INDIAN FORCES LOSING MORALE IN OCCUPIED KASHMIR

The recent developments in and around Occupied Kashmir reveal India’s great frustration and failure to tackle the situation rising out of freedom movement. The unbreakable will and determination of the Kashmiri people has always thwarted Indian designs despite latter’s use of brute force. This is why, India is now compelled to seek Israeli experts help to crush the Mujahideen. India already mass killings, custodial killings, indiscriminate arrests and gangrapes, besides using ultra modern sophisticated weapons to crush the movement. But to its utter disappointment, all has in zero. Recently India’s Home Minister L K Advani admitted that in his meeting with senior officials of Israeli secret agencies during his visit to Tel Aviv, he had desired assistance from trained Israeli commandos for combating the Mujahideen. His appeals were soon responded and the Israeli counter-terrorism experts and commandos stepped in Occupied Kashmir to help India devise a policy to counter Mujahideen. This not for the first time those Israeli experts have entered the strife-torn Valley. They visited frequently whenever India desired so. Their presence in the held territory was first noticed in 1991 when some of them in mufti were picked up by the Mujahideen in Srinagar and they were later identified as the Israeli commandos. However, at that time too India had failed to overpower the Mujahideen. The presence of Israeli commandos in Occupied Kashmir shows that India has failed to tackle the situation on its own.

New Delhi has time and again been claiming to have contained the freedom movement in Kashmir, but on the other hand, it has continuously been increasing the number of its military and paramilitary troops. At present more than 700,000 Indian regular army and other personnel are deployed in Kashmir and the number is increasing day by day. To increase the guard on Kargil and to counter Mujahideens operations, Indian Air Force (IAF) is now going to induct MI-17 helicopters. According to reports, the first batch of the latest MI-17-V-1 multi-role helicopters will be inducted into air maintenance shortly. India has already purchased 40 MI-17-V-1 helicopters this year from Russia for around Rs. 705 crore. A number of mine-protector vehicles are already absorbed in their operations against Mujahideen and reports say that more such vehicles are being purchased. In addition, gunship helicopters are already active against Mujahideen. The airport in the high altitudes of Kargil is also expected to be ready for operation by the end of this year. If India has overcome the Mujahideen, then why these reinforcements are being made? The fact is that the spur of operations by Mujahideen in Jammu particularly in Poonch and Rajouri areas is worrying Indian defence planners. The Mujahideen from their hideouts in high mountainous areas come down suddenly, raid army camps and soon after their action they quickly return to their hideouts. According to a report published in Srinagar-based weekly Chatan, the Indian troops have been pushed to a tight corner and the situation has become so grave that the Indian troops dare not come out of their barracks and bunkers after sunset while the Mujahideen move about freely after dusk. The newspaper quotes a senior military officer as saying that topography of these areas is advantageous for a prolonged guerilla war and in the present situation, the Mujahideen can continue their operations for the next 10 years. On the other hand, the Fidayeens dare attacks on army camps have become a headache for India and there are speculations that Israeli commandos were invited to counter the Mujahideen, who under the changed strategy are inflicting heavy losses on the occupation forces. According to reports, due to Fidayeen actions, forces personnel in Kashmir are terrified and their families in other parts of India are in perpetual worry for their dear ones. Indian forces are losing their morale with every passing day. To commit suicide and open fire on their own colleagues has become a routine. Corruption is also rampant in the ranks of occupation army. The senior army officials have admitted that the army in Kashmir is not fighting fit. According to a report published in daily Hindustan Times, corruption is seeping into the ranks and fatigue factor is taking its toll on its performance. The newspaper quotes an internal confidential report of Indian army as saying that the shortfall of young officers and the failure of junior leadership to fill the void are also adding pressure on the existing strength of the officers. The report has termed this situation as a serious problem.

On failure to defeat the Mujahideen, the Indian army has turned the barrel towards unarmed and innocent people. According to the newspapers of Occupied Kashmir, increase in the death rate of innocent Kashmiris is the outcome of the new strategy devised with the help of Israeli experts. The daily Wadi Ki Awaz reports that more than 35 Kashmiris are being martyred per day in Occupied Valley since the arrival of Israeli commandos. Common people are the soft target of forces wrath particularly when they suffer some casualty at the hands of Mujahideen. The religious scholars and intellectuals are being eliminated in a systematic manner; torturing common people, arresting them indiscriminately and killing them in custody has become order of the day. The only motive of these evil activities is to terrorize and force the common people to give up their struggle for freedom. It is better for India to pay heed to the advice of its outgoing Chief of the Army Staff; General V P Malik that army is not the answer to the Kashmir problem. The General has advised India to lay stress on political solution to settle this issue. The new Chief of the Army Staff General Padmanabhan who took charge from General Malik last week also emphasized that military action alone could not bring about a resolution to the freedom movement. He said no insurgency has ever been solved by army. The Generals, very well know that army engaged in Kashmir is now fatigued and there is lack of leadership in army as the seniors are being killed by Mujahideen. In this situation, what remains behind is that India should give up its obduracy on Kashmir and restore the Kashmiris fundamental rights.

(Courtesy The Nation October 12, 2000)

Sorry legacy

Kashmir's lesson is violence engenders more violence

Most people walk to their new jobs with panache, and in the initial days in office, try to put their best foot forward. General S Padmanabhan, the new Indian army chief, did the same thing by repeating the vow that he would defeat the Kashmir struggle. Given the Indian establishment's pathological obsession with ending the Kashmiris' challenge to their occupation of the disputed territory, this was the best choice of subject for first comment the general could find on the day he took charge of the Indian army. His message is that he means business.

So did his predecessor, VP Malik, who used pretty much every trick in the book of violence to flatten the Kashmiri resistance. House-to-house searches, laying siege upon villages suspected of providing sanctuaries to fighters, kidnapping of family members of warriors and excess torture of those who were caught during cordon-off operations have been instruments of the standard strategy the military adopted to quell and quieten the struggle. More bloody has been the simple shoot-to-kill and shoot-at-sight order to troops, who compensated their failure to break the resolve of the Kashmiris to fight by adding to the numbers of those they terminated without shame.

The backlash to this shortsighted policy applied with Draconian ruthlessness under General Malik has seen marked increase in use of guerrilla tactics by Kashmiris. Target hits, target killings of troops and maximum-impact bombings and raids have gone up. It was a grudging admission of the futility of application of force, and the grim complications it has created in Kashmir, that General Malik, towards the end of his tenure, more than once stated the need for seeking a political solution to the problem. His successor, it appears from his first bombast, does not want to take a leaf out of his book. He is intent upon repeating General Malik's mistakes instead of learning from them.

It goes without saying that this will not resolve the issue. Nor will it bring down the heightened guerrilla activity Kashmiris are carrying out. More violence from the Indian army will engender more violence in Kashmir, which will, in consequence, multiply tensions on the Line of Control. There will be no peace. No peace can be built upon body bags.

Creating tax culture Tax system should be receptive to tax-payers' sensibilities If all of the Musharraf government's economic reform efforts are reduced to a phrase it is "revenue increase." Tax reform is one of the main strategies being used for this purpose. The effort is to expand the tax base through documentation, shift towards consumption-based general sales tax, increase direct taxes in proportion to the indirect taxes, introduce greater equity in taxation, reduce the discretionary powers of tax administrators and simplify tax procedures. A taxation committee has been recently set up to recommend improvement in the present archaic and obsolete taxation system. With the tax-GDP ratio falling to just about 12%, which should be around 20%, the need for change is obvious. But the change must be brought about carefully and gradually.

Pakistan has massive problems in its taxation system: inelasticity, inequity, lack of compliance and frequent complaints of tax collectors' harassment of tax-payers. Inelasticity led governments to rely on vertical tax increase. Now the base has to be widened. Inequity can be removed by bringing all incomes, especially agricultural incomes, in the tax net. Greater tax compliance can be ensured after the economy has been documented. It does not make sense why the tax survey has been restricted to only posh areas of just 26 cities and towns. It should cover everyone to tap the full tax potential. The government must also come good on its promise that once the tax base has been widened and more tax-payers added to the list, the existing tax burden will be lightened.

Above all else, the reform policy must be sustained. Past attempts did not go beyond paper work. Most recommendations of the three major taxation commissions did not even see the light of the day. Lack of political will to take tough decisions has plagued the system. Now that it is being transformed, the present day needs must be borne in mind. Caution will need to be taken so that donor-driven conditionalities do not make the end product more burdensome for the public. The system should be made simpler, easier to operate and more convenient for tax-payers. For instance, the practice of changing every year the procedures, format of tax forms or extending the last date for filing returns should be eliminated. In other words, the whole tax system should be so designed that it makes economic sense and is receptive to tax-payers' sensibilities.

(Courtesy The News October 2, 2000)