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| Congress’ Frontier Policy | | Sikhs & Dogras secured Northern Frontiers for India | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 23: Northern Frontiers are the lifeline of India. The strategic important of the Northern Frontiers for the Indian security, stability and integrity was recognized by the brave Sikhs and Dogras almost a couple of centuries ago and that’s was the reason they put in hard work to consolidate their position on the Northern Frontiers. In the process, a number of proud and committed Sikhs and Dogras soldiers lost their invaluable lives.
Unfortunately, however, things have now changed in India. The policy-planners and those dealing with the country’s internal and external security have completely have practically abandoned the Northern Frontiers, notwithstanding the fact that the Indian Parliament under the inspiring and effective leadership of Congress leader and Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had adopted a unanimous resolution in February 1994 – resolution on the national resolve to take back from Pakistan all the Jammu and Kashmir territories it had illegally occupied in 1947-1948. Rather, concerted moves are afoot to enable Pakistan to further consolidate its hold over these areas and extend its tentacles even beyond the occupied areas. How else should one interpret the Prime Minister’s oft-repeated statement: “Neighbours cannot be changed, but borders can be rendered irrelevant – just a line on the map.”
But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not the only Congress leader who considers the Northern Frontiers irrelevant for India. The fact of the matter is that the attitude of the Congress bigwigs, barring a couple of them like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Narasimha Rao and Indira Gandhi, towards the Northern Frontiers has all along been negative.
Take, for example, their attitude to the efforts put in by the British Indian Government to secure the Northern Frontiers for India in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In 1885, when the Congress was formed, the first resolution that the Congress adopted was on the military policy of the British Indian Government. It described the military policy of the Government of India as a “hollow plea of preparedness – preparedness to meet the enemies of England on the frontiers…” In 1893, Ferozeshah Mehta and Gopal Krishan Gokhale, political guru of Mahatma Gandhi, criticized the British Government’s frontier policy. So much so that Mehta sent a memorial to the House of Commons regarding the frontier policy.
The president of the Congress in 1895 remarked that the “quest of the Government of India for a scientific frontier had incurred extravagant military expenditure to the state. The fear on the part of the government of a Russian invasion was a myth. I have heard of this Russian invasion since the days of my childhood…” He also referred to the annexation of Chitral (part of Northern Territories, which is under the Pakistani occupation) in 1894 and said: “it was stated by the finance department that the cost would be fifteen lakhs, but the expedition, it was believed, had cost nearly two crores of rupees. Moreover, the occupation of Chitral would involve an addition to the Indian Army and to the already excessive military expenditure of the Empire.”
Members of the Congress were so much perturbed by the frontier policy of the government that at the session of 1897 at Amraoti, the first resolution condemned it as “injurious to the best interests of the British Empire in general and this country (India) in particular, as it involved frequent military expeditions beyond the boundaries of the country…”
Similarly, the president of the nineteenth session of the Congress had warned the government against seeking “new adventures beyond our proper frontiers, whether in Afghanistan or in Burma; whether in the forbidden land of the Lamas (read Ladakh) or in another direction so close to the sphere of Russian influence as almost to invite a collision with the power…”
These are only a few instances which simply prove that the Congress leadership was never clear as far as the frontier policy was concerned or as far as the strategic importance of the Northern Frontiers for India was concerned. In fact, they were not even aware of the geographical boundaries of the Indian civilization. However, to write all this is not to suggest that the intentions of the British Government were pious. It was not the case. They were imperialists and they had the tendency of pushing the outposts of the British Empire further and further. It was integral part of the imperial policy. But that’s is not the relevant question here. What is relevant here is the manner in which the policy planners in the country are seeking to weaken the Indian position on the Northern Frontiers and enabling Pakistan and China to establish on a permanent basis their hold over these areas of vital strategic importance.
Remember, weakening of the Indian hold over the Northern Frontiers would simply help Pakistan and similar other anti-India forces extend their area of influence to other parts of India leading ultimately to its disintegration. Will the powers-that-be review their frontier policy taking into consideration the significance of these areas and adopt the frontier policy the Sikhs and Dogras had adopted to protect India from foreign invasions?
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