THE defence minister has just pronounced that the last of the Pakistani intruders has left Indian territory. It has, indeed, been a long way away from the initial bluster the defence minister displayed when he declared on 26 May that India will evict the intruders in 48 or at best, 72 hours. It has taken nearly two long months of relentless military action with countless martyrs. The sufferings and injuries will take a long time to heal.

It is now, therefore, time for a dispassionate evaluation and analysis of how and why this situation in Kargil came to such a pass. By now, it is abundantly clear that the Vajpayee led government has much to hide and, therefore, refuses to discuss this issue in democratic forums. At the same time the communal combine shamelessly seeks to draw political and electoral mileage from the death of countless martyrs. An editorial in the Chandigarh Tribune of July 10 summarises the BJP's efforts by stating: "It (BJP) keeps saying that a special Rajya Sabha session on Kargil will send out wrong signals but at the same time declares that the party will make the fighting an issue in the coming elections. Home Minister Advani said this at the meeting of the Chief Ministers and party chief Kushabhau Thakre said this at Patna. Thus the elected representatives of the Upper House are being denied the right to express their views and seek answers while rabble-rousers are encouraged to raise the issue at street corner meetings. It is inexplicable. India has taken over 50 yeas to build a consensus against interference in internal affairs by outside powers and agencies and the present coalition government has taken merely 50 weeks to wreck it. Sad."

While the government controlled electronic media dishes out unfiltered jingoism ably assisted by some private channels that are keen to have the Direct To Home (DTH) facilities introduced surreptitiously by the present unscrupulous caretaker government, the activists of the Saffron Brigade span out all across the country whipping up ostensibly anti-Pakistani hatred but actually seeking to communally polarise society for electoral gains. At the same time, the BJP leaders from Vajpayee downwards spare no effort at charging the opposition of politicising the Kargil issue.

WHO IS POLITICISING?

Let us see as to who actually began the process of politicising? A day after the air strikes began, the BJP released a statement on May 27 where it is stated, "The intruders will learn to their grief that this time around, it will not be a Hazratbal or a Charar-e-sharif". The Hindu of May 28 reports, "Of course, it did not go unnoticed that the words "this time around" were clearly suggesting that the previous government (of P V Narasimha Rao) had not been hard enough on the militants and it was the Vajpayee government that was determined to deal with them effectively."

Since then there has not been a single day without one or the other leader of the BJP raising the issue with an obvious design to gain electoral mileage. It is clear that the BJP seeks to divert the attention of the people away from its disastrous 13-month rule in the run up to the elections. Having been thoroughly discredited, they are exploiting popular emotions of the people through jingoism. Not only will the people not allow this to succeed, but they on the contrary, are raising very valid questions concerning the government's incompetence and callousness in handling the Kargil issue.

The BJP's oft repeated charge is that the opposition has been seeking to divert the attention of the country away from supporting the military action. Instead of repeating once again, the CPI(M)'s well-stated position on the issue, we quote from an editorial from The Tribune of July 10, "Instead of creating needless controversy, the political class should take lessons in `internal diplomacy' from the venerable Jyoti Babu, Chief Minister of West Bengal, who has once again stated that `despite our serious differences with the present government on many issues, we stand firmly behind them in tackling the Pakistani aggression. The armed forces also have our total commitment and support'. Mr. Jyoti Basu's stand on the Kargil issue is the best example of the difference, which the rest of the political class is trying to blur, between jingoism and patriotism".

CONFUSING SIGNALS

The differences and confusion that arose during the military operation came mainly from within the government. Talking to newspersons after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on May 28, the defence minister said, "In this entire episode, the Pakistan Army has hatched a conspiracy to push in the infiltrators and the Nawaz Sharif government did not have a major role. The ISI, which we know initiates such activities, has also not played any role". (Statesman, May 29, 1999).

Such a clean chit to the Pakistani government and the ISI came as a shock to the nation. This directly contradicted the prime minister's principal secretary who had, on the earlier day, stated that while the Indian prime minister was being received at the Wagah border, Pakistan was preparing for this intrusion. To make matters worse, the foreign minister termed the intrusion as an "aberration" and the home minister dismissed all suggestion of a reported intelligence failure. All such statements were obviously designed to protect the "bus diplomacy" strategy which was widely advertised as a great achievement of the present government. So intoxicated were Vajpayee & Co that they committed a serious crime of lowering the country's vigil and guard on our borders which has cost us so heavily.

Not content with sending out such confused signals at a time when our armed forces were valiantly battling the Pakistani intruders, the defence minister, on June 1, said, "If he (Pakistan foreign minister Sartaj Aziz) wants to discuss how the intruders are to leave, we can discuss their safe passage." On June 2nd, Vajpayee echoed similar views while commissioning INS Mysore at Mumbai, "We can discuss their safe passage if such a request was made." (Tribune 5.6.99)

Such statements amount to an insult to our courageous armed forces who are battling it out on the front under most difficult conditions. The first seven days cost the nation 47 brave men killed and 174 wounded, according to official figures. If safe passage was being considered by the PM and the defence minister, why were our jawans being sent to evict the intruders? It was such irresponsible and callous attitude of the Vajpayee government that actually sent demoralising signals to armed forces.

Ironically, though the prime minister and defence minister went about blatantly refuting that they had ever made such a suggestion, it was precisely this that was finally implemented through a US-brokered agreement. Following the Sharif-Clinton talks, Pakistan agreed to remove its infiltrators and India agreed to allow them to go and set the deadline of July 16. If after all a safe passage was the solution to the conflict, why did India have to loose the lives of so many of its brave and courageous jawans? On the contrary, it has now become clear that the Vajpayee-led government, obviously in panic, instructed the armed forces to complete the operation at the earliest. The weekly news magazine, Outlook (July 26, 1999) reports, "Says a senior officer at the army headquarters: `ideally, we would have liked to have taken our own time in evicting the intruders but there was impatience at the decision making level in the government. This forced our hand....... Some of the operations were launched with our hands tied. If we had more time, our casualties would have been half".

Such has been callousness of the Vajpayee government. It is clear that the army has won the war despite serious bungling by the government.

INTELLIGENCE FAILURE(!)

Since the conflict began, intelligence failure was touted as the main reason explaining away the government's incapability in detecting the intrusion. While the BJP and the Vajpayee government sought to absolve themselves behind the cover of the so-called intelligence failure, it is now clear that there was no intelligence failure. The defence minister and others are now forced to admit this.

The former ISI Chief, Lt. Gn. Javed Nazir, informs that Pakistani "mercenary militants occupied the vacant peaks in the Kargil-Drass sectors as early as January-February this year --at the same time, the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, was receiving his Indian counterpart........." (Hindu, 27.6.99)

The international news magazine Time of July 12, 1999 informs us, "As far back as last November, the first batch of Pakistani troops from the Northern Light Infantry Regiment -- a unit experienced in mountain warfare -- crept over the 3500 meter high passes along the LoC to occupy the high ridges that the Indian army held in the summer". The magazine also gives the account of a Pakistani soldier who had been 77 days on the Indian territory from April onwards confirming that regular army infiltration was going on for some months.

Can it then be true that India had no inkling whatsoever of Pakistani activities? This is negated by facts. The information received was not given the attention that it deserved by the Vajpayee government which was lulled into complacency after the Lahore bus trip. India was, indeed, taken for a ride. As a result, there was a callous, if not criminal lowering of vigil. This had nothing to do with our armed forces but was entirely the lapse of the Vajpayee-led government and its security advisers.

Between August 1998 and March 1999, Brig Surinder Singh, Brigade Commander of the Kargil sector, sent six letters to his superiors, the Army Chief and the Defence Ministry informing them of increasing threat perceptions along the LoC. Why was nothing done? (Outlook, August 2, 1999)

SERIOUS QUESTIONS

The Outlook magazine of July 26, 1999 lists some of such serious lapses:

** Long-range monthly army patrols in winter were cut down to once in three months post-Pokhran for budgetary reasons.

** US intelligence stopped sharing information with Indian MI following imposition of sanctions. This included satellite surveillance reports on Pakistani troop movement.

** The NSC was given inputs by IB and RAW on the border build-up in March '99. Brajesh Mishra, the PM's Principal Secretary, is convenor of the NSC. The input was ignored.

** RAW insiders in Srinagar say their then chief, Arvind Dave, had a dossier on the planned incursions. Interestingly, Dave was appointed governor of Arunachal Pradesh on July 14.

** Last October, IB operatives in Leh reported that 300-odd irregulars were being trained in two camps in Olthingthang, PoK. Officials in Srinagar say "the reports to Delhi specifically stated that groups were to infiltrate Kargil in April."

** Later, IB reported Pakistan's use of remote-piloted planes to monitor the Leh-Kargil area. This information was received by the MoD in the third week of October ' 98.

** Azhar Shafir Mir, a Hizbul operative, was nabbed by the BSF in Poonch on December 20. He revealed that he and 110 others were trained in Munsher-Gilgit to cut off the Srinagar-Leh supply line. Says BSF IG K. Vijaykumar: "This information must have been passed on to the home ministry."

** The possibility of a localised engagement with Pakistan was discussed during the 15 Corps' `war games' early this year. On January 11, Maj Gen A.S. Sihota told the press: "You can't rule out the possibility of Pakistan trying to capture our posts along the LoC."

** Mysteriously, RAW and IAF didn't fly routine recess over the LoC between January-April.

** In '98, Pakistan bought 50,000 pairs of snowboots from a Brussels firm. The RAW man there was unaware of it. When India placed orders a week later, stocks had run out.

** The RAW desk in Islamabad did not monitor the local Urdu papers, which since March were full of details about intrusions presented as victories in the Kargil sector.

** IB chief Shyamal Dutta wrote to the government in September-October last year warning of impending trouble in Kargil. This sensitive information was not taken cognisance of.

** Troops of the Leh-based 3 Infantry Division, responsible for monitoring the Kargil sector, were diverted to the Valley. This left one brigade (3,000 troops) to guard the 160-km stretch of the LoC instead of the normal three.

** Swayed by the "Lahore spirit", the 121 Brigade at Kargil lowered its vigil. It dismissed intelligence reports on bunker construction and increased movement of Pakistanis along the LoC. Brigade commander, Brig Surinder Singh, has been taken off combat command.

** Minus a security policy, warning signals were not collated and interpreted in Delhi.

CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

Clearly, it is such criminal negligence by the Vajpayee government which brought about such a critical situation for the country endangering its security. What is even more bizarre is the fact that even after the actual military engagement began, it took nearly three weeks for India to respond. "The military engagement started on May 5 last when the army sent a six-member reconnaissance patrol towards the LoC under the command of Lt. V. Kalia. The patrol never returned. The next day, however, Radio Skardu from the Pakistani side of the LoC reported the capture of Kalia. A few days later, another recce patrol of eight soldiers was dispatched to the Batalik area to the north of Kargil. It also disappeared without trace." (Hindu, 29 June, 1999).

And, yet the Indian response through air strikes begins on the May 26. Why this delay? It is such questions which the government refuses to answer. But it is precisely these answers that the people are seeking.

The defence minister's latest justification of the criminal negligence in safeguarding our country's borders is more amazing. Speaking to the BBC world television, he said that for the last 29 years, Pakistan did not do anything in the Kargil sector. Therefore, India was not expecting any hostile activity in this sector.

Yet, it is the same defence minister who, on August 5, 1998 makes a statement on the floor of the Lok Sabha that: "I would like to apprise the House about the developments, which have taken place on the Indo-Pak Line of Control from July 27, 1998 till date.

"On 27th and 28th July 1998, Pakistan resorted to unprecedented and unprovoked firing of artillery and mortars on our posts and in the civilian areas of Batalik and Kargil.......

"These actions by Pakistan are in consonance with its calculated design to obstruct and stall peaceful bilateral dialogue and to create a sense of alarm by orchestrating incidents on the border which will project Jammu & Kashmir as a `flashpoint'."

Of all the contradictory statements and the signals that the defence minister has made so far, this takes the cake. Within less than a year, he negates before the world audience the very information that, he, himself, provides the country and the Parliament. Can the security of our country be safe in such hands?