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Infusing too many troops is 'tactical blunder'

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Brigadier (retd) Gopakumar feels that America tried to play a dirty trick in Kargil, where India is currently engaged in a prolonged battle with Pakistan-backed forces.

Addressing a function organised by the All-India Peace and Solidarity Organisation at Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday evening, Gopakumar who served in Kargil for long, said the American spy satellites might have had definite information about the infiltration and that the United States government denied the data to India with the ulterior motive of creating a Kosovo-like situation in Kashmir.

"They would have received information about the large-scale infiltration. The fact that they did not pass on the information to India makes one doubt that America either wanted to help Pakistan or wanted a war between India and Pakistan," he said.

Brigadier Gopakumar said the current situation in Kargil and the lives India lost are the price the country is paying for "15 days of inaction" on the part of the government after infiltration was first noticed in the area on May 6.

"The game of one-upmanship between intelligence agencies affected the flow of information at the local level. There were reports that Research and Analysis Wing had informed of infiltration in the area quite in advance. The problem, however, is that there was absolutely no co-ordination among various intelligence agencies,'' he said.

Recurrent cuts in defence spending were also responsible for India's failure to detect the movement of infiltrators. Lack of adequate funds forced the army to give up maintenance of many border posts in the region during the winter.

Gopakumar felt that pumping in too many soldiers into Kargil has been a tactical blunder, which was responsible for the mounting casualties. Resorting to air strikes in high altitude areas like Kargil is not cost effective, he said and added that there could be problems in identifying targets.

Several other retired army officials in Kerala have also pointed out serious flaws in the handling of the situation.

Lieutenant General (retd) S K Pillai, who served as deputy chief of staff and director general of infantry, opined that the developments after May 6 reveal that the country laid more emphasis on political objectives than military requirements.

Taking part in a discussion on the Kargil issue in a local magazine, Lt Gen Pillai said that India should have crossed the Line of Control and destroyed the Pakistani supply network. India obviously did not choose this path because it wanted to maintain the sanctity of Lahore Declaration. "Our government failed to understand that the Kargil infiltration is a planned orthodox strategy that Pakistan has adopted,'' Pillai said

He felt it would take the country four to five months to clear the Kargil area of infiltrators.

Major General (retd) Jacob Koshy, AVSM, said that Kargil, with mountains rising to 18,000 feet, was the highest battlefield in the world. He said adverse weather conditions prevailing in the area make it difficult for people to stay there for few days at a stretch let alone fight a battle.

The Kargil Crisis

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