This is the only military achievement of the Modi government howsoever small. It does not have the benefit of a Kargil war which bequeathed the then BJP led by Atal Behari Vajpayee a great electoral victory in the 1999 elections. The Vajpayee dispensation made unabashed political capital out of the Kargil victory
Chander Suta Dogra
Forget for a moment the absurdity of the University Grants Commission (UGC) calling for observance of ‘Surgical Strikes Day’ on September 29, in all its affiliated universities and colleges. It was actually a cabinet decision taken earlier this month, which is currently being coordinated by different arms of the government including the Ministry of Defence and HRD ministry. There will be marches by NCC cadets, talks by veteran officers of the armed forces, patriotic songs, pledges of admiration for the Armed Forces by students and the works. The UGC which is mandated to regulate higher education in the country decided to take a break from governing the 860 universities and more than 30,000 affiliated colleges, and inject a dose of patriotic fervour in the campuses under it.
It doesn’t matter who thought up the idea or where it originated because it was always there in the air. Even after the ruling BJP had finished tom tomming the ‘achievement’ on prime time television channels and on elections rally stages in Uttar Pradesh in November 2016. The term slipped effortlessly into the political vocabulary and men in uniform smiled bemusedly whenever someone referred to ‘surgical strikes’.
In June this year, suddenly a handful of television channels were provided ‘exclusive’ videos of the strikes by Special Forces troops against terrorist launching pads in enemy territory. The term was once again alive in the national consciousness. Or, it could be said that there is a concerted effort on to ensure that it remains alive until its political utility is exhausted.
Let there be no doubt that the observance of the day on September 29 this year is political . No one in the government or the UGC remembered to commemorate the day last year. Timing is everything. It doesn’t need much insight to see that dusting and serving up the military operation to unsuspecting students and the nation at large on its second anniversary surely has something to do with impending Lok Sabha elections.
Two quick points here.
1. Firstly the ‘strikes’ have done little to deter terrorists and their backers in the Pakistan military to desist from conducting more attacks on Indian soil. The steady rate of soldiers dying in insurgency related operations in Kashmir, and little respite from ceasefire violations on the Line of Control even after the September 2016 strikes are indicative. Within the army it is common knowledge that after 1990 such cross border raids and limited skirmishes became routine on “small isolated enemy posts that are within the operational reach of infantry battalions.” But the ‘surgical strikes’ which captured the nation’s imagination were a slightly bigger operation conducted on September 28 and 29 to destroy terrorist launching pads in PoK and deliver a message of deterrence. The immediate provocation was the attack on the Uri brigade on September 18 in which 11 Indian soldiers were killed. There was anger and talk of taking revenge. The government claimed that the strikes led to the death of more than 50 terrorists and possibly some army regulars too. That Indian troops have been active and inflicting a toll on Pakistani troops located close to the LOC even after the strikes was revealed recently at GHQ Rawalpindi where the Pakistani Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa gave away gallantry awards to Pakistani soldiers killed near the LOC from 2016 onwards. They would most certainly have been casualities of Indian army operations. So why is there such a hullabaloo over something which happens quite often as part of retaliatory tactics involving operations by Border Action Teams (BAT) and small and heavy fire?
This brings us to the second point.
2. That this is the only military achievement of the Modi government howsoever small. It does not have the benefit of a Kargil war which bequeathed the then BJP led by Atal Behari Vajpayee a great electoral victory in the 1999 elections. The Vajpayee dispensation made unabashed political capital out of the Kargil victory, even putting up posters of serving Chiefs at election rallies. But Modi’s chest is bereft of a great military medal like Kargil or the Indo-Pak war of 1971 which dismembered Pakistan. Given the present geo-political compulsions , the nuclear reality and uneasy relations with neighbouring countries its hard to see the present BJP government exercising a limited military option in the near future, though military veterans do not rule out an air attack or two “to teach Pakistan a lesson”, closer to elections. The Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat has ominously said that India needs to change its strategy vis a vis Pakistan so that “they feel the same pain as India.”
The thinking in the BJP quite clearly is that it should have a military achievement in its arsenal as it goes into elections and the 2016 surgical strikes are its very own. Senior veteran officers are being asked by the defence PROs to write helpful articles in mainstream media outlets on surgical strikes. Not only does the BJP see a repeat dose of jingoism endearing it to the young in college campuses as they clamber over vintage captured tanks of 1971 war at ‘ Surgical Strikes Day’ rallies, but it is targeted also at its growing ‘fauji’ constituency in the countryside. Even though it is not homogenous, the ‘fauji’ vote bank is now a reality and the BJP can claim some credit for the political awakening of soldiers
No political party except for the BJP has ever paid attention to this group which was assiduously nurtured in the 2014 elections. It has seen some erosion since then but many of those who returned home after serving in hotspots of Kashmir will be happy to see their small military operation get such huge recognition.. It is hard to see the UGC issuing a directive to observe Kargil Vijay Divas in the same manner.