What is the issue?
- While things are heating up on the Line of Control (LoC), several serving generals have surprisingly given calls for easing tensions with Pakistan.
- There needs to be a realisation that 70 years of talks has yielded precious little and military and quasi military options needs be explored.
What is the saddening scenario?
- Making peace is a diplomatic initiative and it is desirable that military generals focus on combat strategising rather than on extending olive branches.
- Needing Aggression - It is to be recognized that no fight can ever be won with just a shield and a sward too is needed to hit back at the foe.
- If the choice of when and where to attack is the prerogative of the enemy, it could lead to a serious loss of morale for our forces.
- It would be wrong for any political or military leadership to relegate their forces to mere punching bags for terrorists by advocating defensiveness.
- Hence, it would be a blunder to suspend the entire strategic, surprise and tactical initiatives of the military to the enemy in the name of offering peace.
- The Hesitation - While many sight the threat of an aggressive action escalating to a nuclear war, this is largely an exaggerated notion.
- Notably, Kargil had highlighted that two nuclear-armed nations can fight for nearly 3 months without a single nuke being used.
- Pakistan’s nuclear potency also seems to be overrated and has effectively relegated India to a state of inaction even when direly needed.
- Notably, India has not come up with a viable response to the proxy warfare being unleashed by Pakistan by supporting organisations like LeT.
How could India shape its military strategy?
- The series of options short of a full-scale nuclear war need to be visualised on an escalation later with appropriate calibration.
- Such a calibrated approach will consecutively increase the pressure on Pakistan and substantially strain its proxy war strategy.
- At the 1st level, the responses could be – surgical strikes (solitary), raids and local fire assaults using small arms, mortars and tanks.
- This could be followed by a vertical and horizontal escalation along the LoC in the form of an artillery war using ‘Bofors like guns’ and rocket launchers.
- This would mean a sustained fire assaults in depth areas and to interdict lines of communications, like the one that was exhibited in early 2003.
- The 3rd would be to carry out air and naval strikes on high-value targets like gun areas, and supply depots that support terrorism directly or indirectly.
- This could also involve the use of rocket launchers and cruise missiles with conventional warheads to and seizure of strategic points by ground forces.
- The final stage could be gauging the Pakistani response and resorting to cold-start style (planned strategic advancement) along the International Border.
What is the way ahead?
- As aerial assault is key to the possible calibrated approach, India needs to drastically speed up the acquisition of fighter jets, which are deficient.
- A positive is that considerable procurements have been made in the “medium range guns”, but this needs to be further speeded up.
- Peace talks with Pakistan has proved to have little deterrence value and strong assertiveness needs to be imbibed into the military ranks and file.
- It shouldn’t take 5 or 6 infiltration aided terror attacks for our military to respond once, as that would tilt the gain in favour of Pakistan.
- India should rather actively strategise militarily to comprehensively destroy and dismantle state aided terror networks in Pakistan.
Source: The Indian Express
