B.RAMAN
When a country is the victim of an external
aggression or is involved in a military conflict with an adversary, all
political parties forget their differences and join hands for supporting the Government and the Armed Forces in their efforts
to defeat the enemy.
2.We saw this in Western Europe and the US during the second World War. This has been
the political tradition in India too since we became independent in 1947.
Before the outbreak of the Sino-Indian war of 1962, there was considerable
opposition criticism of the way Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, and
V.K.Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister, were handling our differences
with China.
3. But once the Chinese troops invaded India, all the opposition parties stopped
their criticism of the Government and supported it and our Armed Forces in a
total mark of solidarity.
4. We saw a similar demonstration of all-party
solidarity behind the Congress Government when the Pakistani troops marched
into the Jammu area in 1965 and after the outbreak of the 1971 war between
India and Pakistan. All the opposition parties forgot their differences with
the Government and the Congress on various issues and supported it.
5. The BJP-led coalition under Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee was in power when the Pakistani troops intruded into the Kargil
area of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999. Before the military conflict broke out in
the Kargil area, the Congress Party, which was then in opposition, was strongly
critical of the policies of the Vajpayee Government towards Pakistan and
particularly Shri Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in the beginning of the year.
6. But once the conflict broke out, the Congress
stopped its criticism of the Vajpayee Government and extended it total support,
in keeping with the tradition of national solidarity at the time of an external
aggression or during a military conflict with an adversary. If the Congress
Party had not done so, it would have been an act of treason and betrayal of our
Armed Forces.
7. One was shocked beyond measure by the manner in
which Shri Rahul Gandhi , while addressing a Congress rally in New Delhi on
November 4,2012, projected his party’s support for the Vajpayee Government and
our Armed Forces during the Kargil military conflict with Pakistan, as if it
was a political favour shown by the Congress to the BJP-led Government. It was
not an act of political favour, but an act of patriotism and solidarity with
the jawans of our Armed Forces who fought bravely in the Kargil Heights. (http://www.rediff.com/news/report/rahul-draws-flak-from-bjp-over-kargil-remark/20121104.htm )
8.Shri Rahul Gandhi has found fault with the BJP
for not reciprocating the support extended by the Congress during the external
aggression in Kargil by supporting the Congress Party’s move to allow Foreign
Direct Investment in the retail sector.
9. There is no question of a quid pro quo for an act of patriotism and
national solidarity in the face of an external enemy invading our country. It
is surprising that Shri Rahul Gandhi is not able to see the difference between
an act of patriotism and national solidarity and an act of domestic economic
decision-making and tries to look for a quid pro quo for extending support
against external aggression. ( 4-11-12)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
