Geographically, Siachen is an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir as the “undivided” territory thereof spans from 72.5 degree East to 80.2 degree East longitude (west-east axis) and 37.1 degree North to 32.4 degree North latitude (north-south axis). Today’s ground position, however, is that Jammu and Kashmir is a “politically divided” territory and stands as “shared” geography between India and Pakistan. The Indian position, nevertheless, stands on professed political and legal provision, making Jammu and Kashmir one of India’s 29 states that constitute the Indian nation as defined, prescribed and described by Article 1 of the Constitution of India. In fact, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir (under which falls Siachen) to the Indian state on October 26, 1947 pre-dates the birth of the Republic of India on January 26, 1950. Thus prima facie, the scenario is this: geographically, Siachen (indisputably) stands within, and hence is part of, Jammu and Kashmir, and the latter is an integral part of the Republic of India. Hence Siachen is part and parcel of India.
Now, what is the exact location and position of Siachen? How does one get there? Theoretically, the access route lies through Drass, Kargil, Saraks, Turtuk (just north-west of Turtuk heights is Gulshan-e-Kabir under Pakistan) and further north to Siachen, which can be approached through one of the most deadly and difficult high altitude terrains of Diskit, Hunder, Sumur and Panamik leading to Siachen. That places Siachen – which is one of the largest glaciers outside of Polar region, with a length of more than 70 kilometre -in eastern Karakoram Himalayas between 35.2 degree North and 35.6 degree North latitude and 76.8 degree East and 77.3 degree East longitude with an elevation ranging between 4,000 metre to more than 7,000 metre above mean sea level. To make things clear further, it must be understood that the Siachen ‘valley glacier’ is one to eight kilometre wide and is fed by several tributary glaciers, the two most important being Teram Sher and Lolofond. The Nubra river, which constitutes part of the Indus drainage system, has its origins in the Siachen glacier.
Thus the location of Siachen gives it an indisputable and clear-cut position – under legal, geographical, constitutional and bona fide reasons -within the territorial jurisdiction of Jammu and Kashmir, which is one of the 29 states of “India, that is Bharat”. Understandably, therefore, the main interest, both tactical and strategic, for a nation like India has to be the spot – read Siachen – that is the highest point where India, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet. Hence, when India wrested Siachen on April 13, 1984, Pakistan could not complain. Being used to resorting to unprovoked violence and ceaseless aggression on its neighbour’s territory since October 22, 1947 Islamabad, for a change, was paid back in its own coin as India ensconced itself at the advantageous height overlooking adjacent areas in spite of the hazards and weather.
The question now is why is Pakistan so keen to see India withdraw from Siachen, which happens to be part of India’s legal territory? The answer lies in the fact that Islamabad sees Siachen as “un-demarcated”, which means an area that cannot be held or claimed by anyone without first defining the Line of Control beyond NJ-9842, which still stands “un-described, un-defined and un-demarcated”. Accordingly, Siachen lies outside the formally agreed LoC in Jammu and Kashmir but is an integral part of Pakistan’s Northern Areas. It is situated in an area over which Pakistan has “continuous administrative control since 1947”. If one were to use Pakistan’s logic of “continuous administrative control since 1947”, India’s claim over the Kashmir valley, Ladakh and Jammu is foolproof since this area, too, has been under India’s “continuous administrative control since 1947”.
The reality is that in 21st century geopolitics, there cannot simply be any no-man’s land in a land-locked terrain. It has to be a ‘either-yours-or-mine’ scenario. If it is not with India, Siachen would be taken by Pakistan. Remember Kargil 1999? Indian troops had deliberately moved away from the higher altitude to the lower terrain, thereby creating a ‘no-man’s land’ during winter. What happened thereafter? Pakistan filled the vacuum on the sly. India woke up from its slumber but how many did its soldiers die? Today we take pride in Kargil Day. It was victory no doubt but a pyrrhic victory after a monumental command failure that no one talks about these days. Do we want a repeat of Kargil 1999?
It must be kept in mind that although Siachen is a forbidding and difficult terrain, history compels India to station its armed forces there and hold on to the heights. When the 1963 Sino-Pak exchange of territory took place to cause disadvantage to their ‘common enemy, that is India, Jawaharlal Nehru had rightly uttered a word of caution in the Lok Sabha on March 5, 1963: “Pakistan’s Line of actual control… reached the Karakoram pass”. What would be the distance, ‘as the crow flies’, between Siachen and the Karakoram pass connecting China with Pakistan through which the $46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor will run? One just has to go through a standard geographical atlas to understand the importance of Siachen and the inherent tactical advantage of the ‘heights’ in an area where four countries meet in a forbidding landlocked terrain.
Some forgetful Indians, who have read history but refuse to learn from it, must remember that India’s north-west has been penetrated at least 40 times by foreign invaders. Again it needs to be understood that no sooner than August 15, 1947, when India became independent, it started facing invasion from October 22, 1947. There has been no respite in the invasions that continue unabated to this day.
For India today, holding on to Siachen is not a choice but a compulsion in order to face the eternal reality of an external enemy and the perennial fury of nature. A third enemy seems to have cropped up within – corruption. Only the other day, it was reported that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agents have penetrated the Indian system and are operating through a few men of the establishment, including senior army officers who, because of their corrupt ways, have thus jeopardized the lives of their comrades-in-arms. In this connection, a news report of March 14, 2008 comes to mind. It said that five personnel, including a brigadier, have been charge sheeted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for allegedly replacing kerosene and diesel in tankers meant for troops in Siachen with water. One feels ashamed to refer to this report but in the light of the death of 10 soldiers of 19 Madras Regiment and the recent corruption cases against army generals, one sincerely hopes that India’s brave soldiers in Siachen will not have the misfortune of facing the enemy both within and without.