Dr Baldev Sahai   (November 2000 Koshur Samachar)

One of the most important events of the 1965 Indo-Pak war has not been adequately highlighted in' the official history of the war—as reported by a contemporary—either by India or by Pakistan. The event is the crossing of the Rubicon, the Lakshman Rekha of the Line of Control (LOC), on the orders of the then Prime Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri. What Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not —or could not —do for every 20 years, Shastri did in his brief but memorable stint, and Pakistan never expected a counter-attack. There was definitely a plan to take Lahore, not permanently but only temporarily, as a bargaining point to solve other irritants.

The Government of India then announced that no foreign aircraft should land at Lahore without proper permission from the Indian authorities. A planeload of civilian administrators under the leadership of the Congress stalwart, Mir Mushtaq Ahmed, was waiting in the wings to fly at a moment's notice to take over the civil administration of Lahore. But, in spite of repeated instructions, the Commander of the 15 Division, Maj. Gen. Niranjan Prasad, did not move forward to encircle Lahore and kept on asking for more tanks. If he had carried out the pincer movement and Lahore taken, the history of this subcontinent would have taken a new turn and there would not have been any Kashmir problem.

Pakistanis Befooled

Briefing us in a bunker at Sialkot, Gen. 'Sparrow' told us good-humouredly: "Young men, you are on a foreign soil without a passport". He explained how he fooled Pakistani intelligence by taking out tanks on railways from the Amritsar sector in broad daylight and bringing them back camouflaged in the darkness of night. Indian tanks lined up in a marshy field below — which none suspected capable of holding heavy tanks — along the higher Sialkot-Delhi Road and, in a single-day action, the Indian Army captured 22 Patton tanks. When one bruised among them was put on display in Connaught Place, the American Embassy protested and, in deference to their wishes, the tank was removed. But Khemkaran stored many mangled and twisted pieces and for months continued to be the visitors' attraction as 'the graveyard of Patton tanks'.

The Indian Army personnel performed several extraordinary feats during that war but it is a pity that as a nation we do not know how to glorify our Generals and Jawans.

The Ichogil Canal was a remarkable specimen of military strategy undertaken by Gen. Ayub Khan and his colleagues. It also speaks volumes about the failure of Indian intelligence. For months, perhaps years, the Pakistanis were constructing underground pill boxes of four-foot-wide walls and replenishing them with all sorts of arms and ammunition. The pill boxes had two-inch-thick iron shutters from where to fire or lob grenades. Over them were set up tea shops run by colonels and majors in plain clothes. The Indian Army personnel were encouraged to patronize these dhabas where they freely and frankly discussed the movement of Indian forces. The pill boxes were so solidly built that even the Indian Vijyanta tank could cause only minor damage to them. The Indians were within a few miles of Lahore and we took a photograph showing the 'Burki Police Station' of Pakistan.

We need no less than another Lai Bahadur Shastri to push out the intruders from the illegally occupied land of the state of Jammu and Kashmir—'an integral part of India1. In doing so, we will not be committing any aggression but only vacating one, perpetrated by 'foreign mercenaries' and misguided military personnel. Is it a crime under international law to retrieve our own land forcibly taken by others?

Fed On Myths

For long Indians have been fed upon the myth that they have never crossed their borders and are incapable of conquering any other country.' Planted and perpetuated by a colonial power to confine us within our country and turn us into cowards, should we, as a free nation of half-a-century, subscribe to such views? History does not endorse this myth. In the first century BC, Kaundinya, an Indian, after crossing several seas in the southeast, challenged Funan, later called Cambodia, and now Kampuchea. After a brief engagement with the ruling queen called Lin-ye or "Willow Leaf'', he married her and established the first Indian kingdom in that region. His descendants branched off to north, east and west and set up kingdoms in Vietnam, Thailand, Malay, Indonesia and smaller islands of Celebes and Borneo. They were followed by other Indian kings, mainly Srivijaya and Shailendra, who ruled the region for as long as the beginning of the 14th century.

The well-known French historian, G. Coedes, testifies 'a series of kingdoms which in the beginning were true Indian states. Cambodia, Champa and the small states of Malay Peninsula, the kingdoms of Sumatra, Java and Bali; and finally the Burmese and Thai kingdoms which received Indian culture from Mons and Khmers". The area of the kingdom of Srivijaya, whom the Arabs called Maharaja of Zabag, says Abu Zayd of Sira (d.916) "is about 900 (square) parasangs. The king is also the overlord of a large number of islands extending over a length of 1000 passengers or more". According to Masudi (943 AD), the empire was so extensive that "no one, even with a ship of utmost speed, can go over all the isles which are inhabited, in less than two years." The Indians not only conquered many lands but also ruled admirably and benevolently and the specimen of their art and culture can be seen in the region even today.

Musharraf's Pretension

Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, the CEO of Pakistan, has no faith in the Simla Agreement. He does not believe in the Lahore doctrine and was conspicuous by his absence when the prime ministers of the two countries were shaking hands at the Wagah Border. He does not have any respect for the LOC for, when the peace talks were going on at Lahore, he was busy inducting his troops and mercenaries at the most vulnerable points at the Himalayan heights. At the same time, his government has openly declared that it would continue to extend all support to the Mujahideen who are anxious to help their compatriots in Indian Occupied Kashmir. In spite of the pious pretensions of the CEO, the international community has thoroughly examined the documentary proofs India has offered and are convinced that the proxy war perpetrated by Pakistan not only in Kashmir but throughout India is a part of international terrorism his government is pursuing as its state policy.

Poor CEO, what more is required to persuade the world to believe in his 'peaceful' intentions. He has repeatedly declared his intention to meet anybody, anywhere, anytime to seek a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. But it is India's unreasonable obduracy that is stalling peace. If some sincere friends of Kashmir have illegally occupied a large portion of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and are anxious to 'liberate' the remaining part, how can he be held responsible? Or, if some misguided miscreants are killing innocent Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus in the neighboring country, he certainly has no means to rein in their religious zeal. In that case, India has to take adequate measures to provide security to her people.

Right Time For Action

Presently, it is not a question of crossing the borders but taking back a part of our own country forcibly occupied by the intruders. When conciliatory talks between the Pandavas and the Kauravas failed, it led to the war of Mahabharata to enforce the rule of righteousness. India has gone out of her way in offering an olive branch to her neighbour and always regarded them as cousins. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself took a Samjhauta bus to Lahore. Having got a bloody nose at Kargil, Gen. Musharraf has strangulated democracy at home and intensified proxy war throughout India.

When trespassers kill innocent civilians, it is belligerence. When they attack military posts and shoot soldiers in uniform, it is war. In addition to proxy war, now attempts are being made to lure India into proxy dialogue. Time has come when India should give a befitting reply to both.

 

(The author retired from the Indian Information Service in 1976)

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Courtesy:  Dr Baldev Sahai and November 2000 Koshur Samachar