Finally, the government has broken its silence on the explosive disclosures on the Pulwama terror attack by former Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik. The response in the form of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks during a media outlet’s programme April 22 came about a week after the revelations that stunned the nation. Even then, what the minister has said is too little too late. In fact, he has not answered any of the crucial questions raised by the former Governor. Instead, he questioned why Malik had not spoken up when he was J&K Governor. “If what he is saying is true, we should also ask why such people remember these things only after parting ways with us. Why do not their consciences awaken when they are in power?” Shah said. He also wants the public and media to question “such people’s credibility.” However, it may be recalled that Satya Pal Malik had spoken out while he was in the Governor’s chair about various issues including asking the government to pay heed to the farmers’ protest on the Farm Bills.
This is a typical attempt at obfuscation and brazening it out. The timing of the disclosures is not as important as what has been stated. More than the people or the media, it is the responsibility of the government to expose the former Governor if he had lied. This is because he alleged the Union Home Ministry had refused to give aircraft for ferrying the jawans instead of road travel which exposed them to the attack. He also leveled a serious and shocking allegation that the Prime Minister himself, followed by the National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, had asked him within hours after the attack to keep his mouth shut.
Mere assertion by the Home Minister that the BJP “has not done anything that needs to be hidden” is not enough. The government needs to answer why no inquiry had been held into the deaths of the jawans in the Pulwama attack. This is a question also raised by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar recently.
Before the public scrutinises the allegations made by someone not in power, as stated by the Home Minister, the relatives of some of the killed jawans have torn the government into pieces for its perceived incompetence and complicity in the horrific attack. For example, Parashuram, the father of one of the slain soldiers, Bhagirath, told the media that several questions had been bothering him since the fateful day on February 14, 2019, suggesting that Malik’s revelations validate his belief that the Pulwama attack was a ‘political stunt orchestrated by the government.’ “I am 100% confident that it is all about being in power and the Modi government has done this to get the chair (to get re-elected),” Parashuram said seemingly unable to conceal his rage. The Pulwama attack led to the surgical strikes by the Indian Air Force on Balakot in Pakistan that was used by the BJP to project the PM’s strongman image during the run-up to the elections, it is said. It is during this air strike that Abhinandan, an Indian pilot, was captured after his aircraft was shot down.
The martyred soldier’s father also asked, echoing what Malik had charged, how a vehicle loaded with nearly 200 kg of explosives could make its way out of nowhere and blow up the bus ferrying the jawans. He wondered if “the PM was then sleeping.”
More recently, five soldiers were killed and another critically injured in a terror attack in the Rajouri-Poonch sector, close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu division. The fact that the Army vehicle was on an unaccompanied drive and remained unattended immediately after the attack is reminiscent of the government’s dubious handling of the Pulwama attack.
First, during Demonetisation in November 2016, the nation was told that the sudden economic blow will break the backbone of terror activities in India. Second, when the abrogation of Article 370 happened in 2019, Indians were again told that grave mistakes of the past would be rectified and while Kashmir would truly be integrated into India, the terrorists operating in that state will be crushed and destroyed. Time has belied all such false claims. From Pulwama to Poonch, attacks have been vicious and determined. Damage to India has been immense.
The concentration of paramilitary and the Army in Kashmir has affected overall border security of India. It has to be remembered that India has a vast border in unending unfriendly terrain. The constant incursions by China and the huge tracts of land the People’s Liberation Army is successfully occupying every time it comes in demonstrates the lack of Indian firepower and manpower. On the other hand, even those Kashmiris who favoured India earlier are now alienated. Lack of essential commodities like medicines, strict control over daily activities like commuting, long closure of educational institutions, internet clampdown and closing down of businesses have crippled the common Kashmiri instead of the terrorist.
Admittance of wrong policies may go a long way in bringing about course correction.