Understanding India's Security Strategy : Jammu & Kashmir

25-27 Feb 2013, I had attended a seminar Understanding India's Security Strategy : With a special reference to Jammu & Kashmir and North East India at Keshav Srushti, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini located at a picturesque location near the Uttan village, Bhayandar, Mumbai. The Knowledge Centre built up at this place is an excellent location for study, thought and development of the mind. The melodious chirping of the birds in early hours of the day is a rare experience in a place like Mumbai for obvious reasons!

As clearly as the title suggests the seminar dealt with our security issues, current and future of the same along our borders and most importantly the need of enlightening the wide mass of Bhaaratiyas against these threats. Many sections of the seminar had thankfully reached upto me via the internet, through attending related seminars in the past and the general awareness created by many patriots and fighters in action before me. To say I didn't learn anything new would be a foolish mistake and some insights can only be presented by men on the field. When a multitude of ex-armymen Lt. Gen. Shekatkar, Lt. Gen. VM Patil, Brigadier Hemant Mahajan, Col. Gidh, defence/security/political analysts Nitin Gokhale, Alok Bansal, Historian/Witness/Professor K. Pandita (an elderly Kashmiri Pandit who has seen the Jammu-Kashmir story by his own eyes, RSS karyakarta Arun Kumar (with active and vast experience in all these regions) concluded by Ex-Intelligence Bureau Chief and current director of Vivekananda International Foundation Ajit Doval share talk space one should be certain that enlightenment is guaranteed! Describing the entire 3 day seminar (atleast 20 hours of talk) in its entirety would be an extremely cumbersome process and even if I manage that somehow it will be far off from live listening and interaction with such personalities. I will try and put up the gist.

Livin' Free has already posted on Jammu-Kashmir and part of North-East (Assam); the former was a passionate share from my room-mate, friend and brother Nikhil Bhan while the latter was my own construction. The seminar not only spoke about internal regions but also the strategic angle as far as Pakistan, China, ASEAN and Central Asia is concerned. Though I do plan to share on each and every topic, in this share I would be limiting myself to the Jammu-Kashmir topic and instead of repeating what Nikhil has said earlier, though it formed the base of the seminar nonetheless, I would add on to his blog and mention a few aspects derived from the resource speakers and experts:

1. Till date, Jammu & Kashmir according to the wide definition has been "an Islamic radical location which burns our flag; curses, criticizes and attacks our forces and supports anti-nationalism led by the separatists." This story is an image/clip we have seen on our TVs and read in our newspapers. The above is only applicable to the Kashmir valley (red-bordered region in the following map), and not the wider Jammu-Kashmir. The above holds true only to 15% land mass of the entire state where 20% of the total population resides. The media has always presented us with the incomplete truth because anti-nationalism sells like hot-cakes! Patriotism does not as we can see from the recent Barkha Dutt telecast post-Afzal Guru hanging!

2. Our age old flaw in dealing with Jammu-Kashmir is that we deal with a person or a family; we have never tried to understand the mindset of the people of a place. Sheikh Abdullah was an example of that grave Nehru mistake; the same parallel can be drawn to the wider nation - we fixate so much on the Gandhi-Nehru family that we forget to pay attention to the greater cause! It is a mistake to obsesses with symbols and the same tendency can be seen in different walks of our life - eg. worshiping idols without understanding and abiding by the teachings of the Gods they represent or glorifying a rape victim instead of focusing on the real issue! Indian Political leadership then committed the blunder of interpreting the Sheikh's wishes as the wishes of the people of Jammu-Kashmir.

3. No-one can deny the irreparable damage caused by Article 370; the legal expert who talked about article 370 during the course of this seminar presented the history and clauses of the said article. The law clearly states that the article can be declared null and void by a simple motion by the President of India with consultation of the Council of Ministers.

4. Gilgit-Baltistan (now PoK) has become a strategic passage for goods and armament from Pakistan to China and vice-versa giving the latter access to the critical Gwadar Port in the Balochistan province of Pakistan which links middle-eastern trade routes to the Indian ocean - naturally Pakistan would have been prevented from being a Chinese neighbour if we had Gilgit-Baltistan with us; and not only this, there have been established army reports about increasing Chinese Army presence in these regions along with setting up of infrastructure projects. It is obviously not just about economic significance and a deterrent to anti-national developments, but also vital when it comes to defending and protecting our seas.

5. This region also connects India with Middle-Asia; We have also lost a direct border with Afghanistan which has always viewed Pakistan as a nation which shouldn't be befriended with. The absence of this  border because of external occupation has cut us off from Middle-Asia and from cementing ties with nations like Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakastan and Tajikistan in a reverse string of pearls strategy. (I will talk about this more when I get down to the China specific section of the seminar) 

What the political class or media has done and is doing is out of our control at this point of time. The objective of the seminar was to make us civilians aware of what has happened so that we can learn and progress; we shouldn't be repeating mistakes. It is a part of our country rich in minerals and invaluable strategically; it is a natural hedge against foreign invasion and God-given tower security post of the Himalayas! "Why bother after it" will be a costly mistake just as what was done by Nehru before and conscious neglect now. Can we forget what happened with Tibet? And who knows, we might be able to cordon off the Kashmir Valley just as Israel has done with the Gaza Strip and regain the lost advantage geographically or even better if one has to be wishful - manage to convince the Valley! Thus, the importance of the state is paramount. As will be observed many times in this series of blog posts relating to the seminar, everything basically boils down to - "Political will is everything." Politics is no more an option to be forgotten; national service is the need of the hour and if it is politics which it takes to re-form, then so be it - we the youth must actively consider taking it up!

Jai Hind!