A little above the line of politics, a brilliant article. I had also mentioned in one of my previous posts how Vajapyee hurried up the Pokhran tests to gain publicity.
How Pokhran compromised our security
On 24 July 1965, Gen. Ayub Khan and his ambitious foreign minister Z.A. Bhutto pushed their soldiers over the Line of Control into Kashmir to create trouble. India found out and on 6 September, Lal Bahadur Shastri sent the Army’s I Corps, XI Corps and XV Corps across the international border towards Lahore, ending the war.
On 3 December 1971, Gen. Yahya Khan scrambled his F-86 Sabre, F-6, Mirage III and F-104 fighter-bombers and attacked north India.
In response Indira Gandhi ordered Indian Army’s II Corps, IV Corps and XXXIII Corps into East Pakistan. They captured 90,000 Pakistanis and ended the war.
In April 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharraf sent his mountain division, the Northern Light Infantry, to occupy Indian bunkers in Dras and Kargil. But Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not counter-attack. Instead he asked the Army to retake the peaks one by one, and at great cost. The Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, 17 Garhwal Rifles, I Bihar, 1/11 Gorkha Rifles and 70 Infantry Brigade are some of the units named by then army chief V.P. Malik in his book as heroes.
Earlier this month, Indian shelling killed a Pakistani soldier. A team of Pakistani raiders then killed two Indian soldiers, beheading one. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not counter-attack, though a couple of days later Indian artillery killed another Pakistani, settling the score.
What has happened that India cannot punish Pakistan any longer for its insolence as it could?
Something has neutralized India’s Army, and its superiority in numbers and equipment over Pakistan. This something is the weaponization of South Asia’s nuclear programmes.
Before Vajpayee’s 1998 gambit in Pokhran, both India and Pakistan had nuclear capacity, but not weapons.
Before Pokhran, Pakistan hadn’t weaponized its programme for fear of more international sanctions.
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