Mumbai Massacre Time for Action

I start by humbly bowing my head to the martyrs of my old outfit, the NSG and those of the Mumbai police. NSG has never failed the nation and may that never happen. I have been a commando for a major part of my long service. Apart from being an instructor and later Commander at the Commando Wing of the Army's Infantry School, I have been the founding Chief Instructor of NSG. Today like any other Indian my chest swells with pride at their performance.

It is hard to imagine that the terrorists conducted this kind of operation in Mumbai, without a massive institutional backing. It was not just a terrorist act; it was a sea-borne commando raid the professionalism of which could be the envy of many an army in the world. The sophistication of planning, provisioning, training, intelligence gathering, coordinating and conducting such a raid is far higher than a uni-dimensional operation like 9/11. Such an operation is beyond the capability of any non-State actor in the world today, be that LeT, JeM or Al Qaeda. While the details are still to be known, one thing seems clear - this operation could not have been mounted without the serious involvement of Special Services Group of the Pakistan Army, either directly or through its officers on deputation with ISI.

Further, knowing how military hierarchy functions, there is also no doubt that it had to be with the blessings of the Chiefs of its Army and Navy. Zardari and his ministers may not have known it in advance, but that question is irrelevant. Civilian leaders in Pakistan have been traditionally nothing more than figure heads. The only difference with the return of democracy would be the Army ruling from behind a civilian façade. The man wielding the gun has always been the final arbiter.

What could be the Pakistani gain from such an operation? There could be many answers to this but the common thread running inexorably through all these is their irrationally extreme ENVY of India's booming economic prosperity. The Pakistani determination is, not to let India get ahead of her seems, which is their very raison d'etre. They became US allies and now tagging with Chinese, in pursuit of their single goal. They spend their resources on Army and ISI to a point of bankruptcy. Their sports matches against India are like a war. Their media spends more than half its space on news about India, all negative and most of it trivial. Their education curriculum has deteriorated to just one subject- JIHAD.

That obsession is under challenge again. The two countries are moving fast in opposite directions. Pakistan is heading towards bankruptcy, chaos and failure. India is moving towards modernization, prosperity and a place of respect in the comity of nations. For a fevered Pakistani mind, that outcome is unthinkable. If it cannot turn its own destiny around, it can at least mire India's. For such a mind this operation makes perfect sense. It was aimed to frighten away foreign investors, MNCs and tourists and terrorize and demoralize the Indian population.

There could be another reason too. A military tension with India can be a handy pretext to move its troops from the unpopular war on terror on its Western borders to its eastern border with India. This would avoid a conflict with its old protégé, the Taliban. She would need Taliban again to control Afghanistan, whenever the Western forces get tired of fighting and withdraw. This thinking, however, is based on a risky assumption that the Indian response would remain limited to empty noises.

Dr Manmohan Singh is a very genuine, sincere and soft spoken leader. Those are great qualities in any human being. But as Prime Minister he also bears responsibility for over a thousand people who have lost lives to terrorism under his watch. His address to the nation after the terrorists struck did contain words of reassurance, which are unusually tough for a person like him. All the actions that he has proposed are sensible and should have been implemented long ago. But they all begged the real question. How will the more stringent application of our laws and the Federal Investigative Agency prevent another attack being planned and mounted from Pakistan soil?

Unless Pakistan is made to pay the price for this attack, there would be more to come, and fiercer. The next step may be many simultaneous attacks on different cities which might last even longer; forcing NSG to disperse its resources and might even require a conventional Army assault and could result in considerably higher loss of innocent lives. How long we as a nation can tolerate such onslaughts?

The idea of making a neighbour however despicable in its conduct, pay the price does not appeal to us Indians. It is against our ethos and a big departure from our historical behavior. More so when we are being counted for something in the world, perhaps for the first time ever. But do we have a choice? Pakistan will never change its spots, no matter how many promises of good behavior we extract from its leaders. Rajiv got that assurance from Benazir but Pakistan's support for terrorism in Punjab increased not decreased. Gujral tried it. Vajpayee's efforts were rewarded in Kargil. He got another promise from Musharraf that Pakistan's soil would not be used for violence against India; a promise a seasoned politician like him would have known was insincere even when made. With all genuineness Manmohan declared in Cuba that both Pakistan and we are victims of terrorism, thus putting on the same moral pedestal the proverbial wolf and a lamb. Yes, we are both victims of terrorism; they because they created the monster and have still not abandoned feeding it and us because we are their neighbours.

The public are getting restive and no longer has faith in mere verbal assurances. It is time for action. Unlike Pakistan what we do must be straight forward and transparent. We should go all out to hurt them diplomatically, politically and economically. We should work with the international community and with our friends and use our economic clout fully. We should inform and educate the whole world through diplomatic means and use the international media that we had used very effectively during Kargil. The people to people contact has been misused to sneak in terrorists into India and must stop. We need to rethink continuation of our rail and road links. We should consider going to the Security Council and demand that it recognize our right to defend our population by every possible means including military. Should all these measures not succeed, we should use our overwhelming naval superiority and consider blockading the Karachi harbor. Let them get their oil and other supplies from Iran in trucks till they surrender the planners and inspirators of this Mumbai massacre that get named in our inquiry. Pakistan has no money to fight any war, a war that they know they cannot but lose. Their nuclear threat is nothing more than empty bluster. There is less risk even in a military option than in doing nothing meaningful against them, and not doing it soon. One must act while the barrels are still smoking.

Lt Gen Raj Kadyan (Retd)
Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff