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'Millions of Indians all over the world are indebted to Major Sonam Wangchuk and other Indian heroes'
E-mail from readers the world over
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 12:30:13 -0400 This great article brings to light yet another instance of gallantry, bravery and patriotism displayed by Indian soldiers in the battlefield. Millions of Indians all over the world such as me are indebted to Major Sonam Wangchuk and other Indian heroes. Please pass on our heartfelt gratitude and sense of pride with which we share our motherland with the major and his men. Rediff should bring more of such stories to the spotlight to open the eyes of those who choose to ignore the sacrifices of our forces without whom we don't have freedom to live or sleep without fear. It is laudable that Muslim community is unified in its condemnation of the misadventures of our enemy in our backyard. Jai Hind.
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 10:07:34 -0700 Salutations to the Major and his men. We have a lot to learn from people like you. Amberish, Rediff: Good job. Would like more such reports from the front. Prasad
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 13:36:53 -0400 Please convey my highest regards to Major Wangchuk for his exemplary courage in the face of adversity.
Professor Ravi Bansal
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 11:01:02 +0530 Such acts of bravery must be widely publicised. This will boost the morale of other brave men fighting for India as well as attract new talent to the armed forces. Ravi
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 08:55:21 PDT This is a great piece. Our jawans are really great. Thanks for sharing this experience. I think articles like these will help reward the jawans fighting for a just cause.
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 17:52:43 +0530 Being an ex fighter pilot, I have certain views. In this high and mountainous terrain, targets are difficult to spot. Manoeuvring the aircraft is difficult due to altitude and terrain considerations. In addition, Direction of Attack is restricted because of the overriding consideration of 'not crossing LoC'. Conventional weapon delivery techniques fail to achieve the desired results commensurate with the quantum of air effort employed. In scenarios like this, use of Precision Guided Munitions (with airborne or land based target designation systems wherever required) would have been ideal and cost effective. This would also have limited the exposure of attacking aircraft to enemy air defences. Precision Guided Munitions are very costly -- a few crores a piece. But that does not mean that we should not have requisitioned sufficient quantity of these weapons in peace time. I am certain that, even before the present crisis, the IAF would have demanded acquisition of a large number of these systems. But the mandarins in the defence ministry would have either totally rejected these demands or would have placed severe restrictions on the total number of such weapons to be acquired. And they would have quoted 'financial constraints' as the reason. These gentlemen would be sitting cosily in their airconditioned offices/homes without the least worry while the air force finds itself in need of these weapons. Some day, I hope an enquiry is ordered or questions are raised in Parliament about this.
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:51:28 +0530 He is absolutely right. Let us stop being defensive. Let us take the battle to Pak's grounds. But it is going to be tough to clear this mess started by Chacha Nehru -- the only state he handled and he mucked it up.
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 04:24:16 -0700 'Demolish the Myth' was very well written and definitely boosts the morale of every Indian. We really should not treat Pakistan as an equal when it comes to human rights and economy and freedom of expression. But that shouldn't mean that we are better at everything. As Mr Nandy pointed out, our diplomats have failed miserably in bringing the truth in front of the world. Even after 50 years we haven't learnt to tackle the dirty tricks that Pakistan so easily and shamelessly plays. We can't provide our soldiers with enough clothing and expect them to give their lives for the country while our politicians gather more black money and our public explores new ways to evade tax. On a different note, I have visited some Pakistani sites and they are really very convincing. Their very simple way to tackle any allegation is to produce some imaginary counter allegation and to state that this baseless and the ground reality is totally different. It even confuses me to the extent that I start doubting the Indian stand and the report. I hope that the Indian politicians and diplomats learn their lesson soon and solve this problem called Pakistan for good.
Vidyanand Vartak
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 22:06:31 EDT Yes!! That's the attitude we should have! Mr Nandy is very right when he said that we are giving too much importance to Pakistan. Some thugs are creating trouble in our country; they killed our people; so we just make sure that no one, I mean absolutely no one, can get out from here alive. No mercy; no safe passage. You killed our people; that's it; you signed your own execution paper. So next time they will think twice to do the same. Let the Indian army do their job. They know exactly what to do! We have great faith in our army! Our army is one of the best in the world! In the meantime we should not lose concentration from our goal. Our goal should be work hard to make our country stronger. Nobody will mess up with a strong nation. See China, they made their country so strong even the US does not want to mess with them. The Indian people are much more intelligent than any nation in the world. The only thing we need is to focus our intelligence in the proper channel. Pakistan does not understand by attacking India they are actually doing a great favour to all Indians! By virtue of language the psychology of most Indians is very much regional. They like to think themselves as Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. But when somebody like Pakistan attacks us, we are all Indians. One body, One mind and One nation! That's what we need right now to take our country to the 21st century! Jai Hind! Prasenjit Pal
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 20:31:33 +0800 Great!!! Nadkarni! of all people has to ANNOUNCE to the world, specifically to the Pakis, that "hey!! in case you were not so sure, I will confirm that we do not have the ability to launch nuclear missiles from submarines!" What the hell!! With your background and (I assume) influence, why not instead go to the government and remind THEM that maybe it is time to equip India with missiles to counter such a threat or become equally capable!! Rediff's columnists have time and again pointed out the mistakes done by high level people (I recall something about ex-PM Chandra Shekhar saying something before the confidence motion) and thus compromising on national security! And now Rediff itself goes and does nothing less!!!
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 09:50:23 -0500 How is it possible to bomb a mountain gorge when flying at jet speed? India should try using prop planes loaded with cluster bombs and napalm. It also should have a machine gun. Once a target is located the plane can lock onto the target and fire its MG.
Joe Thomas
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 17:24:27 -0700 I appreciate your article. Clearly, the current government will have to accept some responsibility for the Kargil mess. However, it is clear to anybody who has basic knowledge of India that this country was run by non-BJP governments for most of the last 51+ years. In fact, but for the timing of the Kargil incident, the Congress should take the lion share of the blame for inefficient border patrol. The Congress had ample time at the Centre to do this job, but did not. If the BJP or some other non-Congress government had undone strong security measures initiated by the Congress, then blaming them would be appropriate. Also, consider the Hazratbal shrine incident when the Congress not only released hardened bloody militants, but also had a nice dinner with them to celebrate their release. Is it not such militants along with Pak army regulars that are taking on the Indian might in Kargil? How about the Bofors gun deal signed by Rajiv's Congress government? Do you think we paid the correct price for those guns? Do you think the Bofors guns were the best available at the time the deal was made ? Have we put our jawans more at risk because we are not as well equipped because of the inferior Bofors guns? Our jawans were probably crying for India under their blankets when Sonia visited them in Kargil recently. Yes, they were probably crying out of sheer helplessness at being unable to help India more because of their inability to punish corrupt politicians than of the occupation of Kargil by the Pak militants! In the context of the performance of the previous governments as indicated above, can you please explain why the BJP alone is responsible for the current situation? If any, they can only take minimal responsibility for the current situation. I am surprised that you choose to take a one sided imbalanced view of responsibility for the current situation. Sudarshan
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 21:01:31 +0800 We should take this opportunity to eliminate Pak. Why have trouble every 10 years spending valuable resources? Let one generation of Indians (youth and the politicians) make a sacrifice. Take them on the head, take over Pak and put it under a strong ruler but pliable to Indian design. In this way both Pak and Indian development will excellent. Badri
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 01:19:13 -0700 A well researched article by Dilip on defence spending by our neighbours and other leading countries. India has not found the chemistry to mix the defence research into useful day to day products. We have to have good defence spending on research and development. Most of the personnel who work at the defence research centres are on the job because of our scheduled caste quota systems. They have no educational or research background. This is a impediment in bringing the brightest to work at the research labs. We have to have a definite time frame for the scheduled castes to come aboard. It cannot be a timeless system whereby by birth one can demand a platform on the job that does not fit his qualification. This increases mediocrity and wastage. Somehow the vote catchers who get elected and steal India's national wealth are totally responsible for this quandary. Nehru is responsible for everything that has gone wrong with Kashmir. Even now the BJP should allow Hindus to migrate into Kashmir and make it a Hindu stronghold. One way to do it will be to give plots to jawans and officers of the armed forces, also arm the Hindus so that there is a majority that can fight back.
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:35:49 -0400 Most newspapers cater to a public who are only bothered about what is happening to their country. I hope, more and more reports/articles on the fate of the common man in J&K are written and read. I hope you will write more Mukhtar Ahmad :-) Please let us know about how well the state government is taking care of the folks there. Sud
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 10:53:59 -0400 This is an excellent article outlining the context of this "undeclared war" as well as the options available to India. For too long, the army has been used as an expendable commodity in various situations from foreign aggression to more mundane security issues. Having the army fight with "one hand tied behind their backs" due to political reasoning has gone far enough and it is time to give them the authority along with the responsibility -- for outfitting them and allowing them to do their job with the least amount of casualties. My father fought in the 1971 war in Shakargarh with the 39 Division and my younger brother was in Siachen for a year -- he has been in Batalik from Day 1 of this operation. In such times it greatly pains me to see ill-equipped soldiers going into war with a lot of josh to lay their lives for us, while corrupt politicians pocket crores of rupees. We have to provide good boots, raincoats, gloves, thermal wear, hot pads etc for my brother, who shares them with some of the men. The regular issue material is useless to live in -30C weather. I vote for putting a deadline for Pakistani withdrawal, which is well communicated to the international community. After that, all bets should be off and control of the operation handed to the defence chiefs rather than the PM -- so that they can consult the elected officials but not be dictated to by them. If they need to, declare an emergency in the country to achieve focus then they should be allowed to do so. We often wondered what life would have been had Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw been put in charge of India for a few years. Atul Asthana
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 10:58:15 +0530 This is with my respect and prayers for all the soldiers fighting for our country. The army chief's assertion simply demonstrates how vulnerable the office can be, when it comes to making people believe the truth. It also virtually affirms the understanding people had on the above action. The army chief should accept that the trust people have in the integrity of the institution has taken a severe beating due to its participation in a political party's meeting.
Mohan Sukumar
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