War is not a picnic, says ex-RAW chief

MUMBAI: Former Special Director at IB and former chief of RAW, AS Dulat, said PM Modi has been lucky so far, but he must weigh his options carefully. War is not a picnic, reported Indian media on Saturday.

Dulat has also served as Advisor on Kashmir to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

During a chat with Ashlin Mathew, Dulat said, “In hindsight, was the decision of the Vajpayee government to release Jaish-e Muhammad chief Masood Azhar in 1999 taken in haste?” There was only one man who was staunchly opposed to the release of Masood Azhar and that was Farooq Abdullah. I was sent to inform him and he said that it was a huge mistake and that the country would regret it. He said this to the government at that time and it is on record, Dulat said.

Will this government opt for war? Is war a possibility? I don’t think so. The government (Prime Minister Modi) did say they were giving a free hand to the Army, but wars are nastier these days. I’m sure there are other options short of war. War is not a picnic. There hasn’t been a real war since 1971. Kargil was a limited operation and it was in the heights where fortunately not many civilians got affected. But, if Lahore is bombed, or Amritsar is bombed or even Muzaffarabad is bombed, are we prepared for the consequences? Today, the weaponry is also not that of 1971, it has all changed.

Navjot Singh Sidhu’s hug of Pakistan’s Army chief continues to be raised in TV studios … How Sidhu greeted General Bajwa is how Punjabis meet and greet each other. And here, they were not just Punjabis, but here was a Jatt Sikh from our side meeting a Jatt from the other side.

The way a Sidhu and a Bajwa met is the normal way they would meet. If there is an element of embarrassment, it should have been caused more to Bajwa, who was in uniform. Sidhu did whatever he did spontaneously.

Senior Indian journalist, Barkha Dutt in a twitter said, “A mass crackdown is underway in the Kashmir Valley on separatists and Jamaat members. Extra paramilitary (am withholding number) have been requisitioned on urgent basis as part of this crackdown and looking ahead at 35A hearing on Monday in Supreme Court.” In an editorial Barkha Dutt said to smear all Kashmiris - as the Meghalaya Governor has done without any public admonishment from the Modi government - is not just wrong; it only helps Pakistan.

A calibrated military response — whether in the form of escalated firepower at the Line of Control, covert action, or the use of air power — are all firmly on the table as options. An act of war by Pakistan’s Deep State, which Pulwama clearly is, certainly demands an appropriate hit back. This is not war-mongering; it is justice. We need a more nuanced debate on our domestic Kashmir policy. Certain changes were overdue. The withdrawal of security cover to the separatists of the Hurriyat Conference is one such move. Over the years, there has been befuddling monetary cultivation of secessionists by the intelligence agencies. The social media has provided a perceived “glory factor” and an environment of competitive extremism has fomented the local turmoil.

The ill-conceived alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the People’s Democratic Party only heightened “extremes”. Islam and Hindutva have also fed off each other.

Meawhile, Kashmir’s top policeman, SP Pani, the youngest-ever to hold the post, quietly introduced small changes. Bodies of those killed in encounters were to be properly zipped in covers and not paraded. At post-mortems of killed terrorists, no photographs were to be taken or distributed. The state police have pushed back against routine patrols and granting of bail and the failure to convict a single significant terrorist. Recently, they fought to have bail canceled to Asiya Andrabi of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat — a female separatist seen to have close links with both the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the JeM.

Latching onto a news report, the Shiv Sena Saturday said the RSS' "new stand" to temporarily put the Ram Mandir issue on the back-burner and give "priority" to Kashmir in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack fits the current narrative in the country. The Sena said the Sangh's changed approach in a way suits the country given the proposed mega alliance of Congress and other parties could never provide stability and bring peace in the country, reported Indian media on Saturday. However, claiming that no damage was inflicted on Pakistan in the last five years, a Sena editorial in "Saamana" questioned the need to repeat the "slogan" to elect a "stable government and a strong prime minister", which was raised ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Sena also underlined the need to have a stable government in the country to prevent recurrence of Pulwama-like incidents.

In the editorial, the Sena also said that "the country is more important than God", an apparent U-turn from its 'Pehle mandir, fir sarkaar' stand, days after sealing a pre-poll pact with the BJP.