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.]
