There shouldn’t be any legal, political or even moral obligation on the government or on the armed forces to clarify what precisely is its military doctrine to the international community, by elucidating its operational and strategic objectives (“Taking ‘Cold Start’ out of the freezer”, Jan.11). In fact, the ambiguity regarding this and use of “bold euphemisms” serve the purpose of the doctrine to be an effective deterrent and an imperative to national security. Apparently, the doubt regarding the capability of India to execute such a doctrine, if it exists, is also lucrative to this end goal. Anyhow there is no ambiguity that the doctrine, regardless of the degree of offensiveness, will only be exercised as a retaliatory expedient. There is nothing to worry here for peace-loving nations.
Sreerag Raman Sreenivasan,
Thiruvananthapuram
The vulnerability of Pakistan stems not from the so-called aggressive posture of India but due to the fact that it is a “geographically narrow” country which would find it difficult to sustain in case enemy forces reach its main cities too early in a war. Cold Start aims at doing just that. Pakistan has always tried to negate this “geographical challenge” through its efforts to gain “strategic depth” through the Taliban in Afghanistan, or separatists in Kashmir and in Punjab. India preparing a war doctrine such as “Cold Start” is just to exploit this vulnerability of its nemesis. Thus it is not an aggressive posture but a military necessity. The article rightly points out that India lacks materiel to test this doctrine. The government should expedite the acquisitions of arms.
Shashank Jain,
New Delhi
When dealing with or discussing Pakistan, it needs to be dealt with on two distinct planes — one civilian and the other military. In the first, there is no comparison between the two countries in any field, be it industrial, economic, financial or institutional. Coming to the military front, there are some hard facts. On the face of it our strength looks almost double and thus impressive, but considering our size in area and population, the edge is rather insignificant.
The Indian armed forces have been dogged by a number of controversies concerning arms purchase which has resulted in a virtual blank in arms acquisition, impacting the drive towards modernisation. No such controversies come to mind when referring to Pakistan.
While India may take the liberty of shrugging off the military capabilities of many militaries around our neighbourhood, it should never make the mistake of underestimating and doubting the Pakistani soldier/army in terms of dedication, training and professional competence.
Anand Basera,
Gurgaon
