When Immaturity Rules, Serenity Dies

By:    Aasef Chauhdry

M.K. Bhadrakumar served in the Indian Foreign Service for three decades and served as ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey. Apart from two postings in the former Soviet Union, his assignments abroad included South Korea, Sri Lanka, West Germany, Kuwait, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He served thrice in the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, including as the Head of the Division in 1992-95. Mr. Bhadrakumar sought voluntary retirement from the IFS in 2002 and has since devoted himself to writing. He contributes to various publications in India and abroad and is a regular columnist for Asia Times and The Hindu. He has written extensively on Russia, China, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and on the geopolitics of energy security. He normally resides at Delhi, when not travelling and lecturing abroad.

What the mature and moderate Hindu society thinks about Modi and his policies is quite evident from Bhadrakumar’s write ups which he contributed for many national dailies recently. In his pieces he has shown his lost sleep about the rising extremism and radical attitude of Shiv Sena after Modi’s taking over as the prime minister of the world’s so-called biggest democracy and the secular dominion India. His concern was about two things; first Indian army chief Dalbir Singh’s hostile statement made at a very wrong time and Shiv Sena’s slogan of Akhand Bharat.

Indian army chief recently said that India is prepared to face offensive military action on its borders should the need arise and any future conflict was expected to be short and swift. The general was speaking last month at a tri-service seminar on the 1965 Indo-Pak War. Also said that a very high level of operational preparedness at all times has become part of India’s strategy as there is recognition that the swift, short nature of future wars is likely to offer limited warning time.

Bhadrakumar in his write up of September 2, 2015 lamented at the follies being made by the government and the extremist elements and said that, first came, the army chief’s statement of a ‘swift, short’ war, and then the RSS waded in with their celebrated doctrine of ‘Akhand Bharat’. The writer is of the view that the development highlights the extraordinary turnaround in the climate of India-Pakistan relations since the United Progressive Alliance government’s rule in India ended. According to him, “In flat 15 months, the present government has squandered away what one must look back today nostalgically as a relatively predictable climate of relations between the two countries. How to explain this catastrophic happening? The heart of the matter is that the regional security climate was largely conducive to the preservation of the legacy bequeathed to the Narendra Modi government by the UPA in last May”.

Bhadrakumar is of the view that India set the ball rolling with the army chief General Dalbir Singh’s statement about underscoring the readiness of the armed forces to wage a “swift, short” war with Pakistan, which according to him was an incredibly tactless statement to have been made at such a high level in the present tense climate of bilateral ties with Pakistan. It is one thing that air-gun shooters in the Indian cabinet wag their tongue, but it is quite another thing for an Indian army chief to speak without a sense of high responsibility.
The writer bluntly reproved the general and said that the ‘brilliant’ general should certainly know that the only way he could ensure that a war with Pakistan remained “swift” and “short” would be by nuking that country in the dead of the night. You don’t need a Clausewitz to explain that the “kinetics” of war with a nuclear power with bigger arsenal than India’s – and with second-strike capability – will ultimately depend on a variety of factors that are way beyond his or anyone’s control in New Delhi. What General Dalbir Singh said about “short, swift” war was probably fit for a closed-door meeting with the Director-General of Military Operations at the Army Commanders Conference but not as the stuff of grandstanding.
While reviewing RSS’s “Akhand Bharat” philosophy he writes, “Now, it is into this combustible mix of rhetoric that the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak bosses promptly waded in by presenting their celebrated doctrine of “Akhand Bharat” – a stark reminder to Pakistan that the RRS-led Modi government can never really reconcile itself with the creation of that country in 1947. Most certainly, people in responsible positions should be careful about what they say in public. Equally, while the RSS bosses may not be public officials, they happen to be extra-constitutional authorities wielding more power than many erstwhile emperors in India’s medieval history – and they indeed tend to be taken seriously in Pakistan, at least.

Mr. Bhadrakumar summed up his article by warning the Indian policy makers and cautioned them that, “Unsurprisingly, Pakistan saw dark intentions behind the Indian army chief and the RSS bosses almost simultaneously making what seemed to be “back-to-back” statements. The Pakistani army Chief General Raheel Sharif has since ticked off both with a single rebuff. After what seems a very long time, a Pakistani army chief has spoken about what their version of the “unfinished business of Partition’” would look like – plainly put, peace with India and in the region is not possible until the Kashmir issue gets resolved according to the United Nations resolutions taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people. As for his Indian counterpart’s dire warning, General Sharif was plainly dismissive: “Armed forces of Pakistan are fully capable to deal [with] all types of internal and external threats, may it be conventional or sub-conventional; whether it is cold start or hot start. We are ready!!” (The double exclamation is the General Head Quarters’). Are we hearing the beating of drum presaging the beginning of another bloody round of “low intensity war” or, could it be that India and Pakistan are inching toward another full-fledged war? Time only can tell”.

Isn’t it high time for Narendra Modi to pay a little heed to his sane and seasoned community who has given their best for the betterment of India? The sooner he decides the better it would be for India.