Any army or group of patriot Indians cannot solve the riddle created by
confused intellectuals or motivated foreign media.
I have heard something about Chanakya
niti(principles): “It’s folly to advise a foolish disciple…in such case even a
scholar has to suffer the pain”.
It was a sunny afternoon in Delhi’s heat. Even
though May-June type merciless-mercury reading has dipped down in north India,
mid-September is still not pleasant to be in the sun in Lutyen’s city. But I
insisted that I will take my daughter – Tanvi Dev – to the “commemorative
carnival” to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1965 India-Pakistan war – at
Rajpath, near India Gate.
I was pleasantly surprised at the huge turnout.
People of all age and religions – had thronged in. The enthusiasm shown by all and sundry to take selfies (an
alleged only Narendra Modi variety of syndrome) and of course appreciate the 'sacrifices' of valiant soldiers left one touched. We Indians do love our
country!
 |
| Tri-colour depicting capture of Barkee |
Amid the hoopla of patriotism and appreciation of
the leadership of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, in the crowd there was
whispering about One Rank One Pension controversy with refrain of 'jealous
Indians' being: “ab toh fauz mein chandi hae (There are good times for the
Indian military these days)”.
A few also whispered – little vocally – “Pakistan
toh shayed afsos kar raha hoga (Pakistan must be regretting about this war)”.
As a dotting papa I tried to brief my daughter and
occasionally her dominating mother about the 1965 war – how much little I knew
and could remember off hand. But for reasons probably known to my ‘Narendra
Modi-dedicated’ spirit -- I was repeatedly telling them: that the 1965 India’s victory in
1965 was hardly given its due place.
Tanvi quizzed, “why?”
 |
| The Statesman reportage well depicted in Shauranjali Exhibition |
I paused; and did not reply
her in as much details. But within me, my guess always has been it has been
Congress party’s and the dedication to first-family spirit that prevented India
to celebrate 1965 valour. After all, no dynasty-man/woman or bahu was Prime Minister then. It
was the leadership of Lal Bahadur Shastri and his slogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’
that had a magical spell over Indians.
Certainly, dynasty and even a large section of
intellectuals – also lovingly calling themselves – seculars – did not quite
approve of this. Imagine, the author of ‘suit-boot-ke-sarkar’ jibe had given a
slogan to infuse confidence among peasants and soldiers!
Just a few days back, country’s self-styled champion
of secularism (read RSS bashing), ‘Indian Express’ passed a verdict: “India has
never celebrated any of its wars on such a grand scale, not even the 1971 war
that ended in the surrender of 80,000 Pakistani troops”.
The suggestion was implicit, does Modi government
have no other purpose?
Political players in Pakistan reacted to India’s
plans over the exhibition and predictably so. “Muscular articulations such as these will do very
little in the way of resuming dialogue, which the BJP leader has stated his
government’s interest in,” Pakistan People’s Party vice-president Sherry Rehman
said in a statement.
BBC as most of the time gave a cover up for its
anti-India bias and ran a story with a questionable headline, “Are India's
plans to celebrate 1965 war 'victory' in 'bad taste'?
 |
| Graveyard of Paki tanks |
I found their headline in
‘bad taste’!!
Creditably, however, BBC tried to reach out to
Pakistan officials for a reaction to Indian exhibition, but had none.
"It's 50 years since we won the war, if you
won't celebrate it now then when will you do?" asked the defence ministry
spokesman Sitanshu Kar, according to the BBC story itself.
But the 1965 war had its merits along with demerits
and thus a few lessons too. It had a few milestones and achievements and that probably
changed the course of India’s defence history and preparedness to a large
extent. “From the military point of view, the war helped repair the trust
deficit with the civil political leadership,” wrote a senior colleague Surya
Gangadharan for ‘The Parliamentarian’ magazine.
The reference was obviously to 1962 debacle under Pt
Jawaharlal Nehru against China.
“Strange but true: The war India and China fought 53
years ago in the high Himalayas and which we lost, is known to the younger
generation of Indians (courtesy the media). But a war that India fought with
Pakistan 50 years ago remains largely forgotten,” wrote Gangadharan.
 |
| Witness to history: At Exhibition venue |
There remains some ambiguity about the outcome of
the 1965 war.
American
author Stanley Wolpert says: "The war ended in what appeared to be a draw
when the embargo placed by Washington on US ammunition and replacements for
both armies forced cessation of conflict before either side won a clear
victory”.
American diplomat Dennis Kux wrote, “Delhi achieved
its basic goal of thwarting Pakistan's attempt to seize Kashmir by force.
Pakistan gained nothing from a conflict which it had instigated."
I told my daughter, still in Class IV, that she ought to know certain facets of country’s history and 1965 war is one of them. I told her about Param Vir Chakras as we clicked over 100 snaps at the exhibition. I also recalled in gratitude the valour of Havildar Abdul Hamid, who had destroyed five enemy Patton tanks.
In some corners at the exhibition venue, we saw old
couples. One senior gentleman from Rajasthan said, “I had lost friends and
relatives in this war”. His eyes had turned up moist.
The country and the world have changed a lot since
then. The old middle class values have been replaced - Lie, deception,
corruption – everything is acceptable today, if it can fetch benefits and
money. Role models keep changing.
How many times these days, we hear of Lal Bahadur Shastri,
who was India’s Prime Minister only for 19 months (9 June 1964 to 11 January 1966)?
Huge crowd had gathered for
the exhibition. Or was it a time pass? Was it for snaps on Facebook? Post 1991
India has virtually legitimized the greed and corruption. MBA degrees are like
medals on the chests – Abdul Hamids died for.
Post Script
Two pointers: ## Indian military forces still suffer from lack
of manpower and who did not know – our population keeps increasing.
n An innocuous
message, but important, it’s no jingoism --- let us pay homage to martyred
soldiers of 1965 war. That however, does not mean, India cannot stay in peace with
neighbour Pakistan.
ends
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