25 years since the Kargil War: Did you know that though the war in Kargil began on May 3, 1999, Pakistan had planned it nearly 15 years prior - as retaliation for India's successful 1984 campaign in Siachen?
Did you know also that the war in Kargil was fought on land (Operation Vijay), in the air (Operation Safed Sagar) and at sea (Operation Talwar)? And that almost 3 lakh shells, bombs and rockets were fired during the war, with 1.9 lakh of these being shot using the 105 mm Indian Field Gun, produced in factories in Jabalpur and Kanpur?
And that the Kargil War was a war of many firsts, including the first time that the Indian Air Force was using precision (laser) guided munition for the required efficiency at such high altitudes, and the first time there was an Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI) in the Indian Armed Forces?
Twenty-five years after India's first televised war got over, there is a strong impetus to remember the war in Kargil, Mushkoh Valley (Dras), Batalik, Chorbat La and Turtuk, and to think back to the Kargil heroes who fought what must have looked like impossible odds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit the Kargil War Memorial on Kargil Diwas, observed each year on July 26 - to remember the very day 25 years ago when the high-latitude India-Pakistan war at Kargil ended after two months, three weeks and two days.
To quickly recount, here's how it started: In March-April 1999, Pakistani personnel infiltrated the Line of Control (LoC) to occupy high posts in places like Point 5140, Point 4700 and Point 4875 (altitude: 16,087 feet) in Mushkoh Valley, Dras, where Captain Vikram Batra's unit fought valiantly. The aim: to cut off NH1 connecting Leh to Kashmir, force the Indian Army to pull back its troops from Siachen and force India to the table for discussions on Kashmir.
These and many more details of how the Kargil War was fought and won by India, are encapsulated in a new quiz book, 'Naam Namak Nishan Part 2'. The authors, who each have a link to the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), are: Anurakshat Gupta, Arnabh Sengupta, Hitesh Mahato, Anmol Dhawan, and Sagnik Sarkar.
On Kargil Vijay Diwas 2024, we spoke to four of the authors: Dr Anuraksha Gupta, professor of surgery at AFMC, member of the International Quizzing Association, and once an expert on TV show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'; Dr Arnabh Sengupta, a medical officer with the Indian Air Force; Dr Anmol Dhawan, a radiologist and avid quizzer; and Dr Sagnik Sarkar, an AFMC MBBS graduate and a quizzer with interests in history, fauj, literature, Hindustani, classical music, cinema and his cat, which, he says, "comes above everything else". Edited excerpts from the conversation:
You've got your new book coming out on July 26, Naam Namak Nishan Part 2. Tell us: Why a quiz book about India's Armed Forces?
Dr Anurakshak Gupta: Some of the portrayal of Fauj in media and in the general public is a little biased. Either it is too jingoistic or at times it is all of us lined up in a bar having a drink and playing the guitar. So that kind of a stereotype was something which worried us, and we thought it's time we addressed this thing.
The only problem was that a lot of stuff that's available is very, very, shall we say, academic and dense. So we thought there should be a better way to come to the average reader or the average person with something which is a little more easily digestible. And since all of us are quizzers at heart and we've been quizzing for decades together, we thought that this was one way of trying to bridge that gap. So that's how we started.
And AFMC has a fantastic quizzing culture?
Dr Sengupta: Anmol (Dhawan) has been international winner at Tata Crucible. We've all been in the finals, but he's the only one who's managed to really crack the international scene. It is often a little surprising for people to see doctors answering business-related questions, but we do well in quizzing across the country.
We're talking in 2024, which is also the 25th year anniversary of the Kargil War. There is an entire chapter devoted to the Kargil War in your new quiz book on the Armed Forces. What kind of research did you do for the Kargil chapter, what were some of your sources?
Dr Dhawan: Everyone had their own area which they're more comfortable with, like Dr Sagnik came up with questions about the Kargil War with certain heroes, and then we refined it. Then, Sir (Dr Gupta) added a lot of the questions and we've even tried to explain the place with a map because we learned from our feedback that in the introduction, if there is a map, because not a lot of people actually know the places, especially if you've not been to the geography of Ladakh, it's very difficult to understand the valleys, the reference points. So in fact, our Kargil War chapter begins with a map which actually talks about the area of responsibility. And so that makes the reader able to understand more.
Dr Sagnik: So when it comes to Kargil, in such contentious wars, there is always a problem with narratives, right. So everybody wants to have their narrative at the forefront. So a balanced research includes having sources from all over the way. So my first book of course was General V.P. Malik, who was the Chief of Army Staff during Kargil. His great book was 'From Surprise to Victory', which gives a very comprehensive outlook of how the Kargil unfolded, how we were taken by surprise initially and then we turn it around.
There's another very interesting book which General V.P. Malik himself quotes by a Pakistani commentator called Naseem Zahra, which talks about how the Pakistanis were planning this way before it actually unfolded. The Kargil unfolded in 1999 as we all know that they had actually planned this in 1985. In 1984 we had taken Siachen in the Operation Meghdoot, and as a counter to that Pakistanis had already started planning it in 1985, but it was for certain reasons it was shelved. It was again brought out of cold storage in 1987 when in Operation Rajiv, as we call it, we captured a very important high post by a legend in the Indian army called by the name of Naib Subedar Bana Singh. After that also Pakistani seriously considered something like bargain. But only after Pervez Musharraf gained power, this started being seriously considered as a military operation. One would be surprised to know that initially the Kargil operation was planned along with a simultaneous attack into Siachen which never materialized.
Other sources include General Mohinder Puri who was commanding the 8th Mountain Div (UYSM) at that time. 8th Mountain Division was the main division which fought the battle in the Dras and Kargil sectors.
For the Air Force part - we have three Air Force officers who are part of the team - so again, when it comes to Kargil, we think of it as an only infantry battery, but the Air Force played a very important role as well. There's a document called 'Air Power at 18,000 feet' which was brought about by Carnegie Endowment that discusses the novelty of the Indian Air Force tactics which occurred at such high attitude, because battle at such altitudes for the Air Force was unprecedented. So that again discusses how Indian Air Force was initially taken by surprise, but then they innovated and they brought about brilliant results.
Penguin Veer, 288 pages
The famous Tiger Hill which took so many sacrifices; very few of us would have heard the planning and the strategy that went to an air strike on Kargil, on the Tiger Hill in Kargil. It was the first use of precision guided munition, which is basically laser guided munitions. It was the first in Indian Air Force history to be used. And it took a lot of planning, a lot of strategizing at those altitudes to plan an attack like that. And that again was one of the major turning points, but it is very less talked about. So when it comes to sources, I'll say these three are important sources.
Then we can also look at biographies of luminaries like Anuj Nayyar's The Tiger of Drass. Then there is Major Sudhir Walia, who also had an important role at the latter end of the Kargil operation.
You had personal interviews, first-hand interviews, in addition to all of these other sources that were available to you, partly because you are part of the AFMC. Is that right?
Dr Sengupta: I think most of the sources are available online. It's not that we had access to something which others did not. There is enough literature available, but some tidbits which are not adequately highlighted that we come came across. For example, document 'Airpower at 18,000 feet' mentioned Squadron Leader Perumal, who was actually the first air casualty in the war, his plane was shot down. But the interesting part is it happened five days before actually war was declared. It was a top-secret operation where he was doing a reconnaissance mission very near to the Pakistan border so his plane was shot down, and it was kept secret for seven long years, and then he was given recognition. So in Indian Air Force history, it is said to be the only time where a pilot after being hit by an enemy missile, was able to come back after traversing 100-150 kilometers, which is a significant amount considering the kind of hit which he had taken.
If you were to share one anecdote from your Kargil chapter, which one would you pick?
Dr Dhawan: Squadron Leader Perumal that Sagnik talked about, that's a very interesting story about how he was actually able to land his aircraft back even after being hit.
There were two stories also from the Air Force which were particularly interesting to me: those of Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa as well as Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja - how basically, when they were flying, they were captured by the Pakistani Air Force and how they ended up being in enemy territory and they were taken prisoners of war.
Their planes were shot down, right?
Yes, the planes were shot down. They basically ended up in enemy territory. Flight Lt Nachiketa eventually was repatriated towards the end of the Kargil War. These are stories which you don't hear about as much, so we thought that through the medium of this book, that is something that we could shed light on.
There are lots of stories within the Kargil War. A lot of them have been immortalized in film and other popular culture. But there were these few interesting stories which we came across largely through Sagnik's very dedicated research work that we thought needed to be brought out to a wider audience. And we thought this was the way to do it.
These two stories were particularly interesting to me because I had only heard of them in passing. Being interested in history, having been to a military college, even then, these (Flight Lieutenant Nachiketa and Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja) were not names that all of us were instantly familiar with. So doing the research of the book, we also were able to learn a lot.
Would you like to take the next one, Dr Gupta?
So as you can see from my white head, probably I was the only one who was serving while the Kargil War was on. I guess one or two of them were not even born at that point of time. But it was a very, very momentous event for all of us who were in uniform at that point of time.
One of the things that probably has not been highlighted is the amount of work that the support arms provided. For example, we are all doctors and the Kargil War had a spectacularly low rate of mortality. In fact, it is estimated that less than 4 percent of the people who made it to any medical facility or any medical station, even at the front, eventually succumbed to their injuries.
We continued to treat these people through the war. And many of them underwent months and months, in fact years, of rehabilitation in larger hospitals across the country, whether it's Chandigarh or Udhampur or Srinagar, and later on in Pune specifically, where a lot of these young men were brought in.
Having served with them, in the hospital wards and things like that, it was just special to see the amount of enthusiasm that they had for life. Many of them were maimed for life; they had a limb missing or they had injuries that would eventually result in them being boarded out of the Armed Forces, but their spirits were spectacularly great. So there are similar stories for other branches which were there for providing the logistical support, the food, the rations and every other support fuel and other such things which are required to fight a war. So many, many untold stories.
Dr Gupta, you lived through the war, you were actually serving at the time. The Kargil War was the first time that India and Pakistan faced off after they both tested their nuclear weapons. What was it like? What is it that we today don't really understand about living through a war like that, or that maybe 25 years after the war we need to be reminded of?
One of the things that we felt was for a lot of Indians, it was the first Indian war on television. There were daily briefings by the Armed Forces personnel. Globally, I think the first war that was a televised war, so to say, was the 1991 Operation Desert Storm in which the Americans were attacking Iraq. But for India, this was a war that was essentially fought on television. The role of the media in terms of mobilizing national support, in terms of mobilizing the popular narrative and ensuring that the entire nation was standing behind the army and the Armed Forces was much more.
It was probably the first war that came to people's bedrooms because in the past, all wars were fought in a manner that you got to know news only on the radio or maybe in the next day's newspaper. But this was literally live telecast happening at a point of time where it was literally, people could follow what was happening on a day-to-day basis. Now, whether that was desirable or not is something that the powers that be had to look into later. But I guess that was something which brought it to life for more people than anything else. So it was a very unique war.
The fact that two declared nuclear powers were fighting this war also meant that the whole world was more interested in it than they were ever before. So the escalation and the subsequent de -scalation also happened very rapidly because people knew that it could just escalate into something very, very dangerous for the whole world. And as things came out later on that there were powers beyond the subcontinent who had to eventually get involved in order to defuse the whole crisis and to get sort of a resolution to the whole affair.
Dr Sengupta, would you like to add to that?
Before that, you were asking about AFMC having better access to sources and to these stories. All of us sitting here were undergraduates (at AFMC) and had Sir (Dr Gupta) as our teacher right from the time when we stepped into college and there was not only one but multiple such stalwarts who were teaching us and had anecdotes to share about how we may better manage battle casualties or how they managed a certain issue right in the field. And these sorts of stories fuelled our desire, among those who were curious, to go back and read. So like Sagnik, like Dr Sarkar said, everyone has the access to the resources that he spoke about at length. However, when we have these anecdotes (told at college), that is when we started researching with a fervent desire.
However, all of these things, they stayed in the attic of our mind without us sort of stacking it into chronology or creating a nice story out of it. However, when we embarked on this adventure of getting this book out, that's when we had to collate everything, try to make a chronological order out of it, try to make it interesting yet precise. And this time we've also introduced crosswords into the whole mix. And we've made these crosswords about Param Veer Chakra, the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy. We have also tried to speak more about how the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force were also very instrumental in each conflict, each war, each sacrifice. The equipment, especially of the Indian Air Force and the Navy, are very less understood.
You spoke about how anecdotes sort of sparked your curiosity. Could you share your favorite one from the book?
Dr Sagnik: You mentioned anecdotes that sparked our curiosity and desire to research more at college: One of our seniors in college, his father was a professor: If you Google Arun Basu, you will see that he won the Youth Seva medal. So in the Kargil War, doctors got three medals, only one Youth Seva medal was given and two other Sena medals were given. We had a family member of one of them studying with us. These cross-connections clicked when we started researching, and we realized that, oh, it is so close to us and it affects us.
Another point that I'd like to make, Sir was talking about the role of media. So we hear the word tri-service synergy a lot nowadays and the role of integration coming up in the Indian Armed Forces. Kargil was one of the best examples of integration which happened in the media atmosphere.
Many of us must have heard this ADGPI on Instagram or on Twitter. It's Indian Army's Indian Army's channel which makes some brilliant videos infographics. Few people would know the full form of ADGPI which is actually a position additional directory general of public information. ADGPI came up big time in '99 before Kargil and they systematically integrated this information. Basically it's called information warfare, where we try to bring sympathy to our cause by bringing people's facts and bringing the news of the world to the people's eyes and create sympathy accordingly.
So not only Army, civilian help was also taken. There was a certain Captain Manvendra Singh, he was part of that Army battalion and he's a columnist and media commentator as well. This ALC and ADGPI experience was also analyzed by the Pakistanis.
In 2002, Pakistani intelligence actually did a review of what went wrong in Kargil, why Pakistani TV couldn't do what the Indians did.
Pakistan refused to accept that the soldiers who were fighting in Kargil were their own, which was a huge morale defuser for the soldiers fighting. That was something that we very well put out across the world, that this is an army which is not recognizing its own casualties.
Lastly, I want to bring up the role of soldiers from the Northeast. When we see movies on Kargil, many Kargil heroes have deservedly gotten their recognition. We have heard of Captain Batra and his 'Dil Mange More' call (after capturing Point 5140). But very few people know that there were stalwarts like Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse who was awarded the Mahavir Chakra. He sacrificed his life in the battlefield, (he was) from Nagaland.
We had Sonam Wangchuk, who earned the moniker Lion of Ladakh and the Maha Vir Chakra.
Then there was Captain Jintu Gogoi from Assam who was awarded the Vir Chakra (he died on June 30, 1999, soon after his engagement).
These stories need to be talked about, and they need to be popularized in the mainstream.
There's one more thing that I'd like to mention: in war, we always imagine that, as we've seen movies, the jingoism and the enmity that creeps up. One would be curious to know that even during war, enemy DGMO - DGMO is the Director General of Military Operation, a position in the Army headquarters - the DGMO line between India and Pakistan was open. So despite being on war with each other for over two months, they would talk to each other every Tuesday to try to defuse and try to de-escalate or trying to have a channel. So these grey areas keep on manifesting themselves during the war.
BSF in the Kargil War (Image credit PRO BSF Delhi via Wikimedia Commons 4.0)
Dr Sengupta, do you have a favourite anecdote?
Brigadier MPS Bajwa was commanding a brigade during the Kargil War which was actively fighting in the Drass sector. Here what happened is, there was a Captain Karnal Sher Khan from the 12th Northern Light Infantry of Pakistan - this regiment used to fight from Gilgit - which had infiltrated through that route, and Brigadier Bajwa's brigade was facing Captain Karnal Sher Khan's military outfit at this point.
Brig Bajwa was so taken with the bravery that was shown by Captain Karnal Sher Khan that later - though Captain Karnal Sher Khan gave up his life during this war because the Indian unit was able to overrun the Pakistani unit - Brigadier MPS Bajwa was so moved that he put a handwritten note in the pocket of the soldier and then repatriated the soldier's body to the Pakistani authorities. Initially the Pakistanis deferred from accepting it because they had maintained that this was not a military infiltration. When, later on, his body was repatriated and taken back to Pakistan, that is when he was awarded the Nishan-e-Haider which is the highest award for gallantry in a war setting.
Brigadier MPS Bajwa also wrote out the citation for Yogendra Yadav, who was awarded the Param Veer Chakra. He is one of the few who are still with us today.
You have dedicated the book to Kargil War veterans. Why?
Dr Sengupta: Kargil was a display of incredible combined bravery under the most trying circumstances. You cannot really pin the success of the Kargil victory on the chest of any one individual. And those who laid down their lives, those who survived, those who continue to be alive with us today, we felt that this entire book should be dedicated to each and every one of them. Those who were recognised by the award of some bravery medal or in other manners, and also those thousands who took part who did not necessarily get any medal.
They underwent incredible amount of trial and tribulations. There is no part of the world where you can fight a battle at that height. It's geographically impossible. And the kind of stress and strain that it would bring on the human body, and for thousands of them to have succeeded and to have lived through it, it is something which really needed to be celebrated as a whole and not as an individual.
We're talking in 2024, which is the 25th year anniversary of the Kargil War. What do you think is the significance of this anniversary for the Armed Forces, and for India? What is it that people should never forget?
Dr Gupta: To me there is a line which probably defines what we learnt most (succintly), which is eternal vigilance is the price that you pay for democracy. We have to be eternally vigilant, no matter how good the external situation seems. There's always a risk that we will get a nasty surprise from somewhere.
I would like, if possible, for the nation to remember that these were very young men, most of them hadn't crossed the age of 25, who laid down their lives for the rest of the nation.
And yes, it's important to remember them on Kargil Vijay Diwas or on Victory Day, but it's also important to remember that there should be a recognition of the fact that there is no price that can buy this kind of sacrifice from the from anyone. The fact that these people have laid down their lives. Many of those who survived, have got maimed for life. There should be at least a little bit of gratitude in the heart of the average person towards the sacrifice that these boys and these men in uniform made.
Dr Sagnik: As Sir was saying, eternal vigilance is something that we must do when it comes to our neighbours, and we must remember our bravehearts. When Kargil unfolded, we were probably most hopeful of our relations (with Pakistan). In February 1999, we had just signed the Lahore Declaration, and we were thinking that we are on the brink of unprecedented friendship with our neighbours. But then this unfolded.
And another point is the importance of remembering unsung voices. For example, the first news of the infiltration came from a villager in Ladakh by the name of Tashi Namgyal, without whose information probably we would never have known that an infiltration had actually started.
So voices like these, soldiers like these, contributions like these must not be forgotten, and they must not become an Instagram status or WhatsApp status. They have to be remembered in a constructive and constant way.
Dr Dhawan, would you want to respond to this question?
For a few reasons that we have just mentioned, the Kargil War was very unique. Like the fact it was fought at extremely high altitude, temperatures of about -20°C, and that it was the first televised war in India.
In spite of all of that, I think if we remember the fact that we are an extremely young country, the majority of our country's population was either not alive during the Kargil War or were too young to remember.
So 25 years later, we're at a point where people know about the Kargil War, that there was something like this, which was fought at very high altitude under very different conditions. But there's not a lot in public consciousness.
In fact, the Kargil War was probably some of my earliest memories. I remember I was only 5 years old at that time and I have a few recollections of the time during the war and but after that, people don't really remember what things were like during the war. So this (Kargil chapter) was just an effort from us to sort of bring that back into public consciousness.
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