Sikh ShaheedNanak Singh’s 2nd Memorial - Keynote speech by Lieutenant General. (Retd) S K Sinha


Lieutenant General S.K Sinha said:

I feel greatly honoured being here to deliver the Second Shaheed Nanak Singh Memorial lecture. Sardar Nanak Singh was a science graduate with a law degree who gave up a career in the Police and joined the Bar to serve the national cause. He became the leading human rights activist of his province and he fearlessly defended the soldiers of Azad Hind forces, for which he suffered reprisals. He believed in the unity of the country and was opposed to Partition. A spirited and dedicated citizen, he made the supreme sacrifice for a noble cause. While trying to save students who had organized a peace march against the division of the country, he was done to death in Multan during the pre Partition communal carnage. A worthy citizen with a worthy name, he sacrificed his life for a worthy cause. Today, while paying my humble tribute to the memory of this great man, I have chosen to speak on Defending India’s Integrity. This is in line with the cause for which Sardar Nanak Singh attained martyrdom.

I belong to a generation which in its early years had been under foreign rule. As a young Army officer connected with combating communal carnage in Punjab during the Partition holocaust, I recall with horror what happened at that time in which millions got killed and millions got uprooted. Jinnah’s obduracy and propagation of two nation theory, fitted well with the policy of Divide and Rule pursued by the British. The communal tornado which raged in the country following Jinnah’s Direct Action Day in Kolkata, made it impossible for the country to hold together. The British now chose to Divide and Quit. Jinnah and his communalists had their way and the country was partitioned. I still recall their slogan of that time, “Hans ke lia hai, Pakistan Larke lenge Hindustan.”

There were many prophets of gloom in 1947. They predicted that India being a multi ethnic, multi lingual and multi religious behemoth could not hold together. On the other hand, they felt that a strong common religious bond will enable Pakistan to remain united, despite the geographical separation of its two wings. They were proved wrong on both counts. For the last over six decades, we have been fighting both external enemies and internal forces of different hues, threatening our national integrity. We have ensured that our nation’s integrity has remained inviolate. This does not mean that we can afford to be complacent. Today, both external and internal threats to our national integrity are greater than ever before. Let us first discuss the dimensions of these threats before considering how we should meet the grave challenges posed by them.

We have chosen a polity which is fundamentally different from our two powerful neighbours, who are both nuclear weapon powers. One has established the dictatorship of the proletariat with one party rule as opposed to our opting for the freedom of the individual and a multi-party system. The other believes in religious fundamentalism and a theocratic State as against our choice of pluralism and a secular polity. These two neighbours have formed a nexus and they are hostile to India. The USA is the lone super power in the world which should be our natural ally because both India and the USA are vibrant democracies. Lately, a strategic consensus has been developing between India and the USA. However, in its national interests the USA has been showing a tilt towards China for economic reasons and towards Pakistan for its support in the war against terror. India must be self reliant in tackling the threats to her national integrity.

China is our big neighbour in the North with whom we share a 4,000 kilometer border in the Himalayas. In the past, the pendulum of power used to be South of the Himalayas but it has now swung decisively to the North. We have an unresolved border dispute with China which led to a war between us in 1962. We suffered a humiliating defeat in that war due to our unpreparedness and the failure of both our political and military leadership. The 1967 artillery duel in Sikkim to an extent restored our prestige. After the famous Mao smile of the Seventies, relationship between our two countries improved and diplomatic relations were restored. Dialogue to resolve the border dispute has continued for the past seventeen years with hardly any progress. However, tranquility has been maintained on the border and there has been no instance of exchange of fire. China’s policy appears to be to keep the borders with India tranquil but not solve the border dispute; trade with India but arm Pakistan. After Vajpayee’s visit to China in 2003, a marked improvement took place in Sino-Indian relations. China gave up its stand that Sikkim was not a part of India. It now recognized Sikkim as a State within India. Nathu La was opened for trade. Trade between the two countries shot up to 40 US million dollars. Importantly, during Vajpayee’s visit, it was agreed that while delineating the border, inhabited areas will not be disturbed. This implied that there would be no change in the present position of Towang. Despite these positive developments, China has continued with its policy of keeping India locked in South Asia. It has put in place, a string of pearls encircling India. It has established naval bases at Coco Islands in Myanmar, at Hambantola in Sri Lanka and at Gawdar in Pakistan. It has been trying to establish its influence in Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It has been arming Pakistan with both conventional and nuclear weapons. With its encirclement policy, China is trying to chain India like a lion in a cage. Simultaneously, China has tremendously increased its military capability in Tibet. A railway line and an oil pipe line has been constructed from Gormo to Lhasa with the former being extended to the Nepal border. A super East West highway has been constructed in Tibet. Operational airfields, missile bases and logistic dumps have been developed. China has the capability to maintain 24 divisions in Tibet and concentrate such a large force there in two to three weeks. Another point of concern is the Chinese plan to divert the Brahmaputra to feed its arid regions and produce 40,000 MW of electricity. This will have a catastrophic effect on India’s North East. Since 2007 there appears to be a marked downslide in Sino-Indian relations. China has raised the pitch of its rhetoric on Arunachal Pradesh, claiming it to be part of its territory. It has been trying to block Asian Development Bank loan to India. It continues to oppose India’s membership of the Security Council. A think tank in China has advocated steps to disintegrate India, breaking her into several States. Its State controlled newspaper has warned that India should not forget 1962.

Our other powerful neighbour is Pakistan. The origin and history of Pakistan is one of relentless hostility towards India. Pakistanis misread history and fancy themselves as the descendents of the Central Asian conquerors, who in the medieval period, repeatedly invaded and subjugated India. The fact however is that they are the descendents of the indigenous people who converted to Islam. Their romanticized view of martial superiority received a setback in 1947 when Pakistan could not grab Srinagar and the Valley, a big jolt in 1965 when their aggression was defeated and got shattered by a humiliating surrender in 1971. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto talked of one thousand years war with India. Realising that India could not be defeated in a conventional war Zia-ul-Haq adopted the strategy of thousand cuts to bleed India to death in Kashmir. And today Zardari talks of one thousand years of war on ideology over Kashmir. Having failed to achieve this goal in Kashmir, Pakistan has now extended its terrorist attacks to the metropolitan cities of India. The macabre drama in Mumbai on 26/11 was the mother of terror attacks. It humbled our Nation like the debacle in 1962 had done. With US assistance, Pakistan organized the Taliban which captured power in Afghanistan and forced the Soviet Union out of that country. Encouraged by Taliban’s success in Afghanistan, Pakistan started large scale cross border terrorism in Kashmir. Pakistan has become the epicentre of terrorism in the world. Forced by the US to join the war against terror, Pakistan Army has now been fighting the Taliban. This has invited the wrath of the latter. Suicide bombings leading to large scale casualties have become a daily routine in Pakistan. The political, economic and security scenario in Pakistan is very volatile. Despite all their assurances, there can no guarantee that its nuclear arsenal will not fall into the hands of the Jihadis. A major portion of Pakistan Army is now deployed on its Western border. This has weakened Pakistan’s military capability on its eastern border with India. Pakistan Army is too embroiled on its western border and in dealing with terrorist violence in its mainland, to undertake any military offensive against India. Yet with US assistance it continues to strengthen its military with modern weapons, in preparation for a showdown with India. In case India forces a war on Pakistan, the terrorists and the Taliban, who have been nursed as strategic assets by Pakistan Army, are likely to sink their differences and join in a common Jihad against India.

Our other neighbours do not have the capability to pose a viable military threat to our country. However, Nepal and Bangladesh can cause security concerns. Nepal is facing a period of turmoil with Maoists gaining considerable strength. They make no secret of their anti-India stand. It is a pity that at one stage our Government had outsourced our foreign policy in Nepal to our Communists. The growing power of Maoists and the increased Chinese influence in Nepal, adversely affect Indias’s security interests. After the assassination of Sheikh Mujeebur Rahman, Bangladesh’s relations with India became increasingly sour. The demographic invasion from Bangladesh continued unabated. Indian insurgent groups of the North East were given asylum and assistance in Bangladesh. The intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the ISI and the DGSI, provided them support. With growing religious fundamentalism in Bangladesh, Jihadis from that country found the environment friendly to launch terrorist attacks in India. During her first tenure as Prime Minister, Sheikh Haseena could do little to alter the situation because of her slender majority and political compulsions. With her recent landslide victory in the last elections giving her a massive mandate, she has been trying to alter course of Bangladesh. She is taking action against religious fundamentalists in her country and trying to improve relations with India. The recent handing over of the President of ULFA, the leading insurgent outfit of North East, who had been living in Bangladesh for the last thirty years, shows a marked change of policy towards India. This is a most welcome development. Our other two land neighbours are Bhutan and Myanmar. The former has been our most friendly neighbour who has always supported us at all international forums. The former King introduced democracy in the country which now has a constitutional monarchy. Bhutan has political stability. Myanmar has been under military rule. India’s sympathy for the jailed popular leader and Nobel peace laureate, Aung Syi , has been the cause for official relations between the two countries not being too cordial. Chinese influence has been growing in Myanmar. Our only maritime neighbour is Sri Lanka. The recent wiping out of the LTTE in that country has been a welcome development. However, unless the Tamil problem is solved politically, peace and normalcy may be elusive in that country.

I have tried to give a broad brush resume of the situation in our bordering countries. China and Pakistan pose serious threats to our national integrity. Besides external threats, we also face serious internal threats. These are from secessionism and terrorism of both Jihadi and Naxal variety.

Secessionist movements erupted in the North East starting with Nagaland in 1956. This was followed by insurgency in Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. These have been basically tribal insurgencies. Culturally and historically, the tribes in the North East had not been assimilated with the rest of India. The population of these areas is sparse and these regions are in the remote fringe areas on the border. Naga insurgency has been dormant for the last thirteen years with cease fire holding. Hopefully a peaceful solution may emerge in due course. Over two decades ago, insurgency came to an end in Mizoram with a political settlement. Today, Mizoram is the most peaceful State in the North East. The violence in Tripura is more in the nature of ethnic conflict between the tribal population and the immigrants from erstwhile East Pakistan in the wake of Partition. The original inhabitants have been reduced to a minority in the State. The ongoing militancy in Manipur is a matter of concern. Today, Manipur is the most disturbed State in the North East.

The ULFA insurgency in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam has been the most serious such movement in the North East. The population of Assam is more than double the combined population of the six remaining States of the North East. With its oil and tea wealth, Assam is economically much richer than these States. Abutting on the narrow Siliguri corridor, Assam provides the only land link from our mainland to the large land mass in the North East. I was Governor of Assam for six years. When I assumed that office in 1997, militancy was at its peak in the State. We managed to turn round the situation with a three prong strategy of unified command, economic development and psychological initiatives. Unified command ensured that the Army, the Para Military and the Police worked as complementary rather than competing forces. Intensified and coordinated operations broke the back of ULFA militancy. The militants suffered heavy casualties and a large number surrendered with weapons. The final blow was delivered by the Bhutanese Army. The militant camps in the bordering jungles of Bhutan were wiped out. As part of economic development, we installed one lakh shallow tube wells in the Brahmaputra Valley, turning Assam from a rice deficit to a rice surplus State. The influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh had been the root cause for insurgency in Assam. I took up this matter in my 42 page printed report to the President. It was serialised and published in full in every newspaper of Assam. This had a very healthy impact in winning over the people. We projected the three icons of Assam, the great spiritual leader Mahapurush Shankardev, the great warrior Lachit Borphukan and the great statesman Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi as our national heroes. Lachit’s statue was installed at the National Defence Academy, and a gold medal instituted in his name. Bordoloi was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, fifty years after his death. I declared that my aim was to make the people of Assam proud of their past and the rest of India proud of Assam. All this led to spectacular results isolating the militants from the people. Over a period of time, 81 ULFA militants were apprehended by villagers in rural areas. Half of them were lynched and the remainder handed over to the Police. Surrenders of ULFA militants started being watched appreciatively by the local people. By 2003 ULFA militancy was virtually over. Unfortunately, on account of a policy of appeasement and vote bank politics, pressure on ULFA was called off and they were allowed to rest and regroup. ULFA violence again started but now it lacked popular support, as in earlier days. Lately through military operations much attrition has been inflicted on ULFA. Its top leadership is in disarray and its President, Arbind Rajkhowa who had been operating from Bangladesh for thirty years, is now in our custody.

Religious fundamentalism has been the basic cause for the secessionist movement in Jammu and Kashmir. Militancy in that State has been a mix of terrorism, insurgency and proxy war. Kashmir has been an international hotspot ever since 1947, embroiled in the coils of the then prevailing Cold War. I moved from Assam to Kashmir in 2003 and was Governor of that State for five years till 2008. We tried out the same three pronged strategy that had worked in Assam. We reduced the level of violence from an average of 10 a day to 1 a day. We tried to woo the separatists with massive doses of economic aid. We installed one thousand micro hydel projects based on water mills. Each of these produced 5 to 8 megawatt of electricity. Villages on the mountains which had not seen an electric bulb now had 30 to 40 light points. By day, the power could be used for grinding corn or operating loom. As part of psychological initiatives, we launched a big campaign to promote Kashmiriyat. This stands for amity and brotherhood across religious divide. Religious fundamentalism has got too deep rooted amongst the intelligentsia in the Valley and their Pakistan connection has become too strong.

Thus we could not achieve the same amount of success as in Assam. Our major weakness in Kashmir has been on the media front. Margaret Thatcher once said that the media is the oxygen for the terrorists. The Valley media spewing venom against India has a free run and hardly any attempt is made to counter the baseless anti-India propaganda by separatists and unscrupulous politicians. Thus a total non-issue of constructing temporary prefabricated shelters on100 acres of land, traditionally used to put up tents for pilgrims, was projected as an attempt to change the demography of the Valley. A communal tornado was raised on this issue leading to a prominent Indian journalist and some human rights activists, advocating that India should pull out from the Valley. Similarly the recent Shopian case in which two young women had drowned in a river was falsely projected as a case of rape and murder by Security Forces, to generate anti India feelings. Through such tactics, life in the Valley is often brought to a standstill by widespread agitation for weeks as happened during the Amarnath and Shopian agitations.

Jihadi terrorism in Kashmir commands a certain amount of sympathy from the local people, but it is a different story elsewhere in the country, where it has no popular support except from some sleeper cells. In the last few years, city after city in the country has suffered Jihadi terrorism sponsored from Pakistan. The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was the most recent and most devastating in this series. Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed the master mind behind 26/11 had spoken on November 3, 2000, “ Jihad is not about Kashmir only. Fifteen years ago people would have found it ridiculous if someone had told them about the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Insha Alla, today I announce the break up of India. We will not rest till the whole of India is dissolved into Pakistan.” While repeated terrorist attacks were taking place against our cities, the Government had been pathetically ineffective in dealing with the menace. It lacked the political will because of its anxiety to keep its vote bank intact. The horrendous Mumbai episode forced it to change course.

The other type of terrorism we face is of the Left extreme variety - the Naxal or Maoist terrorism. The Prime Minister has referred to it as the most serious security challenge facing the country. 20 States, 233 districts and 2000 Police Stations in the country are affected by this menace. The Naxal movement is led by people totally dedicated to the teachings of Marx and Mao. They have been able to gain the support of the backward and deprived people, particularly the tribals, promising them an El Dorado. A Red corridor has been established from the borders of Nepal through Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh to Andhra Pradesh. The thickly forested area of 7000 square miles, mostly in Chattisgarh, with a population of 20,000 tribal people in 237 villages has become a Naxal haven. They call this a liberated zone where they run a parallel government, administering justice through public courts. Through extortion from businessmen, contractors and even government officials, they manage to raise 500 to 700 crores a year. They have been able to acquire a formidable array of weapons and explosives. Their total strength is estimated to be 20,000 underground and 50,000 over ground workers. They have been carrying out spectacular strikes like looting a district police armoury in Orissa and carrying away 500 rifles, and attacking a district jail in Bihar in broad daylight rescuing their colleagues as also releasing other prisoners. They have also been holding up prestigious railway trains like Rajdhani Express in West Bengal besides attacking railway stations and police stations in different States. Of course all this has not happened overnight. This has been happening over a period of years. Primarily due to bad governance, the State has not been able to prevent all this and has allowed the grass to grow under its feet.
Having discussed at length the external and internal threats to our national integrity, I shall now discuss the strategy that we need to adopt. Before doing so, I must mention that we as a nation suffer from the dead weight of history. We succumbed repeatedly to invaders during the millennium before Independence. Possibly, the Panipat syndrome of unpreparedness and lack of strategic vision continues to remain in our genes. This has got compounded by vote bank politics and policy of appeasement in dealing with security issues. Political parties have been colluding with illegal migration from Bangladesh. The Government has been soft in tackling Jihadi terrorism. Similarly attempt is being made to resolve the Kashmir issue through a policy of appeasement by providing bounty for families of terrorists killed in encounters and the possibility of further loosening the political links of the State with the Centre. All this only whets the appetite of the separatists. Obama is learning to his cost that terrorists cannot be won over by appeasing their co-religionists. His appeasing speech at Cairo and Istambul had no influence over Al Qaeda as shown by the suicide bomber in the airliner over Detroit on last Christmas day. American military thinker, George Tanham was not wrong when he wrote that India does not have a strategic doctrine.

We have been facing threats from Pakistan since 1947 and from China since mid fifties. We have to work on a two front strategy but we have never tried to force a two front strategy on Pakistan. During the 1965 and 1971 wars, we did not activate Pakistan’s western border, even when we had a friendly Government in Kabul. We did not have a deep strike capability across the desert, either in 1965 or 1971, to attack Pakistan’s vulnerable road and rail communication in Sindh, not far from the border. Our thinking has been defensive mired in ditch cum bund, in the Punjab. In Kashmir we ignored scope for offensive in Gilgit Baltistan area where local discontent with Pakistan could be exploited. We ignored Sardar Patel’s warning in 1950, about the threat arising from the Chinese occupation of Tibet. We paid dearly for this in 1962. Even today while China has been feverishly increasing its military capability in Tibet and building elaborate infrastructure, we have done little to improve our capability in the Himalayas. Recently a retired Naval Chief has stated that we cannot match Chinese naval might and our Air Chief has expressed concern over the fact that our Air Force is one third the size of the Chinese Air Force. For nearly thirty years we have been trying to acquire self propelled medium artillery but have so far not been able to do so. The acquisition of tanks, submarines and fighter planes has also been similarly delayed. For the past many years, 30% of funds allocated for modernization of our Defence Forces, remain unutilized due to our archaic and cumbersome procedures. China with an economy three times as large as India’s has been spending 4.3% of its GDP on Defence, while we spend less than 3% of our GDP on Defence. After the Kargil war, the then Government had approved the recommendations of the working group for reorganizing our higher defence command. Even after ten years, the crucial recommendation for one point military advice has not yet been implemented. We have a headless integrated defence staff without a Chief of Defence Staff. A cosmetic integration of Services Headquarters with Ministry of Defence has been carried out, which does not serve much purpose. It is imperative that our shortcomings in Defence preparedness be removed on a war footing.
We do not need to go in for an arms race with China and try to equal its military capability. An attacker needs a three to one superiority. In the mountains, this ratio should preferably be even higher. We must have at least half if not a little more of China’s military strength in the Himalayas, to deter military aggression. It is true that 2010 is not 1962 but we must not permit too big an asymmetry between Chinese and our military capability in the Himalayas. We also need to break the Chinese encircling strategy by reaching out to countries in the region like, Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Viet Nam. We must have a strong Blue Water Navy to dominate the Indian Ocean. In so far as Pakistan is concerned, we must ensure that we have an edge over Pakistan at all times both in conventional and nuclear weapons. We should force a two front strategy on Pakistan. In case of aggression by Pakistan we should have the capability for a counter offensive causing maximum damage where it hurts most.

Secessionist threats in the North East have to be tackled through inflicting maximum attrition on the militants. Concurrently through economic development and psychological initiatives, the militants should be isolated from the people. We need to win hearts and minds as was successfully demonstrated in Assam. As for the secessionist movement in Kashmir, apart from containing violence we need to give priority to media management for effectively countering anti-India propaganda. Policy of appeasement must be shunned as that only whets the appetite of separatist. The decision to provide bounty for the families of militants killed in encounters in Kashmir was unfortunate. Jammu and Kashmir has already got more autonomy than other States in the country. We should not in the name of more autonomy dangerously weaken the State’s political links with the Centre. The solution of Jammu and Kashmir should not be Kashmir centric. It has to be Jammu and Kashmir centric. The LOC should be made into an international border. Trade and cultural relations as also co-operation in disaster and environment management, on either side of the LOC should be encouraged.

For the past many years, little was being done to tackle Jihadi terrorism on our mainland or to tackle Naxal terrorism. Under a new dispensation in the Home Ministry, dynamism has been introduced in our approach to these problems. The setting up of National Investigating Agency, National Counter Terrorism Centre and enacting special law, are all steps in the right direction. It is fortunate that there has been no major terrorist attack in any of our cities after 26/11. Naxal terrorism is now being tackled vigorously. Violence has to be countered with violence but at the same time, equal if not greater vigour should be displayed in implementing development plans in the affected regions. The Police and the Paramilitary must be provided modern weapons. Concurrently Police reforms should be carried out to prevent politicization of the Police. The Police Station is the cutting edge of the Police administration. It has remained most neglected. We need to put an end to this. The number of Police stations has to be increased substantially and so must and the quality of manpower and facilities for them.

In conclusion, I submit that a strong India capable to counter all the external and internal threats to her integrity, is the need of the hour. This will also be the best tribute we can pay to the memory of the great patriot, Sardar Nanak Singh, who sacrificed his life for the country. India has been a land of peace. In thousands of years of our history we have never committed military aggression against any country. We do not covet any territory and we would like to uphold peace in our region. Ashoka the Great carried out his unmatched policy of peace from a position of great military strength. Our efforts to promote peace from a position of military weakness landed us in great trouble in 1962. While we should concentrate on making ourselves strong to deal with security threats, we need simultaneously to make every effort to promote peace. I am glad that Dr Rami Ranger, the worthy son of Sardar Nanak Singh, has set up a forum to promote friendship between India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. I wish him and his colleagues success in this noble endeavor.

source:The Sikh Times