Special Forces

I am going to go against the grain when saying this but I feel compelled to do so. Our special forces who finally ended the terrorists stand did an outstanding job but this was in spite of and not because of the infrastructure/training/information provided to them. As a result I have this feeling somewhere inside my stomach that this was a Pyrrhic victory of sorts – we are still behind the advanced world in terms of our technology and training. Our men are as good if not better than their counterparts across the world but that alone is not good enough – they need to be given the full support in terms of the latest technology, weaponry (offensive and defensive) and information control. I don’t have a clue on what Special Forces operations entail but as a thinking person I am entitled to a few questions, the answers to which might prove me wrong or right.

• The NSG had snipers/sharpshooters posted on rooftops, snorkels, etc at all the sites – however I don’t think that any meaningful action was taken by any of these shooters. I read a piece in the New York Times where the American writer has approached this particular issue unencumbered by nationalistic sentiment. The fact is that the shooters had equipment which severely limited their ability to zoom in on targets, identify Friend or Foe and take effective shots. Anyone who watched closely would also have noticed the complete lack of real time communication to these shooters from the NSG units carrying out the internal operations. Neither were these shooters guided by a central command position which could collect information from either direct surveillance or secondary feed from inside. This is standard operating procedure in such operations worldwide. The shooters in most actions are rarely left to make their own decisions – they are placed in strategic positions to await confirmation from a central command, which incidentally in high level ops also has access to the field of view which the shooter has. This allows informed decisions to be taken which can effectively end operations very fast. In our case, the shooters were placed there more as set pieces with little or no thought given as to how they would be brought into coordinated action.

• Surveillance ability from outside appeared to be practically non existent. What the hell were the GOC – Goa and Maharashtra (Gen Hooda) and DG-NSG (Lt.Gen JP Dutta) trying to achieve by taking guided tours around the conflict zone. For sure this was not a museum tour and if it was meant to be a recce, this was one funny and downright risky way of doing it, faced as it is with trained and armed terrorists holding the high ground. (This again takes me back to my point in the Police piece about placing our highest ranking officials directly in the line of fire). Can you imagine what would have happened had one or both of these two become victims of enemy fire. Any proper Special Forces operation would have involved hi-tech electronic surveillance systems being put in place which would allow the brains of the teams to direct operations from a safe zone with complete inputs from all areas – the conflict zone, all personnel on ground, hotlines to decision makers (PMO, Home Ministry, etc), media and intelligence services.

• Through the 60 hour ordeal each and every news channel was reporting a mix of fact, fiction and fantasy all ostensibly coming from informed sources, unnamed personnel and studio based analysis of pictures. It is easy to take pot shots at the media for running wild with their imaginations but such a situation is easily addressed if the authorities decide to simplify information dissemination by nominating a single spokesperson to give regular updates and answer queries. This prevents nonsense from going out on air and also ensures that the news being given out is consistent with the requirements of the operation. And one does not have to look too far for a good example – during the Kargil war I remember listening every evening to the well articulated MEA spokesperson RS Jassal, who briefed the media and took questions with the utmost confidence and composure.