ISLAMABAD: A former Indian army general has said that army had created a suitable environment to resolve the long-pending Kashmir issue, but the elected governments of the country “failed to find any solution to it”.
According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), Lt Gen (r) H S Panag, who was posted as General Officer Commanding of the Indian army’s Northern Command, Udhampur in Kashmir, wrote in The Print that the “unpopular coalition government could not provide the healing touch in Jammu and Kashmir”.
“The current situation in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the valley, is a classic example of our dithering political strategy,” Panag said in his column.
Constructing his argument over the resolution of Kashmir issue, he said the Indian army had created an enabling environment for politics to take the centre stage and resolve the problem. “Politics did come to the fore, but instead of a solution, we saw the revival of insurgency.”
Quoting military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, who said that “war is not a performance of senseless passion, but is controlled by political objective”, the former general said it was equally true for an insurgency.
He also said that once a conducive environment has been created, politics must take the centre stage and the military must fade into the background.