National Security Doctrine for Global Reach continues...

The alarming undermining of the sovereignty of the state began in early 1990, with the capitulation of the V.P. Singh government in the Rubaiyya kidnapping case. Incidentally, all the main surviving personna are now in the National Front crowd.

The capitulation in the Rubaiyya kidnapping episode, in the releasing of five hard core extremist prisoners for her release, in one blow raised the image of the enemies of the state as heroes who could make the government of nearly 1 billion Indians bend before them. Not since the defining Battle of Plassey in 1757 did India seem so patently vunerable to an offensive by so few. That there was an alternative to this capitulation was demonstrated when the successor Chandrashekhar government (in which I was a Minister) perched precariously in a minority in Parliament, nevertheless refused to yield in a similar situation. On February 27, 1991 (a week before the Government collapsed) former Union Minister Saif-uddin Soz’s daughter Nehma Intiyaz was similarly kidnapped by the JKLF and a similar ransom demanded. But her release was obtained within a week and without any quid pro quo, by tactics that have to remain secret for now. Her abductor was caught too, and convicted recently by a CBI Special Court. This proved that even a tottering government is only so weak as the mental softness its leadership and is not dependent, on its numeric stability. Regrettably, the Chandrashekhar government did not last long enough (it fell on March 11, 1991 and demitted office on June 21, 1991), to consolidate this message of innate toughness of the Indian State.

During the 1990s, the Indian state has also been under siege from the menace of the LTTE-ISI nexus. The LTTE-ISI nexus has ramification for Indian security, in four dimensions: First, their common hatred of India translates itself into undermining the Indian political system. Assassinations, bribery and honey trapping of key Indian personalities in politics, media, and academia are its tools in this subversion. In this way, the LTTE-ISI nexus has now acquired a wide network in India.

to be continued....