HONOUR THE
UNSUNG HEROES OF OPERATION PAWAN
“India’s
future path to greatness shall be marked with supreme sacrifices by its
warriors who if confined to the dustbin of state apathy, as reflected by the Government
disinclination towards public commemoration of supreme sacrifice by 1171
Indian soldiers KIA during Operation ‘Pawan’ in Sri Lanka, may
adversely impact the national will during inevitable future military
confrontations.” – Col RS Sidhu
India’s future path to
greatness shall be marked with supreme sacrifices by its warriors who if
confined to the dustbin of state apathy, as reflected by the Government
disinclination towards public commemoration of supreme sacrifice by 1171 Indian
soldiers Killed In Action (KIA) during Operation ‘Pawan’ in Sri Lanka, may
adversely impact the national will during inevitable future military
confrontations. To recall Operation ‘Pawan,’ the Indian Peace Keeping Force
(IPKF) operation in Sri Lanka, was the largest joint services military
operation conducted by India, in the 1971 War. It led to the establishment of
Headquarters IPKF, a Corps-size tri-service organisation with nearly 100,000
troops from the three services under its command. Had the proposed
Maritime Theatre Command been in existence, Operation ‘Pawan’ would have come
under its ambit.
The intensity of this 32-month-long
‘politico-military peace keeping’ operation, undertaken from 29th of July 1987
to 24th of March 1990, is best gauged from the gallantry awards won and
casualties suffered by this force. 1172 Indian soldiers were KIA, and
more than 3500 soldiers suffered grievous injuries. The IPKF was awarded 1
Param Vir Chakra, 6 Maha Vir Chakras, 98 Vir Chakras and scores of other
gallantry awards. The ghost of the political failure to see through to the end
of its first geopolitical foray in near abroad continues to impact Indian
policy establishment even in the present times.
As of now, against the backdrop of a
sustained Chinese presence in Sri Lanka, India is struggling to adopt a
coherent strategy to deal with the continued intransigence by the Sri Lanka
Government to implement the political solution of devolution to the Tamils
enshrined in the Indian Sri Lanka Agreement (ISLA) of 29th of July 1987.
India’s expanding economic
and trade footprint is bound to invite hostility from the dominant geopolitical
forces in its neighbourhood. This will mandate it to be prepared for
Out-of-area military operations to secure its economic and geopolitical
interests. India’s future path to greatness therefore shall be marked with
supreme sacrifices by its warriors who if confined to the dustbin of state
apathy, as reflected by the Government disinclination towards public
commemoration of supreme sacrifice by 1171 Indian soldiers KIA in Sri Lanka,
may adversely impact the national will during the inevitable future military
confrontations. The Government is very vocal in pronouncing its
nationalist credentials but sluggish in putting money into building deterrent
capabilities.
Last week's defence budget was a green
signal for China to race even further ahead under the illusion there will be no
war. Still, policy pronouncements are not enough unless backed by a
revitalised and reorganised military competent to safeguard its economic
interests, all aspirational talk is mere rhetoric. Building National War
Memorials is one thing; honouring the fallen braves appropriately is quite
another matter regardless of the outcome because victory or defeat on the
battlefield is never complete unless it is surrendered as in 1971.
This is where the IPKF comes into the
picture because it was not permitted to complete its military mission.
Its contribution to the preservation of Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity is
fully acknowledged; in Colombo especially. New Delhi must honour its sacrifices
on 29 July as a tribute to the valour of the fallen brave. The political
parameters of the ISLA had been achieved by the IPKF by December 1988. The
ethnic Sri Lanka Tamil predominant Northern and Eastern Provinces were
amalgamated into a unitary Northeastern Province, general elections to the
North East Provincial Council were successfully conducted, with a duly elected
EPRLF-led government sworn in.
Had the IPKF stay been
extended to tame the LTTE, the military mission could have created conditions
for implementing a political solution short of Eelam (Freedom). This would have
secured the national interest. The new Indian government should not have
endorsed the new Sri Lankan government’s demand to withdraw IPKF from the
island in August 1989. Ascribing the failure of ISLA to IPKF, which was just a
corollary to the ISLA, is unfair. The failures lay in the diplomatic
and government policy, which the establishment wishes to cover up by laying the
blame at the doorstep of its military.
The ISLA had weak foundations. The
contingency of Sri Lanka and LTTE reneging on the ISLA was not thought through.
The withdrawal of IPKF left India without decisive influence to oversee the
implementation of the promised political package by Sri Lanka to remove the
discriminatory state practices against its ethnic Tamil minority, impacting
Indian policy towards Sri Lanka even in the present.
The provision of weapons and allied
support by R&AW to the LTTE even when militarily engaged against IPKF, and
the availability of physical infrastructure support to LTTE in Tamil Nadu, was
against national interests. Similar primacy to political interests can be
sensed by the refusal of the Indian state to commemorate KIA of Operation
‘Pawan.’ There is angst against the injustice of the government and the armed
forces not officially commemorating the IPKF operations at the NWM as is done
for the 1971 and Kargil wars. Graves of some of the Indian soldiers killed
during Operation ‘Pawan’ are still in Sri Lanka. It is hard to understand the
dichotomy of the Indian leadership, both political and military, paying public
tributes at the IPKF war memorial in Colombo, in the heart of Sri Lanka, but
failing to honour those KIA during Operation ‘Pawan,’ at the NWM at New Delhi.
The IPKF war veterans are ever hopeful that the Govt will realise the injustice
and consent to a befitting annual national homage to 1171 of its Bravehearts
who made the supreme sacrifice during ‘Operation Pawan’.
First
published in The Pioneer
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2024/columnists/honour-the-unsung-heroes-of-operation-pawan.html
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