India's army digs in over
Siachen By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - India does not have a
tradition of the armed forces questioning the
democratically elected civilian executive
authority. The forces have quietly gone about
their business, despite often shoddy treatment,
within the defined policy framework, despite
murmurs of discontent within.
However, in
a rare case of the armed forces having a say in
matters related to India-Pakistan diplomacy, they
have made their
position clear on the Siachen
Glacier: they are not happy about talk of troop
withdrawal.
Situated along the
India-Pakistan border, Siachen continues to be the
world's highest battlefield. Thousands of soldiers
have died not from gunfire, but because of the
severe weather conditions. Despite the
Indo-Pakistani peace process making progress in
several areas, such as road, train and air links,
sporting relations, easy visa norms and improved
trade, the glacier continues to be a hostile
flashpoint.
The armed forces' discomfiture
about any deal with Pakistan on the Siachen issue
has come ahead of the foreign secretary-level
talks that began this Monday, the first high-level
official contact as part of the peace process
between India and Pakistan since the July serial
train blasts in Mumbai.
The armed forces,
which faced the brunt of enemy fire from higher
positions during the Kargil intrusion in 1999 in
central Kashmir, want to make their apprehensions
about Siachen clear.
In a rare instance of
a senior army official commenting on an issue
being handled at the diplomatic level, Western Air
Command Chief A K Singh that India and Pakistan
need to demarcate boundaries before making any
decision on demilitarizing the Siachen Glacier.
The Western Air Command provides logistical
support to the army in maintaining more than 4,000
troops on the glacier, where altitudes range
between 4,500 and 7,500 meters.
"I
personally feel that we need to demarcate the area
so that tomorrow no counter-claims are made,"
Singh said. Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such
a request, saying that agreeing to it would be the
same as accepting India's control over the area.
Singh's comments follow a top Indian army
official's statement at Siachen in which he ruled
out any compromise with Pakistan over troop
withdrawal from the glacier. The officer said the
glacier is of strategic and diplomatic
significance to India and that the two sides would
have to mark current troop positions formally
before any withdrawal could be considered.
While Pakistan's "core" focus on Kashmir
and India's unhappiness about the terrorist
activity being orchestrated from across the border
remains, the Indo-Pakistani peace process has
tried to progress in other spheres, labeled
confidence-building measures. Siachen is one
problem area that the two sides have identified as
an issue that could be resolved.
Until
1984, neither India nor Pakistan had troops
stationed at Siachen, as neither side thought
there was any point. In 1947, when the Line of
Control was drawn between India and Pakistan, the
Siachen terrain was considered too inhospitable to
justify extending the border.
However, as
relations between the two countries deteriorated,
Siachen gained strategic importance.
India and Pakistan agreed to a
ceasefire on the Siachen Glacier in 2003 but
troops continue to be stationed there under harsh
conditions. Indian soldiers continue to try to
defend the 75-kilometer glacier at an estimated
cost of up to US$1 million a day.
Indian National Security
Adviser M K Narayanan said this year that India
and Pakistan were "closer" to a "final point" on
the Siachen problem. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
also hinted that India and Pakistan are close to a
breakthrough on Siachen. But all such talk was
prior to the July Mumbai bomb lasts when New Delhi
was contemplating a visit by Manmohan to Pakistan
to take Indo-Pakistani relations to a new level.
While an agreement on Siachen was to be
the highlight of Manmohan's first visit to
Pakistan, New Delhi was also looking to mark the
culmination of several other back-channel
official-level talks. These included agreements
over Sir Creek (disputed territory bordering Sindh
and Gujarat) and Baglihar Dam, across the Chenab
River in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, India
has hardened its stance since the Mumbai attacks.
This month, New Delhi dismissed Pakistani Foreign
Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri's remarks that
the two countries were close to an agreement on
the demilitarization of the glacier. Kasuri said
back-channel talks had brought the two countries
close to a breakthrough that may result in
Manmohan visiting Pakistan as early as next month.
"The terms on which an agreement can be
reached [on Siachen] are well known to Pakistan,"
an Indian government spokesman said. A day after
Kasuri's remarks, army chief General J J Singh
told reporters that the government has given its
assurance that national-security concerns will be
safeguarded in any settlement.
However,
Kasuri continues to push for a solution on
Siachen. On the eve of the foreign secretary-level
talks, Pakistan said resolution of the Siachen
issue would be achieved in a "matter of days'' as
the two countries have been able to narrow down
their differences to a large extent.
"All
I can tell you is that we are very near. There are
differences, but these can be bridged by political
will," Kasuri told a television channel. "Given
the political will, we have narrowed down our
differences enough for us to have a decision
within a matter of days, not even a week."
Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Secretary
Riaz Mohammad Khan arrived in New Delhi on Monday
for talks with his Indian counterpart Shivshankar
Menon. "I am looking forward to very constructive
discussions with the foreign secretary," Khan
said.
As expected, the main issue that has
been taken up for discussion on the first day is
Pakistan's commitment to contain and prevent
cross-border terrorism against India. New Delhi
has presented some "evidence" relating to the
complicity of terrorist groups based in Pakistan
in recent attacks in New Delhi and Varanasi. The
delegations will also review the third round of
the bilateral composite dialogue process, which
was concluded in June.
India's new foreign
minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said the meeting will
focus primarily on setting up the joint
anti-terrorism mechanism, the proposal for which
was signed on the sidelines of the recent
Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Havana by Manmohan
and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
Mukherjee told the Pakistani delegation
that called on him that that the two countries
should "fight terrorism jointly".
Though
the formation of a joint forum has been severely
criticized domestically, US assistant secretary of
state Richard Boucher recently said the terrorist
groups responsible for attacks in India, including
in Mumbai recently, have "origin and links" in
Pakistan and expressed hope that the
anti-terrorism joint mechanism would yield
dividends.
Reports quoting officials say
that besides the formulation of the joint
anti-terrorism mechanism, there could still be a
major think on Siachen and Sir Creek, which should
form part of the back-channel discussions.
Any solution, however, still has to be a
carefully calibrated exercise in which either side
tries to ensure that it has not given in more than
the other, especially in the eyes of the domestic
population. The extremists in Pakistan and the
belligerent opposition in India are also very
quick to censure. In this context, New Delhi is
unlikely to ignore the apprehensions of the armed
forces.
Siddharth Srivastava is
a New Delhi-based journalist.
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