The defence minister says the media should not exaggerate the Akhnoor incident. But even a straight report makes dismal reading. A brigadier is killed in the attack. A lieutenant general, leading the Northern Command, is injured. Another lieutenant general escapes death by a whisker. Two major generals suffer injuries along with another brigadier. In all, six top army officers including the brigadier are killed. The tally of jawans killed is seven. What must the media do? Should it not describe it as the worst kind of security lapse, even if it pulls its punches? I think it is time the top brass faces facts: There are too many lapses too often at the hands of too few. Tell us, Mr Defence Minister, how bad should the lapse be before it is considered irresponsible behaviour? I do not want to bring in the purchase of second-hand MiGs, their bad maintenance or, still worse, the acquisition of spurious spare parts. Since the word Tehelka raises the government’s hackles I shall skip the evidence of corruption shown on television. But tell us, how should the media interpret the story that the much-needed funds for weapons are sought to be diverted to purchase VIP aircraft? Pick up any report of the Auditor General and the Comptroller General. It tells you how huge amounts have been wasted on the purchase of outmoded weapons or how the weapons imported at astronomical figures for immediate use stayed on the shelf or in the open. Naturally, it is at someone’s expense, apart from the taxpayers’. The common complaint is that the ordinary soldier is yet to get the wherewithal to live comfortably. Agreed that the Akhnoor attack was meant to disrupt the peace initiative with Pakistan. The journey towards normalisation is littered with big or small incidents. That does not absolve people who have blundered on the security front. The Akhnoor episode was unprecedented. But there are several examples when the Fidayeen (suicide squads) have gate-crashed into the army camps. What happens to the scores of guards stationed there? And invariably, intelligence on terrorists proves inaccurate, if not misleading. Mr Defence Minister, you should thank the media for not exposing the failures. Our problem is that we treat the armed forces as a sacred cow. We do not criticise them because we are much too obsessed with the phrase, patriotism. We are afraid our disclosures might come in handy to the enemy. In a free society, we have the duty to inform the public without fear or favour. At times it is an unpleasant job, but it has to be performed because a free society is founded on free information. If the media were to carry only government handouts or official statements, nobody would pinpoint lapses, deficiencies or mistakes. The truth is that the media is too restrained, too refined. The defence minister should not ask for more. I personally think that the Akhnoor incident indicates that there is something basically wrong in defence matters. There is a need to appoint a parliamentary committee to probe into the working of the defence services. I do not know if there has ever been any such inquiry since Independence. The Standing Committee in Parliament on Defence does not have the authority. Nor does it go beyond a point. It is not like a US Senate or Congress committee. The parliamentary consultative committee on defence — I had the privilege of being its member — is only there to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s. A topic is given beforehand with written notes. It is a harmless discussion, to say the least, and gives only cursory information, if at all. It is scrappy like a written reply to a question in Parliament. Maybe, the malady runs deep. Some 38 years ago, Lt Gen Harbaksh Singh, a hero of the 1965 war against Pakistan, wrote in a report: ‘‘There appeared to be a tendency in higher command to succumb to the pressure of events and fall an easy prey to dark and gloomy apprehensions. This is a dangerous attitude for such pessimism rapidly trickles down to the rank and file setting in motion a snowball process of demoralisation.’’ Mr Defence Minister, please check how far Harbaksh Singh’s assessment holds water even today. We are proud of our defence forces because except in the 1962 war against China, they have acquitted themselves well. I was overjoyed the other day when Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told me at Jeddah that what made General Musharraf seek his intervention was the ‘‘unabated wave after wave of Indian soldiers and young officers coming up the hills at Kargil.’’ Sharif, who said he did not know of Kargil till Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rang him up, was all praise for India. He said: ‘‘We were at the height, still the Indian armed forces came from below to dislodge us. This was when Musharraf smelt defeat and requested me to approach President Clinton.’’ No doubt, the armed forces did a tremendous job at Kargil. But the laurels on the battlefield can come to naught if routine precautions are not taken for the security of men and material. There is never a second chance in the midst of hostilities. The armed forces have been warned repeatedly against the nonchalant attitude they continue to adopt. Somehow those who occupy high positions in the government labour under the belief that they — and they alone — know what the nation should be told and when. And they get annoyed if any news that they do not like appears on the television screens or in print. Their immediate attempt is to contradict it and dub it as mischievous. What is not realised is that such methods only decrease the credibility of official assertions.
