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Army under congress vs BJP

How things changed at the border -

In 2001 when Operation Parakram was launched I was travelling to the Pakistan border. In the train I met a soldier belonging to the Madras Regiment. He started the conversation: “Are you an air force pilot?”

I laughed. “I’m flattered you think I’m a pilot, but I’m just a journalist. He replied: “Because of your crew cut I thought you were with the IAF.” We talked for over an hour. He told me:

“Under the Congress government when we used to catch a Pakistan Army intruder even if he had killed an Indian soldier we were powerless to act; we had to first inform our brigade HQ, which would call the GHQ, which would call the Defence Ministry in New Delhi. The Defence Ministry civilian bureaucrats would say: ‘Let him go, don’t create a crisis’.”

“Once the Pakistanis caught a young Indian soldier who had accidentally crossed over the LoC. They tortured him so brutally we could hear his screams for hours. But due to strict orders we weren’t allowed to go and rescue him. Such was the stifling atmosphere in the army.” “Now, under the BJP, the rule is that no such escalation needs to be done. The unit that catches a Pakistani intruder can decide what to do on the spot.”

He said after the BJP’s green signal, the army would now summarily execute the captured Pakistani sometimes in view of his unit watching from the other side. Because of such firm action, the Pakistan Army had stopped shooting at - or attempting to kidnap - Indian soldiers. He said,

“I have keeled enemies with these very hands. We don’t think twice, they are chegutaanmaaru (pishaach).”