In Service of Emergent India: A Call to Honor by Jaswant Singh

Author:Jaswant Singh [Singh, Jaswant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Asia, South, General, Political Science, International Relations, Biography & Autobiography, Political
ISBN: 9780253028006
Google: 4B2wDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: IndianaUP
Published: 2007-09-21T20:38:32+00:00

Heroism on the Heights

Events now began gathering pace. The planned redeployment of the Indian Army in the Kargil sector had been completed. All earlier and temporary tactical setbacks of the kind that are unavoidable in the early stages of any conflict were long over. I was, by then, very clear in my mind that it was only a matter of time before all Pakistani forces were either choked into submission because of an absence of water and supplies, or compelled to withdraw, driven off one peak after another in a process of slow and painful attrition. The first option was very clear and would require the Indian Army, along with the Air Force, to mount special efforts to seal off the supply routes to the Pakistani troops who already occupied some heights. The second was for the Indian Army to fight what, in retrospect, I consider to be the most outstanding demonstration of infantry assaults in mountain warfare anywhere, by any army, at any time. Merely to reach such heights—most of which were above 5,000 meters (17,500 feet), and where some of the cliff faces were nearly vertical—required not only determination and courage but also great mountaineering skill. To perform such unbelievable feats of climbing in battle conditions, against armed fire, while carrying full equipment plus weapons; and then to fight an entrenched enemy, sometimes hand to hand, and finally evict him from one height after another—all this our valiant infantry did, day after day, absorbing casualties, hanging on to gains, not yielding an inch, with no surprise, no benefit of force ratios—winning back one peak after another, with no other preponderant asset than sheer grit.

Long after this conflict was over, when students of military science from other countries visited the Kargil sector, they found it impossible to believe that our simple, unassuming Indian soldiers, not always equipped with the most advanced of personal weapons, had scaled these heights, mostly in the dark—so as to avoid direct, aimed fire—and had fought battle after battle, winning each of them and gaining back each of those heights. (By God! It makes me very proud to be of this fraternity.) There were many among the doubters. Henry Kissinger, for example, who had stopped in India on his way to China, just to call on me and perceptively inquire, “Will you be able to evict them from those heights?” I did not know how to answer. Had I affirmed my faith in the Indian soldier, my worldly wise and experienced visitor might well have scoffed at me inwardly. And I could not and would not say that our soldiers would fail, because I carried an internal conviction about them, an abiding faith; my instincts assured me that they would not fail—not fail me, not fail us, not fail India.

When, on June 13, the 2nd Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles regiment attacked and captured Tololing, I knew that it signaled the beginning of the end of the Pakistani intrusion, and that the tide had begun to turn.

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