There is a feeling
of déjà vu when we look at our response to the Pathankot attack. There was the
same confusion in command and control, poor response to warning of a terrorist
attack, abysmal physical security measures (even in the airbase close to the
Pakistan border where terrorists freely circulate), leadership without
responsibility, incoherent public communication and political one-upmanship
between the state and the Centre as we saw after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
terrorists carried out the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.
There was
timely dissemination of intelligence about an impending terrorist attack. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, fortunately, kept mum and didn't utter the usual “we
will not be intimidated by terrorist attacks” statement, sparing the nation
this embarrassing cliché, unlike his predecessors.
The
Opposition castigated Modi though they knew the prime minister never made a
statement when everyone expected him to do so. Modi, in fact, struck to his
schedule and spoke about yoga!
However,
there was a curious difference in the way the Pathankot attack was handled. In
a first, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval took charge of strategising
and controlling the counter-terror operation from New Delhi in the early stage
itself, though the operation was inside an important military airbase!
One may
call it the Doval gambit as the NSA seems to have used it an opportunity to pin
down Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and make him take follow-up action
and bring the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists to book as a tangible proof of his
sincerity in mending ties with India. The NSA saved Sharif’s face by not
calling in the army to carry out the operation which could have provoked the
Pakistani army to retaliate.
Hats off
to the NSA; apparently he convinced the three service chiefs to be party to his
decision; otherwise it is difficult to understand them agreeing to hand over
the operation to the National Security Guard (NSG) commandos even before the
first shot was fired (NSG arrived at the scene even before the operation
started according to Punjab Police).
The Army
was available in the near vicinity of Pathakot and counter-terror operations
are its bread and butter. They had been conducting such operations the region
for more than four decades. I am confident there exists in the airforce base a
standard operative procedure for joint operations with the Army to handle such
a threat. So the NSG was flown into the airbase and the results are there to
see.
What is
disturbing is the national mindset that seems to be the driving force in this
country in matters military. During the last three decades or so, the services
seem to have been trained to say “ji huzur” to politicians and bureaucrats even
on matters of national security rather than take decision and act with
responsibility in keeping with their professional training.
To set the
record straight, our service chiefs also seem to have become accustomed to this
state of affairs for many years now. They are wise men. They have seen an
irrepressible Army chief running the risk of being hauled up had he moved two
regiments of armour for training in the national capital region without
"permission" from the defence ministry (or informing the then
minister Manish Tiwari even though he had nothing to with defence ministry).
The chief could have been accused of plotting a coup!
The latest
demonstration of this mindset is in the sixth pay commission’s draft
recommendations. It equates a trained soldier with the lowest rung of untrained
civilian staff, well below the policeman, in dishing out largesse.
Coming
back to Pathankot airbase attack, nobody seems to believe the apologetic
defence minister Manohar Parikkar’s claim that the operation was a success. He
only saw some “security related gaps that will be cleared after investigation”.
It is the understatement of the year so far!
But if we
go by the minister’s body language, he himself probably did not believe it. His
discomfort is understandable. After all, the airbase - a prime airforce
installation close to the Pakistan border - had advance warning of a possible
terrorist attack; yet the six terrorists managed to not only enter the airbase
but strike at a time of their choosing and inflict casualties. They managed to
stretch the operation for over three days. Probably that is why Masood Azhar,
the Jaish chief, is gloating over the terrorists' success in Pathankot.
Moreover,
the defence minister, like the service chiefs, seem to have been on the fringes
of the decision-making process in the Pathankot operation. The poor man was
left to explain minister for home affairs Rajnath Singh's hasty declaration of
complete success even before the terrorists fired the last shot in the
operation. Where does the home minister come in a terrorist attack in a
military establishment will be an enduring mystery, if we ignore the clear
pecking order even in case of a counter-terror operation inside a military
installation.
The other
enduring mystery is the security of airbases. In 1963, I found the same
weaknesses in Tezpur as in Pathankot – floodlights of the perimeter not
working, heavy uncleared underbrush within the airbase that provides hiding
space for intruders and poorly maintained border fencing. The Pathankot airbase
seems to be only maintaining this tradition of neglect. The problem is that it
was Tezpur way back in 1963. Now it is 2015.
Pakistan
has become the world capital for an alphabet soup of jihadi terrorist outfits.
Jihadis regularly infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to create trouble. They do
this also in the south across the India-Pakistan border in Punjab through which
drugs, fake currency and humans are also regularly trafficked.
And as I
grow older, I discover some things never change in this country. There was a
lot of lightning and thunder when we made a mess of handling the 26/11 attacks
in Mumbai. The UPA's man of action P Chidambaram took over as home minister and
swore to rework the whole national counter-terror response system.
He used to
submit progress reports regularly to Parliament. But the whole issue faded from
the political discourse, public mind and national mainstream. Now he is only
lamenting about things he failed to do.
We are
back to where we started; cacophony in parliament has overtaken action on
national priorities including security threats. So like the child widows of
rural West Bengal who loudly voice their woes in village temples in the
evenings, we will start our lament all over again when another big bang
Pakistani terrorist attack overwhelms us.
We can
only wish good luck to the NSA in his new gambit; but I am not prepared to bet
on his success because some things never change in Pakistan also. It seems to
be our mirror image in its laid back attitude towards result-oriented action.
Lastly, my
heart goes out to the Defence Security Corps personnel - the re-employed
defence pensioners who had the thankless task of fighting the terrorists. They
were never meant to do this. In the Pathankot operation they showed that grey
hair and stooped backs notwithstanding, they are no less than their serving
peers. They sacrificed their lives without even collecting their One Rank One
Pension (or not true OROP) dues which are yet to be notified, just as many of
their fellow pensioners are doing.
I hope
their widows at least collect their dues in their lifetime. As 19th century
poet Arthur Hugh Clough said, “If hopes are dupes fears may be liars.” So
servicemen continue to live on hope; what else they have? Enduring macros never
change in this country; so we plod on.
[Col Hariharan, a retired officer of the
Intelligence Corps, is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and
the South Asia Analysis Group. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com. Blog:
http://col.hariharan.info.]
Courtesy: India Today opinion portal DailyO http://www.dailyo.in/politics/pathankot-terror-attack-pakistan-narendra-modi-ajit-doval-nawaz-sharif-nsa-terrorism-jihad/story/1/8416.html
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