Table of Contents
Introduction
Indian Amry, The need for political determination and military competence because these together constitute what is called a Nation`s deterrence. So when we talk about political will it means that whether the nation is small or major power it is the duty of the government to ensure that the territorial integrity of the nation is maintained.
Now let`s see the political determination in the context of the India Army. Interestingly after the 1971 War one major mobilization of the Indian army which was Operation Parakram happened under the BJP government and once again under the BJP government there was a major rebalancing of forces against the Chinese in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
Operation Parakram
When we talk about Operation Parakram the first thing to know is that it happened against the backdrop of 9/11. when 9/11 happened the world was shocked and within days of 9/11, President Bush announced to the world that either you are with us or you are with the terrorist. Looking to Pakistan President Musharraf who was also chief of army staff of Pakistan joined Operation Enduring Freedom and so did the BJP government.
So against this backdrop on the 1st of October 2001 Jammu and Kashmir assembly was attacked by the terrorists and after the attack, President Bajpai gave a call and a statement in Dehli that these terrorist attacks would not be acceptable and very strict measures would be taken.
On the 13th of December 2001, terrorists attacked the Indian parliament when it was in session, and on the next day on the 14th of December 2001 Dehli police confirmed that Luskhar and Jaesh were behind the attack on the parliament. The ongoing tension in India on the 15th of December India gave a list of these terrorists to the Pakistan higher commissioner in Dehli asking him that these should be apprehended in Pakistan and within hours President Perwaz Musharraf rejected the Indian Demand.
Indian Army
On the 14th of May 2002, another incident happened at the Air Force base in Jammu and Kashmir and according to an Indian report, the terrorist killed the massacred their Families. including women and kids Keeping an eye on all the incidents Prime Minister Bajpae has no choice but to announce something however in his own dramatic way, he said it would be War to the finish. Perhaps they are the countries headed for a nuclear escalation that was very much on the cards.
So looking at the situation the advisories were issued in all the foreign Missions and they were told to come back this was all happening from the Indian side. Condoleeza Rice who was security advisor to President Bush writes in her book named “No Higher Honour” where she quotes that “ I received an urgent call from Brijesh Mishra the NSA and was pulled from the president`s meeting.
Mishra said I cannot contain the war lobby here without some help so it’s understood that India was asking for help from America so that the war does not escalate the prime minister had sounded beagle for war escalation she further said that Musharraf continued to make the situation worse.
After saying that Pakistan would respond with full might if provoked by the Indian Army he announced that he could bolster the troops in Kashmir by moving some from the Afghan border. So as far as President Musharraf was concerned he was completely belligerent and unyielding. President perwaz Musharraf after hearing the statement of Bajpey’s “ Award to the Finish” started firing ballistic missiles. Indicating very clearly that he would respond which couldn’t be handled by the Indian military.
BJP government Miscalculation
The point here is that for some reason the BJP government always believed that if we are boozy with the Americans beyond the national interest of India it will help us. The 10-month-long mobilization where the defense minister said in the parliament close to 1000 crore rupees was spent. India`s conventional capabilities were totally blunted by this operation parikrama for the simple reason that Musharraf had called Bajpee`s Bluff of this mobilization.
Indian Army After the demobilization happened what did the Wajpayee government do the Wajpayee government instead of building up its capabilities and learning the lesson from Operation Parakam? their army chief General NC Wedge 2004 started Operation Diwar which basically meant putting a fence on a live border. The result created a Megalo line thus it created a defensive mindset in the officers and the troops and with this, the element of proxy war increased.
So there are two takeaways from Operation Parikrama and we will compare those four takeaways with what the President Modi government has done during the rebalancing with a much more powerful foe China and then Pakistan. So the first takeaway we saw was there was a lack of political determination wajpee government lacked now looking at the case after the 15th of June 2020 after the Galwan killings four things happened.
four days later 19th of June 2020 prime minister himself said at the all-party meeting nobody had come to our territory giving clear signals to China that the prime minister of India had accepted their 1959 claim line period and because of that the political determination was not shown
Further negotiations between the two sides obviously will happen on Chinese terms and that is precisely what happened when the joint statement was signed in Moscow by the two foreign ministers of India and China on the 10th of September 2020. The second takeaway is that we saw there was in Parakaram there was a lack of consultation between the political and the military leadership. The political leadership never spelled clearly what their political objective of the war was.
Likewise, on the military side, the Army chief and chairman of staff politicized. They were used in the 2016 so-called surgical strikes against Pakistan and they were used in the 2019 balakot attacks which basically helped the ruling party in the election. Too much of the Indian Army relied on American support now once again India has gone inside all the four foundation agreements the Modi government has done and now the Indian military is part of the defense network of the Indo-Pacific command.
China`s Adversary
There the enemy, this time for India is not Pakistan but China. As we know China is an adversary and President Xi Jinping has made it clear on repeated occasions to the general secretary that all the territories that belong to us will be reclaimed. Indian Army, In December 2022 Chinese president gave a call that by 2027 which is around the corner it happens to be the 100 years of the PLA. they`re centenary The PLA should be ready to take on the question of Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the border tension between India and China.
