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The Kashmir dispute, which has seen three wars between India and Pakistan, has once again come to the fore, with the neighbours exchanging stern words. After Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif dubbed it a "flashpoint" that could trigger the fourth war between the two countries, even a peacenik like India's prime minister Manmohan Singh has been forced to talk tough. "There is no scope of Pakistan winning any such war," he has warned. Though Nawaz subsequently denied his remark on Kashmir, he continued to blame India for drawing Pakistan into an "arms race" and his foreign policy advisor, Sartaj Aziz, has called on India to withdraw its troops from the Siachen glacier.
The sabre-rattling could have been dismissed as an attempt by the two premiers to address their respective domestic political constituencies. However, the surfacing of Pakistani official Army's new doctrine, issued in December 2011, should make the mandarins of India's foreign and defence policy sit up and take note. The doctrine, described as the "army's mother document" and "the fountainhead for all subordinate doctrines", says that Pakistan army should be prepared to "invoke disproportionate responses" in future wars with India.
While pursuit of peace with its neighbours is a noble objective, India's policy makers will do well to take these developments seriously. Unfortunately, India's Pakistan policy is so adrift that it has emboldened the Pakistan Army to carry out multiple acts of aggression across the line of control this year without fear of retribution from the Indian armed forces. Worse still the UPA government has restrained the Indian armed forces from responding appropriately to Pakistan Army's cross-border aggression, crimping their traditional leeway to preempt an impending aggression. This must change. Instead of allowing Indian armed forces to be turned into a veritable sitting duck, it should allow greater operational freedom to them to handle provocative action by Pakistan troops and inflict just retribution for any cross-border attack.
Give Army Freedom to Repulse Pakistani Intrusions - The New Indian Express
The sabre-rattling could have been dismissed as an attempt by the two premiers to address their respective domestic political constituencies. However, the surfacing of Pakistani official Army's new doctrine, issued in December 2011, should make the mandarins of India's foreign and defence policy sit up and take note. The doctrine, described as the "army's mother document" and "the fountainhead for all subordinate doctrines", says that Pakistan army should be prepared to "invoke disproportionate responses" in future wars with India.
While pursuit of peace with its neighbours is a noble objective, India's policy makers will do well to take these developments seriously. Unfortunately, India's Pakistan policy is so adrift that it has emboldened the Pakistan Army to carry out multiple acts of aggression across the line of control this year without fear of retribution from the Indian armed forces. Worse still the UPA government has restrained the Indian armed forces from responding appropriately to Pakistan Army's cross-border aggression, crimping their traditional leeway to preempt an impending aggression. This must change. Instead of allowing Indian armed forces to be turned into a veritable sitting duck, it should allow greater operational freedom to them to handle provocative action by Pakistan troops and inflict just retribution for any cross-border attack.
Give Army Freedom to Repulse Pakistani Intrusions - The New Indian Express
