Author:
Publication: FriendsOfBJP.org
Date: May 7, 2009
URL: http://friendsofbjp.org/2009/05/07/continuance-of-upa-in-power-will-jeopardise-national-security-gen-sinha/
This is a summary of the talk given by Lt
Gen (Retd) S K Sinha recently at a Friends of BJP gathering of senior ex-servicemen
at the Constitution Club in Delhi.
Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha stated that the return
of the UPA to power after the ongoing election will jeopardise the Nation's
security. He said that he was not a member of the BJP and did not agree with
it on all issues, but he felt that BJP coming to power will be in the best
interest of our national security. Today, the Nation faces the greatest threat
to its security since Independence and needs a strong Government at the Centre
capable of taking hard decisions. He regarded L K Advani as the tallest political
leader in the country, head and shoulders above all other Prime Minister hopefuls.
He traced how successive generations of Congress
leaders had not addressed national security problems adequately. Jawaharlal
Nehru was the Nation's icon for his role in the freedom movement and as the
maker of modern India. He laid a firm foundation for democracy in the country.
However, his Kashmir and Tibet policies were disastrous for the Nation. We
are still suffering from their ill effects. His China policy led to the debacle
in the Himalayas and to great national humiliation. Lal Bahadur Shastri restored
the prestige of Indian arms but at Tashkent gave up key tactical features
like Hajipir Pass and Point 13260 near Kargil, won at great cost Indira Gandhi
proved to be a brilliant war leader under whom the Nation won its most celebrated
victory of thousands of years in the Bangladesh War. Yet she frittered away
the gains of victory at the conference table in Shimla. She allowed herself
to be outwitted by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Rajiv Gandhi's misadventure in Sri
Lanka was a total disaster which did not serve any national purpose. The dynasty's
regime for the last five years has exposed India as a very soft State. Thousands
of her innocent citizens have fallen victims to Jehadi and Naxal terrorism.
Much is being made out by Congress leaders
of NDA's capitulation at Kandahar and its failure to prevent the terrorist
attack on the Parliament. They are trying to extract electoral mileage on
the basis of misrepresentation of facts. The NDA did not capitulate to the
terrorists at Kandahar but to the popular outcry and sentiments of not only
the relatives of the hostages but the sympathy of the entire Nation. The decision
was taken for humanitarian reasons and after apprising the Congress leaders
then in the Opposition. They did not oppose the decision and their silence
was their concurrence. They have now no moral right to raise this issue. He
also mentioned how the Congress then in power had chicken biriyani served
to Pakistan terrorists holed up in Hazratbal and gave the terrorists safe
passage home. There were no humanitarian compulsions for doing so. It had
been done in pursuit of the policy of appeasement. As for the attack on the
Parliament, the NDA Government may have failed to prevent it but it certainly
ensured that no harm came to the temple of democracy or to any member of the
Parliament. After this incident the NDA Government unlike the UPA Government
after Mumbai did not rely on others to pull the chestnuts out of the fire.
It ordered Operation Prakram as part of coercive diplomacy. Musharraf who
had hitherto always denied that there was any cross border terrorism changed
track when he agreed not to allow Pakistan territory for use by terrorists
against India. A cease fire was agreed upon in 2003 on the LOC in Kashmir
which is still holding.
General Sinha mentioned that the Mumbai terror
attack had stunned and outraged the entire nation. It was a national humiliation
comparable to the debacle in the Himalayas of 1962. Then the Prime Minister
had confessed that he was living in a world divorced from reality and this
time the Prime Minister apologized to the Nation. In 1962 the Defence Minister
was sacked and in 2008 it was the Home Minister who had to quit. The similarity
ends there. After 1962 the Army Chief and the Corps Commander responsible
for the debacle had to quit but in 2008 no head of any official rolled. The
National Security Adviser continued in office and the Director Intelligence
Bureau who retired after five weeks got re-employed as an Adviser.
Dwelling on the Mumbai attack General Sinha
stated that our performance both at the political and professional levels
was pathetic. Ministers of the Cabinet could not speak in one voice on such
a grave national crisis. The Foreign Minister stated that all options were
open to India but the Prime Minister qualified this by saying all options
except war. Two Ministers opposed SIMI being banned, one Minister called for
all illegal migrants from Bangladesh being given Indian citizenship. Another
Minister wanted a judicial inquiry into Batla House incident and Government
funds given to the University utilized for defending students accused of terrorist
activity. And another Minister insinuated that Hemant Karkare was killed by
Hindu extremists. On top of this the Minister who went to the UN for discussion
on the Mumbai carnage forgot to mention the atrocities committed on the Jews
in Nariman House. Can such a Government with Ministers in such disarray be
trusted to fight the Nation's war against terrorism? Further he mentioned
that soon after coming to power the UPA Government scrapped POTA saying that
the ordinary laws were adequate to deal with terrorism. They kept parroting
this stand for four and a half years while the terrorists kept attacking one
city after another. After the Mumbai catastrophe belated wisdom dawned on
the Government and a new law was enacted on the lines of POTA but unlike the
latter did not provide for confession before a Police officer being admitted
as legal evidence in a court of law. Today Kasab has stated that the Police
extracted confession from him under duress and his confession is not admissible
as evidence by the trying court.
Professional failure in dealing with the Mumbai
terror attack was equally bad. The CIA had warned months earlier about terrorist
attack against a prominent hotel in Mumbai across the sea front. RAW had also
inputs corroborating this and passed them to the Intelligence Bureau. Neither
the National Security Adviser nor the DIB took much notice of this. The available
intelligence was not properly analysed nor adequately disseminated to all
concerned, so that preventive action could be taken. The Crisis Management
Group never met during the crisis. The NSG took nine hours to move to Mumbai
as aircraft was not available. There was lack of proper co-ordination between
various agencies at the site of the incident. We took over sixty hours to
eliminate ten terrorists. The electronic media inadvertently provided support
to the terrorists by screening the progress of operations of the Security
Forces. While pointing out these lapses General Sinha paid a tribute to the
bravery of the Army, the paramilitary, the Police, and the Fire Brigade. Some
of them had made the supreme sacrifice.
Recalling his experience as Ambassador in
Nepal and as Governor, first in Assam and then Jammu and Kashmir, General
Sinha highlighted the failures of the UPA Government. Under Rajiv Gandhi Government,
Indo-Nepal relations had reached an all time low and India was being accused
of imposing a so called blockade on Nepal, a small landlocked country. Relations
between India and Nepal were raised to an all time high during VP Singh's
regime and democracy restored in that country. After the massacre of King
Birendra and his family, Nepal faced civil war. The UPA Government outsourced
India's Nepal policy to the COM and the result is there for all to see. The
Chinese have now gained influence South of the Himalayas bordering UP and
Bihar. Never before has India been in a more disadvantaged position in Nepal
as she is now. In Assam under the NDA Government the ULFA was almost completely
wiped out and a change in the mindset of the people achieved bringing them
back into the national mainstream, With the Congress coming to power first
in the State and later at the Centre, vote bank politics again started being
pursued. The situation in Assam was allowed to deteriorate undoing the results
achieved during the NDA regime. He mentioned that B K Nehru, a member of the
dynasty, when he was Governor of Assam, had proposed action against illegal
migration. He was asked by his cousin, Indira Gandhi not to do anything of
the sort. In his autobiography he laments that the older generation in the
Congress gave priority to national interests over party interests but it was
not so now. In Kashmir again UPA's policy of appeasement allowed things to
deteriorate over a totally non-issue concerning the Amarnath Yatra.
General Sinha praised the Army for its patriotism,
discipline and the sacrifice it has been making in the service of the Nation.
It was the only apolitical Army of the Third World always executing the Nation's
will but never imposing its will on the Nation. The Army was the most popular
instrument of the Government with the people of India, yet the Government
had always been treating it so unfairly in terms of emoluments and status.
With every Pay Commission the emoluments of the Army have been brought down
compared to civil officials. Similarly every revision in the Table of Precedence
has lowered the protocol status of the Service Chief and of officers of all
ranks. He advised serving personnel to always remain apolitical and maintain
their high standard of discipline. They should have confidence in the system
to undo the unfair treatment meted out to them. In this connection he welcomed
the stand taken by the BJP on one rank one pension and other benefits for
the Services. He mentioned how unfairly the most distinguished soldier of
the Army had been treated. He recalled that as Adjutant General, he had taken
up the case for emoluments and status for Field Marshal, when Manekshaw was
promoted to that rank in 1973. A Field Marshal was entitled to full pay for
life. Pending decision on this, the Government sanctioned Rs 400 a month as
special pay plus pension for Manekshaw. It took the Government 33 long years
to take a decision and arrears of pay amounting to over Rs 1 crore were paid
to him a few months before he passed away. The recommendation of giving Field
Marshal the same status as awardees of Bharat Ratna was ignored. No special
place has been accorded for Field Marshal in the Table of Precedence. He is
ranked with Service Chiefs and is junior to the Cabinet Secretary and other
civil officials. The funeral of Manekshaw was organised in a very shoddy manner
with no Cabinet Minister or top officials attending the function. He compared
it with the funeral of Britain's first Field Marshal in London attended by
Heads of State and Heads of Government. The funeral of Manekshaw should have
been organised on the same lines at Delhi. The main reason for the neglect
of the Defence Services has been our irrational higher defence organization
over which the civil servants have a stranglehold. The NDA Government appreciated
this and approved of complete integration of the Ministry of Defenece with
Services Headquarters and the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff. These
measures have been scuttled by the UPA Government providing meaningless integration
in the Ministry on matters of no consequence and having a headless integrated
defence staff.
Concluding his address General Sinha made
a special plea to both serving Defence personnel and ex-servicemen. He urged
the serving personnel to maintain their apolitical tradition and their high
standard of discipline. This did not mean that the serving personnel should
forego their fundamental right to vote. He had seen British soldiers in their
units in South East Asia voting for the British Parliamentary election of
1945. Recently, he had read of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan voting
in their Presidential election. There is no reason why the Indian soldier
should not also exercise his right to vote with full freedom to vote for a
party of his choice.
* The General made a four point appeal to
ex-servicemen.
* First, promote awareness in the civil society
about national security.
* Second, actively work towards developing
a national outlook among the people free from communal, casteist and regional
considerations.
* Third, act as spokesmen of the interests
of serving personnel.
* Fourth, work for the legitimate rights of
ex-serviceman and their welfare.
