Even while Pakistan continued her Low Intensity Operations in Jammu and Kashmir, she launched her Kargil Ingression. Kargil has struck a discordant note in the general feeling of well being in the minds of the Indian nation. They were already thinking that the worse is over and with the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley dying down, it would be back to the business of raking in money as usual. However, the Pakistani strike in Kargil has shattered their dreams and there have been howls of protest at the failure---- but whose failure no body seems to know. There have been accusation of Intelligence failure. There have been statements stating that the Army has failed in their tasks and even two of the functionaries have already been sacked. There was even an enquiry which failed to pin point responsibility. The question of the need for introspection is being ignored on one plea or the other, mostly fallacious, and primarily so that the status quo is not changed.

The problem is the very mind set of the people. For the last ten centuries Indians have developed a mindset that has emasculated their thought process. To cover up their failure to defend their country they have developed the argument that they are peace loving people with no interests in other country's affairs or their wealth. Yet if one does some introspection one would realise that the Indian society is possibly one of the most violent societies in the world, as is evidenced by the number of riots that the country faces. It would also find that maximum of the world's violent crimes are being committed in this country. Yet when it comes to the defence of the country there are just no takers for the job. There has been a reported shortage of 59000 soldiers and 13500 officers in the Army alone. Of course the Army has gone and compounded the matter further by cutting down 50000 posts in the Army. She went to the Kargil Commission to endorse this act. To cover up this lapse the Army has lowered the standards for the selection of the officers, the cutting edge for any army. While these sub-standard officers might be brainwashed to die for their country they would have failed in their primary job of making the enemy die for his country.

The question is why has this mind-set been allowed to develop. The first fallacy that has been propagated is that India won freedom by non-violence means. Yes, that aspect is the most talked of and how Mahatma Gandhi succeeded in driving out the British by his satyagrah. Unfortunately what has not been brought out is that the British had no intentions of leaving such a priceless possession. It was the intelligence report after the Naval Mutiny and the INA trials that told them that the Armed Forces could no longer be depended upon to safeguard the Empire that forced Britain to leave India. It was this and the economic constraints that forced Great Britain to announce India's independence.

rest of the article is at http://members.tripod.com/israindia/kashmir-locus5.html

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