Splendid Retaliation

The military action against Indian militants in Myanmar following the ambush on 6 Dogra Regiment troops on June 4 in Chandel district of Manipur was both swift and well-deserved. According to reports, the Myanmar operation was “meticulously planned” with tiol Security Adviser Ajit Daval persolly involved in the planning and supervision of the operation of Tuesday, in which between 20 and 38 militants were killed. What turned out to be a source of embarrassment for the Myanmar government was that the operation should have been conducted in Myanmar territory, with the consent of the Myanmar government probably having been taken only after the operation was concluded. The Myanmar government subsequently denied any military operation having taken place within Myanmar territory. This is the very least that any self-respecting sovereign country could do after such an operation had to be conducted largely because neighbouring countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh have long allowed militants from the Northeast to set up camps in these countries without any opposition from their governments. Why is it that we have had to hear about the peaceful and friendly intentions of these countries after they have allowed militants from our country to set up and run training camps in their territory for so long? This begs the question as to why the Indian armed forces did not do what they did on Tuesday, many years ago. We are not suggesting that the sovereignty of any country should not be respected. But what we are obliged to look at is the altertive left to a country when its neighbours permit militants from that country to secure asylum and to set up training camps in their countries, while at the same time waxing eloquent on friendly relations. There are times when the imperatives of interl security compel a country even to cross intertiol boundaries and demolish training camps of militants in neighbouring countries merely because neighbouring countries have provided all facilities for such training camps to be set up in their territories. What the Indian Army did on Tuesday, should have happened many years ago to prevent militant groups of the Northeast from turning militancy and terrorism into a business in the me of insurgency with the help and support of neighbouring countries. We seem to keep forgetting that there is a big gap between real friendliness and goodwill and what is merely professed in bilateral exchanges. Perhaps the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Colonel (retired) Rajyavardhan Rathore should have evinced greater restraint in taking credit for the success of a military operation against our militants in a foreign country, but perhaps it was tural for a former Army officer to be swayed by a sense of euphoria. In any case, the violation of the sovereignty of any country is nothing to crow about, and there was need for greater restraint in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in such delicate matters. However, the message about what our armed forces can do in such situations must have got across to all neighbouring countries that pretend to be friendly despite the most bellicose postures against India. Pakistan has already warned India that it is very different from Myanmar in the matter of repulsing any violations of its sovereignty. However, the strongest message must have gone across to militant groups of the Northeast who have turned militancy into a profitable business with the pretence of sustaining insurgency in public interest. The leaders of most such militant and terrorist groups have little more than their own axes to grind, as they have repeatedly proved with their grand lifestyles and their total lack of any real interest in how the common people are forced to live. It will be a great blessing for States like Assam, plagued by militant activity, if our militants and terrorists begin to realize that they cannot go on playing hide and seek with our armed forces merely because they have maged to secure asylum in neighbouring countries. Henceforth, they will be chased and shot down wherever they are.