let me clear this at the outset that the following is NOT a discussion on politics.
I'm just analysing the kandahar episode as I see it as an Indian citizen, nothing more, nothing less.
However, I think an effort could have been made to stop the plane in Amritsar and that was dreadful lapse in security.
undoubtedly it was a major administrative failure on the part of GoI and the crisis management group.
but to their credit the whole system was refurbished and streamlined afterwards and pending authorisation from the political masters, the system itself reacts pretty quickly since then.
I know it was a Catch 22 situation for the government then and I sympathize with them. However when you consider in hindsight how many hundreds of Indians died because Masood Azhar was released then you'd probably come to the conclusion, as I have, it would have been better to let go of all the passengers instead of letting this bas###d go off scot free.
amit, this is really not expected from you !
just
'let go' 190 odd innocent people just because there is a chance that 5 freed terrorists
could possibly indulge in such actions in the future ?
if your security apparatus can't deal with 5 men operating from foreign soil, then such an apparatus doesn't deserve to exist.
do realize that we had no chance of an armed assault once the plane was outside India.
all you can hope in such a situation is that the people at risk will be rescued and your security apparatus will deal with any future situations.
And what was Jaswant Singh thinking when he personally escorted the terrorists to Kandahar, what kind of message did it send out to the world. The Indian FM going with hands folded to hijackers?
oh c'mon, let's not fall for this cheap rhetoric. JS was at place to lead negotiations with the terrorists overseen by an extremely hostile taliban.
it wasn't just JS arriving at kandahar and exchanging prisoners, there were intense negotiations.
and the team there needed someone with enough political authority to carry out any decision.
a point that needs to be noted is that jaswant's plane did carry commandoes but the taliban put paid to any rescue efforts by surrounding IC-814 a/c with technicals and even tanks.
if anything it speaks of the commitment of an elected official to land up in a hostile foreign country and take charge of the situation. I would be proud if any other politician shows such cojones in times of crisis.
Most countries in the world have a zero tolerance to hostage-demand situation. India has paid a heavy price for not having one till now, it seems.
do remember that we had no opportunity to make a SF rescue effort.
NO country in such a situation would have stuck to 'no negotiations'. if you don't have the option of an armed assault, 'no negotiations' goes out of the window.
As for Parakram, Cold Start was a result of the failure of Parakaram to get our objectives? However, my question is was Parakaram a kind of knee jerk reaction - a sort of got to do something to show our manhood kind of move?
If the intention was never to attack then why do it in the first place. The Pakis think even that was victory for its martial forces and Musharraf said so several times.
AFA we know they did intend to attack, ALL signals suggest likewise.
but the army took too long to mobilise, long enough to lose the surprise factor. (due to time periods connected to deployment, surprise factor lasts as long as your enemy is not fully prepared and you are. in the Indo-pak context this is at a maximum of 7-14 days)
it was thus no longer possible to continue military operations given the nuclear backdrop.
edit: again, this is not an effort to whitewash efforts of NDA regime.
as amit says, softness is ingrained in Indian politicos, even IG went soft to ZAB at shimla.
I still haven't forgotten NDA's spineless response to the BD outrages.
