion, and not about their own ego. The Indian media have some hazy and cocky ideas about the ideals of the western media, which the latter actually never follow. Indians try to show off their idealism and hurt their own countrymen in the bargain. Some of Sreedharan's statements can be considered abusive and highly improper, and more helpful to India's enemies than to India. Is that the duty or role of media, he understands? He harps on a 'huge intelligence failure'! How will it help to carp about that at present? He talks of covering up operations or the loss of a Sukhoi! How this revelation by Sreedharan, even if true, help the Indian case? Why does the Indian media need to be won over? Aren't they loyal Indians? Or are they some foreign agents who the army or the defence ministry need to please? Why should the army be forced to let the arrogant and ignorant mediamen into the effected area? That will only add to the burden of protecting them, and later leave them with the task of countering their misinterpretation of facts. Sreedharan says that there are plenty of stories to tell the world. Are there? I haven't seen any reported by him in this article. Let the Indian media get real. This is war, and their role has to be positive, helpful, and effective. Let them shed their self-importance and start playing the role they are paid for, unless they are working for the enemy. The soldiers and the airmen who have put their lives on the line need encouragement. They need support not only for themselves but for their government, their country and their families. All the criticism of what and why can wait till the war is over. If Sreedharan wants to know all the facts, let him put on a uniform, get some training, and go into the attack against the enemy. He will have enough to report if he comes back alive. PR will take care of itself, if the people including the opposition, and the media speak with one voice, the 'voice of India', and not of the self-serving. Will the Sreedharans of the media understand? Col. Rajendra Kumar Aggarwala (retired) Date Sent: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 09:48:10 -0700 (PDT)
I could not believe that a person with such a sound experience in the military could state that Kashmir should be divided. What is the guarantee that Pakistan will be content with its share of Kashmir and not involve itself in supplying militants to grab more of Kashmir. Should we then forego half of the remaining half? Some statements like, "We are too dependent on outsiders" make absolutely no sense. I would like to tell him that we are not too dependent on outsiders. Does he know that the sanctions the US imposed on India after the nuclear weapon tests have had no effect on India? The Indian economy might be passing through a low, but it's more or less self-sustaining. All this fellow was trying to do here is get his personal grudge against Fernendes out. If this guy has such a low opinion of India and believes that the US is his master, why doesn't he just go live there? Srikanth Reddy Ojili Date Sent: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 14:45:37 -0400 (EDT)
To The Rediff Team, You are a great team. The piece by Colonel John Taylor was very informative. I would like to see similar information about Siachen from some army officer who was posted there. Keep up the good work. Amit Date Sent: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 17:36:49 +0530
Dear editor, I feel deeply disturbed by the events happening in Kargil. At times, I feel a nuclear bomb would be the answer to the Pakistanis' brutal and inhuman acts. All other atrocities on humans seem to be child's play compared to the acts of these so-called 'human beings'. Then again, a nuclear bomb will affect the rest of the ecosystem around the world and that wouldn't be fair to them, would it? I feel very betrayed by other countries with regards to their silence over all these brutal acts by the infiltrators. Agreed that the US (whose Stingers are the reasons for few of the deaths of our valuable soldiers) and a few other countries have objected to the acts committed by the Pakistanis, but it all ends there. Only objections. It seems that the US is a nation of all talk and no action. The inhuman treatment of the Pakistanis is just that - Inhuman. They seem to be afraid of even the bodies of our soldiers, that they slice off parts of our soldiers. And once again, the world seems to be watching it like they're watching a movie like Saving Private Ryan . I just hope they don't applaud for this one too. At this juncture of pain and suffering for a nation of heroes, I feel proud to be an Indian and am sure that every one of my countrymen feels the same way as I do when I read the recent article. I only pray that no more Indian lives are lost in the operation to send out these barbarians because no Indian life is disposable. Each one, however inconsequential it may seem to others, is very important to us. Jai Hind, Kishore Kumar Date Sent: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 11:53:00 -0500
Would our Honorable prime minister, for a change, stop talking and get into the act of flushing out or killing those infiltrators, at once? Would he, for a change, stop barking at these Paki hawks? Would he, for a change, pursue "hot pursuit" well into PoK, and destroy bases in Skardu and other areas? Nuclear war is impossible. India can as well unilaterally opt for "hot pursuit," in her national interests, and destroy bases in PoK. Yes, they include those near Siachen Glacier. Would he, for a change, authorize Indian Armed Forces to occupy strategic positions in PoK and Pakistan, so that Pakistan is forced to negotiate on India's terms? Until he acts on the above cases, Kashmiris are never going to find peace. Never! It's best to arrest or kill all the infiltrators than "push them back" so that a strong signal is send to the Pakistani hawks. Simply using Jaswant Singh to negotiate with Sartaz Aziz, is not going to help. Narayanan Date Sent: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 15:03:25 -0500
Mr Nayar, You need to gather all your supporters once again and go to the LoC in Kargil to light candles and cry for peace. This is what you did when we went for the nuke tests last year. I will guarantee that the Pakistanis will treat you well. As well as they treated those six soldiers. That's what you deserve anyway. Date Sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 06:24:17 -0700
Dear Rediff: General Ashok Mehta has done a great disservice to the country and our valiant armed forces by underestimating a serious situation grossly in his article, 'Using a sledgehammer to swat a fly'. The suggestion is that there is no need for the Indian army to be bullish. How can an ex-general of Indian army say, "Pakistan's general staff has to be congratulated on this crafty and calibrated intrusion that must have taken many months to plan and execute." The learned author surely does not want India to fall into the same Pakistani trap as she did in 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru stopped too short militarily in Jammu and Kashmir, hoping that diplomatic or political efforts would help us evict intruders from PoK, but in vain. The result is that we are suffering even till today for the last 52 years. Allow the fly to flit from pinnacle to pinnacle on the Kargil range, and we have to wait for the next 60 years (?) for Pakis to have the good sense to voluntarily vacate a strategically important area they so cleverly added to their illegal POK map. No one with any sense of appreciation of the military situation in Kargil could ever dare consider the region a less active, relatively dormant and an area that directly controls our Srinagar-Kargil-Leh lifeline. The general described the Pak modus operandi in the region in graphic and perhaps accurate detail but why did he lull himself into an uncomfortable slumber by just saying that it was just 'an intelligence failure' that did not need us to expend precious lives to redeem. Let Atal Bihari Vajpayee worry about it. General Malik must not be disturbed from his sleep. When Pakistan troops occupied an area considered inaccessible in winter, what were the commanders of our equally fit soldiers of Siachen experience doing? Why were they not there to defend it or at least patrol it? Were GOC 3 Mtn Div & 121 Bde Cdr just partying in the beautiful Kargil Leh summer? Hoping that the Research and Analysis Wing will inform them to change from their dinner jackets into their dungarees. Clearly, our field commanders in Leh-Kargil sectors failed miserably before the intelligence community did. It is always easy to blame the weather and terrain in hindsight. We train ourselves in peace to be ready for such situations in war. Anand Shyam
Date Sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 08:33:27 -0700
By dividing India and Pakistan the western countries have created a big arms market. Pakistan does not have to be good, all it has to do is to create a market for the western arms bazaar. Now the Israelis, who are America's secondhand store, want to sell us some of their weapons. Pakistan is getting arms for nothing from the western powers and the Arab nations. The western countries want a space where they can test their technologies on real people, and we have plenty of them. It is sad that the same Clintons who discourage Pakistan publicly also supply them with sophisticated arms; of course, we buy from the Russians what they could not use in Afghanistan. If Pakistani generals have money stashed in Swiss banks our politicians have made no less on arms deals. Third world countries remain backward because we steal our resources and keep them overseas. Date Sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:58:42 -0700 (PDT)
God, I am so happy that I didn't miss reading this wonderful article of facts!! Oh! I have always wondered how we can express ourselves to fellow Indians and this article does that so wonderfully. Dear Pritish Nandy, I read your other article where you mentioned the tortures that go on within our country by thoughtless policemen as in the case of Bhudan others you mentioned in the same article. It was heart-breaking to read about them and cruelty that the child victim underwent! I was wordless and breathless for several minutes after hearing of the brutality involved. Yet there are people who do such things. Why shouldn't they be punished more severely? Wouldn't that teach a lesson to other officers who do it? God, I wish India gets the REAL police officers in place of such criminals in the police uniforms. There is yet another topic that I want to pin-point here. The political issues that go on in India! The government was dissolved with nobody to prove their strength. Why can't we have a rule that a party can try to dissolve a government only if it can prove its majority to form the next one? Doesn't that sound right? How can we in India afford elections every now and then spending so much of money -- the people's money which otherwise could be used for nation's welfare and security? Why don't our political leaders and the President who approves everything, think and analyse these? If they do and if we, the citizens, also do analyse all these, our country can become much more powerful! I wish our people wake up and realise their rights and abandon those political parties and leaders who are working for their own welfare and wealth and not that of India and thus its people! Thanks a lot. And keep writing. Your words can wake up many Indians to realise themselves!
Date Sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 22:29:29 +0530
We make so many assessments about China but there's one thing we have seen over the years: The Chinese are a very, very shrewd people. They will always want to be one up and you can be sure they will show a good face in front, pep you up with nice talk and do things their way elsewhere. I hope India realises it today. With all the experience, I think India should have learned by now. But still you hear one day that China is the number one enemy and the next that China is no problem. Everything happens overnight. All you need to do fool the Indians is to boost the ego. And they fall for it. We have to be a very strong nation, never letting down our guard. There is no harm in extending hands of friendship but we should not be caught wanting if a fist replaces it. I don't understand why Indians cannot see through the talk of diplomats from other countries. Ajantha Date Sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:50:59 -0700
The news report is well done although there is a dearth of any actual quotes or excerpts from government documents. However, India needs a lot more than planes. With our remote sensing satellite system generating terrain information, India should start work on a cruise missile system and on remotely piloted vehicles as well as bomb-carrying dirigibles. These are relatively feasible and development could be complete in 2-3 years. An inexpensive cruise missile can be merely a remotely piloted drone via an encrypted communications link. True cruise missiles require stereoscopic satellite data. But in the limited India-Pakistan border region even dirigibles could collect stereo images. A cruise missile is the only weapon that can tilt the balance of power in the region. Forget nuclear bombs. They are dangerous and worthless white elephants and definitely not worth the trouble. Finally, with India's software talent pool, the government should start work on computer weapons such as viruses and Trojan horses that could cripple even advanced enemies' economies via the Internet. India can survive without computers a lot better than NATO countries. I will be only too glad to amplify on these points if you want to research a new story on advanced weapons. You should try to get an interview with Professor Abdul Kalam. Subhash Garg Date Sent: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 15:15:13 -0400
This is the time to resolve this problem, once and for all. Perhaps in the new century, the reality on the ground, will match the map we have all been raised to see as that of India. The issue today is not the LoC or Kargil, it is really all of Kashmir. There is no need to cede such a sizable piece of Indian territory (PoK) just because we have so far failed to negotiate their eviction. In any case, the Pakistanis say that the line of control is not very clearly visible to them. It is time for India to help them correct their vision problem by bringing whole the state of Jammu and Kashmir, once again, into the Union of India Chips Date Sent: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 10:09:11 -0400
This no surprise at all, Our Muslim brothers have said that which we expected of them. We know they are proud Indians and that they will never fall in trap of Muslim militants. Nobody can cheat or mislead them in the name of religion. Muslims in India will tell the world that no religion accepts taking the land, food of life of another.
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