Kargil-free election? Don’t be silly

Even though the Congress is sharpening its attack against the government for being caught unprepared in Kargil, which has been a costly affair, it is apprehensive that the BJP may end up getting the electoral benefit.

Public discourse has got so vitiated today that it is becoming difficult for non-party people to take positions on an issue on its merit. If you talked about the desirability of early elections, you were dubbed as pro-BJP. If you argued for a Rajya Sabha session, you were seen aspro-Congress.

Kargil must be discussed, irrespective of who it hurts or who it helps. The debate should include not just Kargil but our entire approach to national security in the last 50 years. Five hundred of our jawans have died in a mountain battle, thousands have been incapacitated for life. The country has spent thousands of crores already. The government is planning to levy a Kargil cess. For two long months people have sat glued to their TV sets watching the progress in the battle from the furthest corners of the country. So intense has been their involvement that MPs did not know the details of the war, but their constituents knew which peak was captured on which day and by whom. Tololing and Tiger Hill have become part of the war folklore now. Thousands turned up for funerals in their towns spontaneously, even though they did not know the family of the martyrs personally.

National security is agitating national psyche today and there is little reason why it should not become a poll issue. Indiais not an authoritarian regime that things have to be be pushed under the carpet. It was alright to be restrained while the war was being waged.

The war is now almost over. The withdrawal of intruders is taking place. The dust has begun to settle. The country has a right to know the answers to many questions, and what better forum than the people’s court.

When, for instance, did the intruders come in? When did the government learn about the intrusion? Was it before or after Lahore? Why were we caught napping? Was it a case of intelligence failure? There are so many intelligence agencies in the country — RAW with its sophisticated Aviation Research Centre and reconnaissance planes, IB, state intelligence, counter-intelligence, military intelligence, BSF intelligence, secret services bureau. Did they all fail? Or was it a failure to coordinate? It is widely known that the nodal body mandated to coordinate all the information and analyse it for the government, the Joint Intelligence Committee, has become apunishment posting.

The government has not talked about intelligence failure so far. In that case, was it a failure of the government to act on the intelligence reports? Even if the Prime Minister did trust Pakistan after Lahore, how did the government become so negligent of a sector so close to the crucial Leh-Srinagar highway which can cut off Ladakh from the rest of the state?

What is the truth about the reports that Pakistan had given a contract to a European company to source tens of thousands of snow boots? It is supposed to have bought them from an Indian manufacturer. When the government needed them, and tried to acquire them from him, he had already sold out to this company.

There is also the question of the country’s long term defence preparedness. Have we spent enough on our defence systems over the years or did we reduce defence spending too drastically? When did the cutback start to take place and for what reason? Every political party has been guilty of complete negligence of defence andsecurity issues over the years. They have no right to blame each other today, when they have shown little inclination to debate these issues in Parliament. The demands for grants for the defence ministry, which provides an opportunity for a discussion on the subject, are often over in a minute.

There is then the argument that making Kargil a poll issue would divide the country at a time when it needs to present a united face to the world. Everyone understand that there are things like operational details which are sacrosanct, and must be kept that way. But unless there is a full and an open debate on what is wrong with our security system, we will not be ready for the Kargils in the future, which we have to be even as we explore the possibilities of peace.

Chamberlain was after all removed in the midst of World War II. Churchill took over and led Britain to victory. But the people rejected Churchill soon after the war in the elections. This is not to say that people are about to throw Vajpayee out. It isto illustrate what makes a mature democracy.

Indian democracy is resilient enough to take criticism and emerge stronger from it. If Kargil has underscored something, it is this: we are not a nation in the making; we are a nation today.