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New Delhi, December 19, 2018 (PPI-OT): Former judge of Indian Supreme Court, Justice (retd) Markanday Katju has said that the Indian army is engaged in a war it cannot possibly win adding that an army can fight another army, but it cannot fight the masses. Justice Markanday Katju in an article published in the news portal firstpost.com wrote: “An army can fight another army, it cannot fight the masses. A tiger can kill a beast, but it cannot kill a swarm of mosquitoes. So the Indian army is engaged in a war it cannot possibly win.”
Justice Katju in his article advised the Indian soldiers in these words: “And in the meantime, my sincere advice to army personnel is to not behave like Field Marshal Keitel and General Jodl, or Generals Tojo and Yamashita, who were found guilty of atrocities and ordered to be hanged by the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals.”
He said, “Due to the continuous stupidity of our political leaders over decades, the Kashmiri people are almost entirely alienated from India and bitterly hostile to it.” Following are excerpts from the article:
“The situation in Kashmir today is this: Due to the continuous stupidity of our political leaders over decades, the Kashmiri people are almost entirely alienated from India and bitterly hostile to it. Consequently, they are resorting to armed fights with the Indian security forces, using guerrilla tactics (of hit and run) as used by the Vietnamese people in their war against first the French, and later the Americans.
“An army can fight another army, it cannot fight the masses. A tiger can kill a beast, it cannot kill a swarm of mosquitoes. So the Indian army is engaged in a war it cannot possibly win. The guerilla has the advantage of deciding the place, time, and duration of the attack. It is said, ‘The people are the sea, and the guerilla is the fish which swims in it, and without the sea, the fish will die’.
“In other words, guerilla war is possible only with popular support. That is support the Kashmiri militants are getting. “Presently, the number of militants may be only a few hundred, but a large number of non-militants in Kashmir are their sympathisers who give them shelter, food, and intelligence, and, as General Hasnain has admitted, the number of militants is increasing.
“In such a conflict, when a non-militant is killed (as happened recently in Pulwama) his non-militant relatives often become furious, and to take revenge they become militants. I am sorry to say but our politicians, who are the real villains, have made our soldiers into a ‘Bali ka Bakra’. How this conflict will end and what is its solution I cannot say, but this much is certain: The Indian army is in for the long haul in Kashmir.
“And in the meantime, my sincere advice to army personnel is to not behave like Field Marshal Keitel and General Jodl, or Generals Tojo and Yamashita, who were found guilty of atrocities and ordered to be hanged by the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals.”
It is to mention here that Wilhelm Keitel was an army general and the chief of the OKW, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or High Command of the German Military, throughout the World War II. He was condemned to death at Nuremberg for the commission of war crimes and hanged. Alfred Jodl was an army general and operations chief of the OKW throughout the war.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
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