A Serious Business
Maroof Raza
OPERATION PARAKRAM: THE WAR UNFINISHED by Lt. Gen. V.K. Sood Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2004, 196 pp., 280.00
January 2004, volume 28, No 1

It was once said that “war was too serious a business to be left to Generals”. But after reading this book by Lt. Gen. V.K. Sood and Pravin Sawhney, I am convinced; it is even more dangerous, when matters of war and peace are left to India’s incompetent politicians! When India mobilized its armed forces for a possible war against Pakistan following the attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, many of us had expected a few surgical strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan to convey the message that India’s patience with Pakistan’s sponsorship of cross border terrorism had finally run out. But nothing happened, except considerable speculation at various levels. And then as the general mobilization of India’s armed forces continued unabated, there was talk of a full scale war, with Pakistan threatening a nuclear response that sent alarm bells ringing in Washington and other western capitals. And then, despite the then army Chief General Padmanabhan’s statement (that must have been made after due political approval) following Kaluchak massacre in May 2002 that “the time had come for India to act”, nothing happened.

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