Rajeev Sharma

By : Rajeev Sharma

The Jan. 2 terror attack on the Indian air base in Pathankot did not just put the start-stop-start kind of India-Pakistan peace process in deep freeze but also had a deep repercussion on the Indian polity as well.

Forget about the India-Pakistan peace process for the time being. Also, forget about whether the two nuclear armed rivals would be resuming the much-delayed and much-awaited Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue.

The issue at hand as of now, as far as the Indian politics is concerned, is how does it go from here on for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Man Friday Ajit Doval, the high profile National Security Adviser.

The Modi government has taken a lot of flak for the manner in which it conducted the anti-terrorist operation in Pathankot. Most of the criticism is aimed at Doval for his alleged sins of omission and commission. The main charge against him is that he did not deploy army units but put the National Security Guards (NSG) in the forefront in dealing with the terrorists who had sneaked into the highly-guarded air base in Pathankot on New Year’s day.

The lethal game between the terrorists and the security forces started in the wee hours of January 2. The case against Doval is that he made a strategic blunder by opting for the NSG, a paramilitary force, when the entire army was available to him.

Another issue where Doval’s detractors are hauling the Indian NSA over the coals is that he choreographed a security operation which resulted in deaths of seven security personnel, none for the Indian army, in an operation that went on for over four days.

In contrast, the French security forces had neutralized terrorists who had recently struck multiple civilian targets in Paris in a matter of two hours only.

We have been seeing for a few days now articles in many big and small publications discussing at length numerous interpretations of the Pathankot operation trying to give a verdict on whether it was a success or failure. Majority of the articles, by their very flavor, can be easily attributed to one or the other vested interest, internal and external, who want to always be critical of Indian achievements. And more often than not, there has been a negative painting of the manner in which the operation was handled.

There have also been silly comparisons of the Pathankot attack to the recent Paris attack. One must not forget that the Indian terrain is totally a different field and the enemy is a typical one. There are many more aspects the Indian security apparatus has to take into consideration before launching any operation.

In the instant case too, while the enemy was the same, the venue selected for the misadventure was too sensitive for any action to be initiated. The allegations very generously hurled at the personalities in charge of ensuring security of the country, would only serve the short-term objective of temporarily planting in the minds of the reader, a negative narrative that the action taken was inappropriate.

The accuser does not realize that it is easier to comment on the action taken than on what action was taken by who and where. The authorities seldom worry about what will be written in case of a failure, and proceed only with what best can be done at a given time within the available options.

It is very important to get facts right before venturing into a conditioned negative campaigning mode. There is an accusation that the army was not part of the Pathankot operation. In reality, the army was involved and the special forces of the army were actively participating too. Given the location of the attack, where there were over 10,000 civilians, including women and children in close proximity and within the firing range of the terrorists, it was a massive task to ensure safety of each one of them, which was very skillfully achieved.

One must not forget that the terrorists were under no stress to choose their target. All they had to do was to spray bullets at anyone they encountered. But the mandate of the security personnel was totally in contrast to this. They had to hunt for the terrorists while simultaneously ensuring safety of the people in the vicinity and the air force assets.

Also there is criticism of failure of agencies to avert the attack. It must be remembered that a well-planned mechanism was in place, which resulted in the invaluable air force assets being secured prior to the attacks.

The final outcome of the attack, from the perpetrators’ point of view, was a total failure. Had they succeeded in their mission, the damage would have been massive and the security personnel deserve kudos for having restricted the terrorists to only where they were killed.

Any amount of praise showered on the security personnel for the Pathankot operation will be less and anyone being critical of the same is not doing any good to the morale of the selfless personnel and officers who were in the center of action facing the terrorists’ bullets, with a few even martyred in the process.

The fact is that NSA Doval conducted the Pathankot operation in a copy book style. But for the wise intervention of Doval, the terrorists could have wreaked mayhem in terms of lives and damage to the Pathankot air base.

The terrorists were in with a whale of a chance to blow up the parked fighter aircraft and attack helicopters which would have cost a damage of hundreds of millions of dollars.

It was a timely strategic thinking of NSA Doval and saved India from unacceptably high attrition costs, which would have been highly de-motivating for the Indian forces.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in the Column section are their own and do not reflect RiyadhVision’s point-of-view.

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