Military Action Is To Be Taken With Greatest Caution

It's time to stand with the government and not indulge in unnecessary rants

- SHASHI SHEKHAR

About 6am last Tuesday, I got a notification on my mobile phone—a message from a friend's son distraught by the Pahalgam attack. The message berated the government for not taking speedy retaliatory action and wanted me to build media pressure on the government into taking immediate action. I was shocked.

I have known this person since childhood. He was schooled at the best of institutions in India and holds an engineering degree. He landed a plum job with an MNC even before he completed his education, and today is part of the top corporate echelons.

I advised him to keep his cool and trust the government, and reminded him of 1971, when a similar war hysteria had built up in India. However, when Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister, summoned General Sam Manekshaw, the then army chief, and wanted the army to attack and liberate East Pakistan, the general flatly refused any immediate action.

The reason? Manekshaw, a brilliant strategist, knew that the monsoon was due in a few months and that during the rains, the fields in Bangladesh would turn into swamps, hindering movement of men and materiel. Attack at such a time would be suicidal. Manekshaw was ensuring the survival of his men.