An opinion poll conducted by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK, established that 98 per cent of people in J&K do not wish to be part of Pakistan and 50 per cent of people in POK do not wish to remain with Pakistan

Post-Operation Geronimo, there is much inquisitiveness whether the Indian Special Forces can fix interviews with God for notorious individuals like Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed, Ilyas Kashmiri, Mahmood Azhar etc as the US Navy Seals did for Osama bin Laden. There were pointed questions whether the task could be done in a similar manner. With Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) having been caught with their pants down, Shuja Pasha, the ISI Director General, went through the farce of resignation, knowing it would not be accepted since the survivability of politicians in Pakistan is courtesy the ISI-Military.

Remember the feeble effort of the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to bring the ISI under the Ministry of Interior, words he was made to swallow within 24 hours. Pasha then warned India to desist from trying anything similar as there would be a fitting reply from Pakistan, targets having been reconnoitered. In his haste to give this cheeky statement, Pasha gave yet another proof of ISI controlling terrorists – targets reconnoitered by goons like David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Coming to the question whether our Special Forces could have undertaken a similar raid? It is very much possible if our boys had landed in the same compound but could they have landed there? Not at all, in the absence of national will and also because we throttled the concept of HUMINT (human intelligence) since Prime Minister Gujral’s time. Such operation cannot be undertaken purely based on TECHINT (technical intelligence) even though the Director of CIA, Leon Panetta claims that the US was not sure whether Osama was present. If the US was not 200 per cent sure about Osama’s presence, the raid would never have gone in.

Notwithstanding this, covert actions to arrange interviews with God are possible. We need to build both the political will and military will. Our Special Forces come into focus periodically when incidents like the attack on the Parliament, 26/11 etc occur. There are calls for revisiting our Special Forces but the end result will be only unwarranted expansion in complete disregard to global norms.

The projected expansion rate in the US Special Forces Command (SOCOM) is 3.5 per cent for 2012, a special sanction is being sought to hike it to 4.12 per cent. In 2000-03, our Army Special Forces expanded by about 110 per cent. This year, we have gone and raised the eighth Special Forces unit, causing a manpower shortage of 80-90 personnel in all the Special Forces units. Already, India’s Special Forces are at par in numbers with SOCOM, considering two-third strength of SOCOM is “in support’ role comprising civilians and military. Our Army Special Forces are short of manpower, officers, critical equipment like night vision and surveillance devices, combat free-fall equipment, laser target designators, etc.

Having sponsored terrorism in India for over two decades, Pakistan is becoming extremely jingoistic, increasing her nuclear toys, tacit Chinese support to jihadi policies and impending US withdrawal from Af-Pak region – even though complete withdrawal by 2014 is questionable.

Pakistan has no right to even meddle in Kashmir. The first ever opinion poll of its kind both sides of the line of control (LoC) in J&K was conducted by the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatam House), UK, in conjunction with the King’s College during 2009-10 at the behest of Libya and Pakistan. The results established that 98 per cent of people in J&K do not wish to be part of Pakistan and 50 per cent of people in POK do not wish to remain with Pakistan. Keeping a dialogue open, should not imply that India should not call Pakistan’s bluff. Let us heed Chanakya who said, “Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.”