Singh’s Strategies Not Convincing

Air Cmdr. Jasjit Singh's article highlights some of the strategic options that are available to India, but these don't seem convincing enough as Pakistan can easily retaliate. Secondly, do our politicians, who are great at rhetoric mongering, have the will, which seems to have crippled the capability of the 4th largest army on this planet to respond. Pakistan has the upper hand now. It has the will to continue state terror at all costs, expanding it to include all plausible targets, including associating Bangladesh in the adventure in the east, the faint, almost hypocritical U.S. admonishment being no hurdle.

To boot, Pakistan has a fairly competent army ever willing to take up initiatives like Kargil, and the proclaimed policy of extending such expeditions to a nuclear offensive at its choosing, to which we, despite having the fourth largest army, nor the world, seem to have any answers. Pakistan's no-holds barred game seems to have checkmated our policy makers completely. The outcome is that, it has cost us more men and money than all wars put together and we seem to have only a passive Gandhian strategy of turning the other cheek, or waiting for more of the same, at best.

We need to evolve an effective short term and a longer-term strategy to the problem at hand. To be called a strategic option, the act must permit us to go on the offensive, raise the cost of response by Pakistan prohibitively, and simultaneously put us out of its retaliatory range. India needs to look at the options available and borrow from those practiced by U.S., Russia, Israel, and even China. We must be seen as having the will to protect our national interests aggressively.

K Yogi
Bangalore, India