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Take the fight to Pakistan, exhorts retired general

India should not hesitate to escalate the conflict with Pakistan by crossing the international border to force Islamabad to abandon its Kargil misadventure, says the deputy director of the United Services Institute, Major General (retd) Y K Gera.

In an interview to Asia Defence News International, Major General Gera said: "India currently occupies the moral high ground because of the restraint it has shown by limiting the operations without crossing the Line of Control. India can continue to do so in an escalated situation through its commitment to no-first-use of nuclear weapons.

"By sticking to its no-first-use assurance, India can pressurise the Western nations to see that Pakistan does not exercise its nuclear option. This can give India the opportunity to recapture its territory. India is an established democracy and has neither indulged in ethnic cleansing nor has committed aggression and the Western countries, even if wanting to intervene, will be constrained by these facts," he maintained.

"It must be appreciated that a mutual nuclear deterrent situation does not mean that India loses all options of conventional reaction in response to aggression by Pakistan by crossing the Line of Control in the Kargil sector. India's options are intact. Our limitations are self-imposed. We should have the 'will' to act decisively," he said.

In the general's assessment, the number and variety of nuclear weapons and means of delivery available to Pakistan does not allow it to adopt anything other than a limited deterrence strategy against India. Islamabad's expectation perhaps is that its nuclear weapons will somehow give it an advantage in a solution to the problem of Jammu and Kashmir. This stems from the belief that India cannot counter Pakistani support to the insurgency in Kashmir by enlarging the area of conflict by crossing the international border (as it did in 1965).

The nuclear weapons provide Pakistan probably its last and best opportunity to internationalise the Kashmir question and through external mediation bring about a solution in its favour.

"The current crisis in Kargil has been created by exaggerated expectations entertained in that country of the impact of the acquisition of nuclear weapons and the resultant exuberance in fostering and supporting terrorism and insurgency," Major General Gera said.

As the unusability of nukes in a pro-active situation becomes evident, there is bound to be a toning down of this exuberance in Islamabad. Pakistan is probably making efforts to blackmail India to gain its objectives in Kashmir. It is trying to play on the fears of the Western countries by highlighting the rationale of irrationality in the Kargil sector," he pointed out.

The history of nuclear weapons reveals that these have never been used by two states possessing them. In fact, their possession by nations has had a sobering effect on national leaders. The leaders of nations with nuclear weapons have behaved in a very responsible manner. So there is no reason to believe that the national leadership in both India and Pakistan will not behave likewise, he said.

UNI

The Kargil Crisis

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