Who Dies If India Lives?

Low Intensity
Conflicts in India
By V.K. Nayyar
United Service Institution of India
Price not stated

Kargil set off the trend of writing on security issues

Our Constitution contains adequate prescriptions for safeguarding national security. The states have the responsibility for maintaining public order and the Union the duty to protect the states against external aggression and internal disturbances. In the past half century, our defence forces have fought five wars and, except in the 1962 debacle, valiantly protected the country’s territorial integrity. While the country remains prepared to deal with threats across our borders, the continuing internal disorders have been a cause for growing concern.

Till about the mid-’80s, there was limited writing on India’s security problems, essentially for the reason that successive Central governments have believed in shrouding all security-related matters in a cloak of secrecy. This is evidenced by the fact that, inter alia, the authorised histories of the 1947, 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars have still not been made public. This syndrome was partially ruptured by the Kargil war which was, for the first time in our military history, portrayed by the electronic media virtually on real time basis. While our political leaders have still to gain an adequate understanding of issues relating to national security management, it is heartening that a growing number of those who have been involved in such tasks — administrators, diplomats and armed forces officers — are now writing about their experiences. Such writings, even if not of equal value, have contributed to promoting better understanding of what ‘‘security’’ is all about.

Among the recent additions to the growing literature on security management is Low Intensity Conflicts in India by Lt Gen (retd) V.K. Nayyar. A highly decorated soldier, he’s had decades of experience in dealing with insurgencies in the Northeast and the wave of terrorism which engulfed Punjab. After retirement, as governor of Manipur and Nagaland, he had a fresh opportunity to manage serious internal disorders.

Dealing separately with J&K, the Northeast and Punjab, the author has put in considerable effort to trace the genesis of the disorders in each area, the factors which have contributed thereto — historical, socio-economic, ethnic, religious, divisive and secessionist, maladministration and misgovernance, external support, et al — and has offered suggestions for their better management.

Regarding J&K, the author has opined that the Pak-sponsored and aided ‘‘militancy has grown out of political ineptness, isolation, frustration, corruption and, finally, fundamentalism’’ and the current crisis is the ‘‘cumulative effect of our political stance varying between overindulgence or appeasement and suspicion, and failure to deal firmly with Pakistan’s policy of subversion’’. The endemic disorders in the Northeast are traced to ‘‘perverted political ethos, instability and bad governance’’ which have alienated the people whose diverse ‘‘ethnic, social, cultural and economic perspectives’’ not having been adequately understood has led to ‘‘ethnic parochialism’’ and the ‘‘fear of cultural submergence and social and economic insecurity have fomented the identity crisis’’. The erstwhile terrorism in Punjab is traced to ‘‘Akali Dal’s sectarian politics’’ which was matched by ‘‘equally unhealthy counter politics of the Congress’’ in the struggle to gain power in the state.

Commenting on the role of the security forces, the author laments that their task has been made difficult as the Government has failed to evolve a cohesive policy in dealing with the varied serious disorders. He lauds the Army for remaining apolitical and functioning within the democratic framework despite its awareness that ‘‘some of our problems are an outcome of political mismanagement or have been accentuated by it’’ and regrets that the problems faced have been compounded ‘‘by the fact that our national leadership has not yet developed any long-term strategic perception on these issues’’. And as to whether the Army should at all be deployed to deal with internal disorders, the author dismisses the relevance of any such debate. He feels that the ongoing low intensity conflicts are ‘‘the new face of war’’ and the Army needs to ‘‘devise effective doctrines, training methods, weapons and tactics to deal with such situations’’.

He, however, warns against the over-involvement of the Army whose role should be progressively taken over by better equipped and trained state and Central police forces. The political leadership is cautioned to ‘‘display the will to deal with internal threats in the greater interest of the nation, and provide the security forces the necessary policy guidelines and the wherewithal’’. In this context, the author notes that as ‘‘security forces play a major role in furthering the national goals’’, the Army, which is a ‘‘major’’ partner in the overall effort, ‘‘should be part of the decision-making process’’ as this would enable the forces to be ‘‘clear about their aim, purpose and tasking’’.

The terrorist turmoil in Punjab, the militancy in J&K, and the virtually endemic insurgencies in the Northeast have demonstrated the altogether grave consequences which emerge when internal disorders are allowed to be abetted, aided and exploited by antagonistic external agencies. The management of such serious situations has also shown that extremely difficult problems arise when internal and external security issues get intertwined, as they have in our country. The alarm bells have been ringing for the past several years. No more time can be lost in bringing the obtaining disturbances under effective control. Let us not forget: ‘‘Who lives if India dies and who dies if India lives?’’

The author’s analysis and suggestions for improving internal security management would have been far more telling if the book had been suitably edited. Nonetheless, it is bound to serve as a most useful resource for those interested in acquiring a deeper understanding about the management of serious internal disorders being faced by the country.

—N.N. Vohra

(The reviewer has served as Union home secretary)