Kargil, a war in which accountability lost

After the Indian Army got its Pakistani counterpart to surrender in the eastern theatre during the 1971 Bangladesh war, the army chief Sam Manekshaw wrote a warm letter to RN Kao, the chief of the Research and Analysis Wing—India’s external intelligence agency. The letter conveyed his appreciation of what he described as the brilliant work done by R&AW before and during the war. The letter had also been marked Indira Gandhi. She returned the letter with the remark: “The General is generous in his praise because he won the war.”

B Raman, a retired officer of R&AW, recounted this episode while talking about VP Malik, who had been the army chief during the 1999 Kargil War. Unstated in Gandhi’s remarks was the argument that the army would have been the first to put the blame on the intelligence agencies had it lost the 1971 war. Even during that conflict, the army had tried to apportion the blame for its less-than-glorious performance in the western sector on the failure of the intelligence agencies. When it comes to the Kargil War, it has become a mantra that has been repeated ad nauseam and established as accepted wisdom by commentators and servicemen alike.

Alone in the Ring, a new book by former general NC Vij, who headed the military operations directorate during the limited war with Pakistan, reiterates the narrative. The book has been stopped from being published after the defence ministry asked for the manuscript for vetting. Based on the extracts and media reports that have appeared so far, it seems that Vij continues with the same old storyline—the intelligence agencies failed, the army won thanks to the bravery and sacrifice of soldiers, and the generals were amazing leaders. The last one has been hard to drill home, for there are many still around who clearly remember the events of 1999—when India’s territorial integrity had been breached in a near unprecedented manner.

The army chief VP Malik was not even present in India when the crisis erupted. He had left on 9 May that year for an official trip to the Czech Republic. He did not cut short his visit even after the government was apprised of the situation, and returned through London. In an interview, he explained, “On the evening of May 17, I decided I had to return to India as quickly as possible. But, when I checked my options, I found I would take the same amount of time if I came through London as I would if I came directly to India.” He chose to return only on 20 May.