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| April 24, 2000 | ||
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| Kargil's
Blunders A terse, accessible account of one of the darkest episodes in India's history By Amitabh Mattoo A SOLDIER'S DIARY
But while the 1962 war produced only a few accounts, mostly by retired generals, and an occasional film (Chetan Anand's Haqeeqat being the most memorable), Kargil has inspired a virtual industry. At least half a dozen books have already been published, an epic play is running to packed audiences and several screenplays have been commissioned for movies. And while General Henderson Brookes' official investigation into the 1962 fiasco remains a closely guarded secret, the Subrahmanyam Committee's findings into failures of Kargil have already been made public. Is there anything really left to write about Kargil? Harinder Baweja's A Soldier's Diary: Kargil, The Inside Story proves that despite the proliferation of writings there is still space for an insightful account of the war. However, I must confess straightaway to a bias. I was in Jammu and Kashmir in the initial days of the Kargil war and had a chance to observe Baweja's grit and determination. Even at dinner at a common friend's house in Srinagar's Lal Chowk she would be contacting sources, fixing appointments and making arrangements to go to the snowy heights at a time when journalists were not being allowed beyond Sonamarg. In short, Baweja is a true professional and this is a professional's book. Written in the form of a soldier's journal, the book grimly recounts the story of the war and the extraordinary courage of the subalterns and officers, while documenting the colossal failure of the top military leadership, its intelligence and of the equipment made available. Tersely written, without recourse to sentimentality or emotion, many readers may find the account tedious in parts and not written with great panache. But this is precisely the volume's strength: a straightforward, accessible account of one of the darkest episodes in modern Indian history. Baweja is particularly good at tracking incidents of gross impropriety and negligence. For instance, on June 1, at the height of the war, while the dead and wounded were being evacuated to the hospital in Srinagar's Badami Bagh cantonment by helicopter from Drass, the 15 Corps Commander, Lt-General Krishan Pal, was inaugurating a golf championship some kilometres away. Krishan Pal's son, Major Neeraj Pal, an army dental officer, was participating in the competition. Similarly, 80 per cent of casualties, fatal and non-fatal, were due to enemy shelling and could have been prevented if the army had, as planned, bought artillery locating radars three years before the war. Baweja reveals a team had visited the US and almost placed orders, but cancelled the deal after the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) insisted that these could be made indigenously. Unfortunately, DRDO's claims were never translated into reality, and when the decision was finally taken to import them there was little chance, since by then the US had imposed sanctions after the Pokhran II tests. There are many similar nuggets of insightful information that make A Soldier's Diary a welcome addition to the existing shelf of books on the Kargil war. |
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No
conflict since the 1962 war against China has had as deep an impact on the
nation's psyche as the 1999 war in Kargil. The reasons for this are easy
to discover. India and Indians felt deeply betrayed by these two wars. In
1962 the Chinese destroyed Jawaharlal Nehru's carefully constructed
notions of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai and in 1999 Pakistan punctured Atal
Bihari Vajpayee's historic bus journey to Lahore that had led to hopes of
peace. Not only was India surprised by both wars, but the army was
poorly-equipped to fight them. Hence the high casualties and the
consequent outpouring of public emotion.