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Fighting Pakistan's 'informal war'
By Praveen Swami Back in 1947, as Pakistani irregulars battled in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid out what remains the principal doctrinal challenge before New Delhis security strategists. India, Prime Minister Nehru said, was confronted not just with tribal irregulars, but "a well organised business with the backing of the State." As such, it had "in effect to deal with a State carrying out an informal war, but nevertheless a war." Last week, infuriated by mounting evidence that Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate organised the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan proposed a solution:. "I think we need to pay back in the same coin". "Talk-talk is better than fight-fight," Mr. Narayanan concluded, "but it hasnt worked so far." No Indian official has ever used language that even approaches that deployed by the NSA -- but more than a few in its covert services, including the former Intelligence Bureau chief, Ajit Doval, and his Research and Analysis Wing counterpart Vikram Sood, have long made a similar case. Exactly what is it, though, that advocates of retaliation have in mind? Posted by: john frum 2008-07-15 |
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