19. Godhra : A Strategic Appraisal,Lt. Gen. R. Narasimhan,
The Hindu, 2 April, 2002
 

By relegating the Godhra issue to the back burner and concentrating on the aftermath of the incident we as a nation have done a great disservice to the country. In the hour of crisis the nation as a whole should rise and support the government in tackling the crisis and not fall into the trap set by our enemies.

THE Sabarmati Express coming from Ayodhya side towards Ahmedabad was torched by a mob and innocent unarmed people including women and children died a macabre death. It will be interesting to note that all victims were Hindus. The pilgrims (call them Ramsevaks) were returning after offering prayers at Ayodhya much as most of us visit Tirupati or other shrines or the Muslims who carry out a pilgrimage to Mecca. They were not involved in karsevak activities. The incident was not a result of altercations between tea vendors at the station and the pilgrims but a premeditated and carefully planned operation to create communal disharmony in India and erode the advantageous position India has attained post-Taliban operations in Afghanistan.

Furthermore the timing of the massacre was carefully planned to coincide with the tension building up due to the VHP agitation for the construction of the temple in Ayodhya. I do not propose going into the pros and cons of the Ayodhya issue. What we need to examine is why the incident at Godhra occurred triggering off large scale communal riots in Gujarat. Fortunately by the timely induction of the Army the violence was contained to the State. The timely pre-emptive measures taken by various State Governments in the neighbourhood also prevented a holocaust as planned and visualised by the planners of the Godhra incident.

‘Why’ of the incident

The Gujarat violence and the Ayodhya developments diverted the attention of the press, both domestic and international, as well of the so-called secularists resulting in the macabre events at Godhra being given a go-by. The Godhra incident is the core issue which needs examination in the interests of national security. The mindless violence in Gujarat after the event has to be condemned and the guilty punished. Unfortunately our attention has been diverted from the ‘why’ of the Godhra incident by events which followed after - in this we seem to have fallen into the trap set by our enemies who had triggered off this incident. Was communal disharmony the cause or was it an external agency? Let us examine these in details.

After the shootout at the Parliament House, India carried out a rapid and massive mobilisation of its Armed Forces unprecedented since 1971. Indeed the speed with which the mobilisation was carried out surprised the Pakistani establishment as well as the U.S. Minor accidents due to faulty standard operating procedures (SOPs) at the junior level did occur and were blown out of proportion by the media. The strategic ratio of the Armed Forces of Pakistan and India have been well documented and need not be elaborated upon. At this point of time, Pakistan under pressure from the U.S. had to deploy regular forces up to a division or more to seal the borders with Afghanistan. They were also beset with internal security problems due to the forced crackdown on Islamic jehad groups again at the insistence of the U.S.

In this scenario, the Pakistani military leadership was on a sticky wicket, the nuclear option though being bandied about, being a dubious course of action. Terrorist activities in J & K and other parts of India again could not be carried out due to the anti-terrorist mantra being propounded by the U.S. as well as the improving relationship of the U.S. and India in economic, military and other spheres of activity. In this scenario Pakistan had to resort to other measures to make the Indian Army reel back to carry out internal security operations which in fact is their secondary role. The pulling out of army formations from their defensive and offensive postures would degrade the strike potential of the Indian Armed Forces. Indeed Pakistan succeeded to a certain extent with the Indian Army having to pull out about a division for internal security duties when they were poised for operations against Pakistan. It goes to the credit of the planners at Army HQ that the defense potential was not degraded and at the same time they provided adequate forces to contain the violence. Under the circumstances the response was commendable.

Wrong projections

Some of the media and their Bryl Cream boys were harping on the delay in deploying the Army in Gujarat. They seem to have conveniently forgotten that the Army only two months earlier had carried out a spectacular mobilisation which added clout to the diplomatic efforts of the government to pressure Pakistan to desist from terrorism. Unfortunately we do not have trained war correspondents who can analyse the strategic scenario and come to the right conclusions. In this day of instant TV wrong projections are made much to the detriment of the security of the country and morale of the Armed Forces who are doing their duties in an exemplary manner.

By projecting their immature and unconsidered views on TV they are jeopardising the security of the nation. Some of the TV channels, whatever the modus operandi be, are there to find loopholes in all things being done by the government. They are free to criticise the government on its policies but should be more circumspect in dealing with national security and particularly operations of the Armed Forces. Small incidents concerning the Armed Forces are blown out of proportion and people made to believe that rot has set in at every level. It is time that the media did some introspection and resorted to mature reporting. In their endeavour to highlight the failings of the Gujarat Government, they went off at a tangent and wholly ignored the trigger of the whole issue - Godhra and the people who perpetuated it. In this our politicians are also guilty in fishing in troubled waters when the country’s security was being threatened. It took one lone woman Chief Minster from Tamil Nadu to bring out the right perspective of condemning the Godhra incident. Politicians need to forget their vote banks and internal squabbles when they deal with national security.

American example

At this stage the reactions of the Americans to the September 11 disaster need examination and comparison with our home made political establishment. In September, the U.S. had a President who had at best been declared elected on technical grounds due to electoral anomalies. His personality did not inspire confidence within the country or in the international arena. The September 11 attacks on the WTC was an intelligence failure of gigantic proportions given the sophistication of surveillance devices the U.S. possesses as well as their extensive intelligence networks comprising the CIA and the FBI. The rescue efforts in New York of course went off well due to citizen’s participation as well as the government agencies. At this hour of grief and catastrophe, the U.S. people and Congress reacted by fully backing their President forgetting all their differences and their reservations on the President. This backing resulted in the President taking firm and forceful decisions without looking over his shoulders. Compare this with the Gujarat episode or for that matter with various disaster situations which our country has had to face from time to time. In our country, unfortunately politicians and others see a disaster situation as a good opportunity to grab loaves instead of assisting the government of the day to tackle the situation. In a crisis situation, the Prime Minister, his Cabinet and the whole government machinery should be able to concentrate on resolving the crisis rather than looking over their shoulders at squabbling politicians who want to exploit the situation for their personal gains and vote banks. It is time that the politicians placed national security and pride above their narrow ambitions. We have an elected government which is answerable to Parliament. Once the dust settles down and the crisis is resolved there is plenty of opportunity in our democratic set-up to bring the government to book in Parliament. Of course to do this the politicians who get elected need to educate themselves on national security and its nuances to participate in a meaningful debate - a far cry at this stage.

I am of the firm view that by relegating the Godhra issue to the back burner and concentrating on the aftermath of the incident we as a nation have done a great disservice to the country. In the hour of crisis the nation as a whole should rise and support their government in tackling the crisis and not fall into the trap set by our enemies. In the last few weeks I am convinced we have done just that and Musharraf and his staff must be enjoying the fun. Our free press was so impressed by the General’s flamboyance and arrogance at Agra and did not dare to question him on contentious issues. Yet, when our own Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Padmanabhan, did us proud by giving an erudite briefing, they were trying to snipe at him. Our Army Chief has done us proud by his cool handling of the situation and I am confident that if there is a war we are going to win it. It is indeed a happy coincidence that we have a team of battle-hardened professionals heading the three services at this stage. Let us do some introspection as Indians and let us place our nation first and our own personal amibitions in a secondary place. Any amount of economic progress and agricultural production is not going to make us stand proudly as a nation unless we believe in the concept of nationhood and be proud of being Indians.

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