Whatever the limitations the committee might have and whatever shortcomings may be there in its report, the committee is very categorical about the nature of the Kargil episode. The executive summary of its report says: "The Kargil intrusion was essentially a limited Pakistani military exercise designed to internationalise the Kashmir issue which was tending to recede from the radar screen of the international community. It was, therefore, mainly a move for political and diplomatic gain." This is something which many in the country, including the CPI(M), had been saying and which the BJP-led government had been trying to underestimate or ignore.

The committee points out many gaps in the vigilance set-up on our northern borders, the failure of various intelligence agencies, the lack of coordination between them, the shortcomings in the technological devices made available to our army units, and even the lack of proper winter clothes with our jawans who are heroically defending the country's borders despite all odds. One only hopes that the political leadership of the day will pay adequate attention to these vital aspects and not bungle in future as it has done so far.

But one of the committee's observations is extremely significant. It says it has "overwhelming evidence that the Pakistani armed intrusion in the Kargil sector came as a complete and total surprise to the Indian government, army and intelligence agencies as well as to the J&K state government." If only a few shepherds had not informed the armymen, perhaps the government would have remained blissfully ignorant of the ongoing intrusion for some more time.

There are reasons to be wary of the government's competence on this score. According to a report in The Indian Express on May 28, 1999, the intelligence unit of the BSF had submitted a "secret" report to the ministry of home affairs on May 26, 1999, informing the ministry about the intrusion of Pakistan-backed infiltrators and army regulars in Kargil that had started as far back as in January 1999. But the ministry, presided over by L K Advani, either did not know about the intrusion which was taking place according to the BSF's report or ignored it. In either case, the ministry or the government cannot absolve itself of the responsibility for the disaster. It is therefore no exaggeration to say, as we and many others had been saying, and as the review committee has now said, that the Kargil war was avoidable.

The review committee, in fact, goes still further and says: "The political, bureaucratic, military and intelligence establishments appear to have developed a vested interest in the status quo. National security management recedes into the background in time of peace and is considered too delicate to be tampered with in time of war or proxy war."

The Subrahmanyam committee even points out that a Kargil type of operation was being planned by the Pakistan military and ISI, with the concurrence of the then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, even while the Indian prime minister was about to make a bus trip to Lahore. But our great defence minister was giving certificates of innocence to Nawaz Sharif, absolving him of all knowledge and concurrence in the action.

One thing must be made clear here. There is no doubt that the people of both India and Pakistan want peace in the region and that peace and good-neighbourly relations are extremely necessary for the development of the two countries and the well-being of the two peoples. Any move to improve relations between the two countries is, therefore, always welcome. But when the Indian prime minister planned his bus trip to Lahore, he was only motivated by a desire to exploit the genuine sentiments of the people regarding peace and also to show that his regime was even more secular than the people whom the BJP dubs as "pseudo-secular." Vigilance was therefore the main casualty of his bus diplomacy. The Subrahmanyam committee also notes that "there was euphoria in some political quarters, among leaders in and out of office, though some others saw serious pitfalls in the Lahore process."

It was in this background of slackened vigilance on the part of India's political leadership that the Pakistani intrusion in Kargil and other sectors and the consequent war took place.

The review committee's report, however, misses one significant point. While it correctly says that the aim of Pakistani intrusion was to internationalise the Kashmir issue, it does not even mention the fact that at the same time, over 2000 extremists, trained and armed by Pakistan, had infiltrated into the Kashmir valley, in a bid to organise a revolt against India there.

The subsequent hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane further highlighted the government's lackadaisical approach towards the Kashmir problem. First of all, even though it was well known that the plane had been hijacked at Kathmandu, no attempt was made to detain it at Amritsar which was perfectly feasible; this showed utter lack of coordination among various security agencies. Then, after the plane landed at Kandahar in Afghanistan, the government of India did not show the acumen to deal with the crisis deftly.

One thing is worth recalling here. In the all-party meeting held on the issue, there was unanimity on two things -- that, first, all attempts would be made to save the lives of innocent passengers and, secondly, the interests of the nation would not be jeopardised. No doubt the first objective was achieved but, in the process, the government proved unable to safeguard the national interest by preventing the Kashmir situation from further worsening. Nor did it mobilise international opinion which could have brought pressure on the hijackers and their supporters in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and helped in achieving both the objectives.

The government's incompetence became further evident when our foreign affairs minister praised the Taliban to the sky even though the whole world knew that the Taliban are a creation of Pakistan and that the hijackers were sure of the Taliban support and that is why they wanted to get the hijacked plane landed in Afghan territory. In fact, by issuing an ultimatum to the government of India that it must resolve the crisis within a particular time frame, the Taliban only pressurised the GOI to accede to the hijackers' demand. Ultimately, the GOI agreed to release three prisoners as demanded by the hijackers. Two of them are dreaded terrorists and leaders of the fundamentalist-secessionist movement in Kashmir; they were even involved in arsoning the Sufi shrine at Charar-e-Sharif.

Moreover, the GOI took the step of releasing these terrorists without even informing other political parties of its real intentions. If only it had taken other parties into confidence, this would have surely given it strength and helped in finding a way to resolve the crisis satisfactorily.

The situation in Kashmir has seriously worsened since then, with the extremists targetting the security forces and their installations, and once again the Kashmiri Pandits and with Maulana Masood Azhar, one of the released terrorists, almost daily threatening that he would organise a "war of liberation" against India.

The GOI's inept handling of the crisis was so evident that, not to talk of others, even the RSS chief felt compelled to criticise the government that is led by the BJP controlled by the same RSS. Of course, the RSS chief did not forget to try giving it a communal dimension.

Now, to the detriment of our national interests, the bitter truth is that Advani's and Khurana's jingoism after Pokhran II and the GOI's bungling in dealing with the Kargil intrusion as well as the plane hijack crisis, have resulted in a situation which the Pakistani rulers as well as the US always wanted -- the issue of Kashmir has been internationalised and is now likely to be debated in all international fora. No previous regime in the country had ever allowed this to happen. This is a singular disservice which the BJP-led government has rendered to the nation.

But the sordid story does not end here. Ever since our independence, both Pakistan and the US have been trying to see that Kashmir secedes from India, though they have different aims in view. Pakistan wants to take over Kashmir in the name of Islam, and for this purpose it is even trying to destroy the distinct and eminently secular culture of the Kashmiri people which, in the first place, had aroused them to opt for merger with India and then fight, with guns in their hands, the raiders sent by Pakistan. On the contrary, the US wants to see Kashmir as an independent entity where it could have a foothold and a puppet regime; this is perfectly in accordance with the geo-political designs of US imperialism. The people of India well know the geo-strategic importance of Kashmir and also the US intentions in this regard. It is only the BJP's bosses who don't want to recognise this reality and are directly or indirectly helping the US imperialists to realise their objectives in this central part of the world.

There have so far been more than enough indications of the US intentions vis-a-vis Kashmir. Not going into the history of US diplomacy in connection with Kashmir, it is enough to recall how the joint communique issued at Washington by Clinton and Nawaz Sharif, only a little before the latter's overthrow by the Pakistan army, had declared that Bill Clinton would take "personal interest" in the Kashmir issue. The saddest part of the story is that, before its release, a copy of the communique was sent to India and our prime minister had okayed it almost in toto; just a few words were changed. This was in total violation of India's consistent stand hitherto that Kashmir is an integral part of India; this was also in violation of the Shimla accord of 1972 that India and Pakistan would try to sort out their differences, including those on Kashmir, through bilateral negotiations, without involving any third party.

Even in his "message" on the new millennium eve, Clinton had "promised" that he would take steps to resolve the disputes in certain parts of the world. And the areas he named included Kashmir along with Chechnya, West Asia and East Timor, etc. Perhaps Bill Clinton's idea is to render his name immortal in US history as the president who "solved" many disputes in many parts of the world and as one who thrust the USA's Kashmir policy down the government of India's throat. That can be understood. But what is sickening is the spectacle as to how the BJP government is trying to prostrate before Bill Clinton on the eve of his retirement from presidency.

Right now, it appears that the BJP government's only intention is to somehow persuade Clinton that, when he begins his South Asia tour two weeks later, he must not include Pakistan in his itinerary. In its excessive hatred against Pakistan, it seems to have forgotten the simple truth that even though the US imperialists will try their level best to draw India into their sphere of influence, they will never write off Pakistan, not by any means.

To what lowly depths of subservience the Vajpayee government could go to appease this butcher of the Iraqi and Yugoslav people, can be well judged from an episode which it seems has not drawn much attention. Quite recently, according to The Statesman (February 18), the Union home ministry snubbed the Delhi commissioner of police, Ajay Raj Sharma, "for going public with the retired Air Force officer, Satnam Shah's alleged links with the Central Intelligence Agency, in view of the US president, Mr Bill Clinton's forthcoming visit to India in March." Sharma had alleged on February 16 that Shah had had links with the CIA.

Further, according to the report, "Delhi Police has reportedly been told to underplay revelations about the former IAF officer being on the rolls of the CIA" (emphasis added). The whole idea was that Clinton must not be annoyed by any means.

And all this abject subservience is being displayed even after the US president's wife, Hillary Clinton, who is going to enter active politics in her country soon, has made it plain that her husband does want to intervene in the Kashmir issue. The height of the servility is that the GOI is not prepared to demand that the US dismantle its nuclear base in Diego Garcia that threatens all the countries in the Indian Ocean rim, including India.