Much ado about nothing over antony’s remarks

The last two days of bedlam in Parliament over the issue of the killing of five Indian Army jawans on the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch sector of the Jammu and Kashmir, has shown the utter decrepitude of the country’s legislature, especially in cases of handling issues of national security.

The problem apparently lies in the fact that the defence minister, AK Antony, had talked about the killing of the jawans – a violation of the 2003 ceasefire between the Pakistan and India – conducted by ‘20 heavily armed terrorists and along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniform.’ The principal opposition party, the BJP, challenged this narrative of the minister, and caused the adjournment of the Lok Sabha. Their point of contention was the defence public relations officer, 

Jammu’s initial press release on the issue that talked of a ‘Border Action Team’ of the Pakistan Army undertaking the operation.

A senior army officer at South Block clarified on Wednesday that a ‘Border Action Team’ is a phrase coined by the Indian side, and the team can include both soldiers in uniform or terrorists/special operations groups in ‘mufti.’ However, he also added, ‘The people in mufti cannot be a part of these teams without the knowledge and instructions of the Pakistan Army hierarchy.’ The BJP politicians who shouted themselves to inaction did not take into account these facts. They sought an apology from the minister on Wednesday, apparently for giving the Pakistan side a way of shirking responsibility. While it is not known that either Islamabad or Rawalpindi required the help of the Indian defence minister to provide them excuses that can prove to be even better than their own overactive imaginations, the BJP believes that the Congress-led UPA II government is the former’s savior.

None of these issues that the party has raised and held up Parliament is a dispassionate examination of the evidence at hand, which if one follows the writings of national security analyst of a web-based newspaper, Praveen Swamy, is revealing. According to Swamy’s sources, this Monday’s killing of Indian soldiers is in a continuum of an abduction and killing of four people from the Pakistan side of the LoC on 29 July. 

Even the Defence PRO, Jammu’s original press release had stated – before being withdrawn, ‘This action is a likely consequence of frustrations of the terrorists’ tanzeeems and Pak Army due to successful elimination of 19 hardcore terrorists in the recent months of July and August along the Line of Control and in the hinterland of J&K.’