Yogi's Corner

Precedence has it that Independence Day address to the nation by the Prime Minister is supposed to be a report card of government's achievements and annunciation of future initiatives. Thus far, most PMs have refrained from lacing their speeches, from ramparts of Lal Qila, with any political rhetoric. This year, Modi made a departure by tweaking his address into a political one with an eye on forthcoming Bihar elections. His address, sans any reference to national security situation, foreign policy and, most importantly, to Naga Accord which still remains shrouded in a mystery, lacked luster, both in content and conviction. Post the address, veterans of Armed Forces, who are on a Relay Hunger Strike (RHS) at Jantar Mantar for more than two months now, were a disappointed lot. They expected Modi to announce implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP). That was not to be. Their honour having been bruised by Delhi Police a day earlier, veterans' anger against Modi Government is...

Ever since independence, Indian Army is a saga of having always risen to nation’s call; whether to preserve its territorial integrity or to maintain internal security in face of ever growing threats, both from outside and from within. Freedom never comes free and its perseverance is paid for in blood by the valiant officers and men of the Indian Army. After making supreme sacrifices, these bravest of the brave soldiers leave behind legends about their valour to motivate future generations to emulate their deeds. Such sacrifices are made unmindful of their families’ fates thereafter. Soldiers trust their governments to look after their brave mothers, proud wives or their children in event of their martyrdom. Unfortunately, this trust has mostly been betrayed by the very establishment on whose call soldiers put their lives in line of fire. Sadly, families of these braves, especially those from rural and semi-urban areas, are often neglected to suffer their miserable lot. Due to governme...

It was during my tenure in the Valley, in early 1990s, I came to know Lt. Col. (now Maj. Gen, Retd.) S.K Razdan had critically been injured during a daring raid on a militant hideout in south Kashmir. This news was carried on front pages and in bold by all the leading dailies of the Valley. My hunch had it that it could be none other than that lean and thin,yet indefatigable, Gentleman Cadet in OTA with whom I had spent somefleeting moments in between rigours of our gruelling training schedules. I was confident, whatever be the criticality, he would fight against all odds. True to his fighting spirit, he snatched his life from jaws of a certain death. Maj Gen. Razdan is the first paraplegic officer of Indian Army to be promoted to the rank of Maj Gen. All my efforts to catch up with him did not materialise until recently when I spent an evening with him in his Guru Gram home. Despite him being wheelchair borne, Maj. Gen. Razdan, nicknamed Greyhound by his peers, has lost non...

Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, has announced that his government intends to bring back ‘misguided’ Kashmiri youth who have crossed over to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Pakistan, obviously for arms training,  during two decades of insurgency in the Valley.  He attempts to score a political brownie point over the Mufti father-daughter duo, his vociferous political opponents in the Kashmir Valley. It may be recalled that a proposal to bring ‘disillusioned’ Kashmiri youth back to their homes had earlier been mooted by the senior Mufti but then, rightly so, there were no takers in the Union government for this largesse to those who were waging a war against the nation. However, this time both Omar and Chidambaram claim to be on the same page albeit the wrong one. What strategic foresight has prompted centre to bite the Omar bait, especially in the current surcharged security scenario in the region, is anyone’s guess. Interestingly, Nasir.A.  W...

Militants in Kashmir Valley always framed their own rules of the combat game. Their activities often subsided during winter months as much for closure of passes as for severity of cold. Unfortunately, security forces never exploited this combat procrastination, on the part of militants, so as to seize tactical initiative which mostly sides with the later in low intensity combat situations. Winter months often gave one an impression of an undeclared truce between the two sides, militants, on one hand, staying away from combat out of tactical compulsion of conserving manpower and material, while, on the other hand, there would be a virtual cessation of operations by security forces with their higher echelons conspicuous by their absence on ‘winter‘leave, almost en mass. During winter months, combat management was left to the wisdom of junior commanders who were unwilling to take any chances since their initiatives had been blunted by confused higher commanders who refused to stand by th...

As usual, Kashmir Valley was in a grip of a freezing cold wave in January 1995 too. Since any major success against militants had eluded us for quite a long time it made matters colder for us. Pressure to ‘perform’ was increasing from the higher echelons. In fact, troops took time to adjust to the new role of mounting sustained counter-insurgency (CI) operations after a period of protected employment on road opening duties on Srinagar-Leh road. Road opening has always been an extracting routine, physically as well as psychologically, affording very little freedom of action to rejuvenate the morale. Whole of the preceding month had been consumed in familiarizing with own area of responsibility. This area included Ganderbal town which has, till date, retained its notoriety as a hot bed of militancy. Since it was the first time troops stayed on in the Ganderbal area after road closure, intelligence compendium of the area was conspicuous by its absence. Our operational imperatives were th...

MUCH before the armed Islamic fundamentalists took on the might of Indian security forces in Kashmir, in the winter of 1989; broad hints of impending catastrophe were lurking ominously in the Valley's firmament. While analyzing reasons leading to the outbreak of insurgency in Kashmir; experts have often been myopic to restrict the scope of their study to trends and events emerging from 1987 onwards. Most analysts hold the line that large scale rigging during elections in 1987 was the main reason for the Valley to plunge into an era of darkness and destruction. Not many have tried to unwind intricacies of a continuous process of subversion, which has been in place in the Valley, right since the time J&K state acceded to India. Background:  Contrary to common belief that insurgency was a spontaneous consequence of rigged elections of 1987, one needs to understand that an insurgency of the magnitude which India has been contending in the Valley could not have been launched in ...

OF late, there has been a lot of talk about making Indo-Pak border porous. One fails to pick a precedent to this concept from history. Obtaining reality points to only two situations - one when a border exists between two countries and the other when none exists. In the context of international law and relations, border between two nations is sacrosanct and it is the designated limit of a country's sovereignty and its civil jurisdiction. Any attempt to alter its status often sparks off a war. Furthermore, no cross border activity is permitted except with established legal authority like passport, visa etc. As a counter argument one could be tempted to cite examples of the status of America's border with Canada and Mexico. But such a comparison would be unfair since there is no recent history of territorial disputes between these countries and, more importantly, there is a convergence of views on issues of strategic interests, both at global and regional levels. Moreover, trav...