Dragon Fire

Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi

‘How are we fixed militarily?’ asked Hari Dixit. The National Security Council had not left the room since convening overnight. Each time decisions were made, messages interrupted the meeting with new developments.

‘The Rajasthan and Punjab borders are in battle-ready positions, Prime Minister,’ said Chief of Army Staff, Unni Khrishnan. ‘We could move on Lahore any time you want. Fighting is still going on along the LoC. A counter-attack has begun to retake Kargil.’

‘Casualties?’

‘Not clear yet on their side. But we have more than fifty confirmed dead and about two hundred wounded so far. We have drawn up plans to create a buffer zone on the Pakistan side of the LoC, rather like the Israelis did in southern Lebanon. We’ve named it Operation Qabza-e-Zamin, or in English, Secure Ground.’

‘How would that go down at the UN and elsewhere?’ said Dixit.

‘Given what happened last night, if we went in now, we could get away with it,’ said Purie.

‘Can it be done?’ Dixit asked Khrishnan.

Khrishnan hesitated: ‘At a pinch, yes. It is high altitude and carries risk.’

‘What risk?’

‘The environment is the most hostile imaginable. Movement through the mountains is painfully slow. It takes an average of ten minutes to cover a hundred yards, five times longer than on the plains. It’s even slower with rations, ammunition, weapons, warm-weather protection and communications equipment.’

‘But it is the same for the enemy, is it not?’ said Dixit.

‘They are dug in, sir. I am not saying we cannot do it, because this is what the mountain troops are trained to do. What I am flagging up is the chances of failure and the reasons. The pathways, running along the mountain ledges, are narrow. The men have to walk in single file. If they slip and fall, it is certain death. If the enemy pins them down with machine-gun fire, there is nowhere to flee to. Once out there, each unit is often cut off without a radio link. The high-frequency VHF radios operate on line of sight, so we have to set up relay stations, visible to each other to make sure commanders can pass instructions through to the forward units. And finally there’s fatigue. The thin air saps the energy of the men.’

‘I assume each battle-front carries its own unique set of risks,’ said the Prime Minister, ‘and that Kashmir is worse than most. If we go in now we can argue our case on the international stage. Can you do it?’

‘If you accept the level of risk, sir, we can give it our best efforts.’

‘And the China border?’

‘We shouldn’t fight there, Prime Minister,’ replied Khrishnan, glancing towards Purie.

‘The Chinese have diplomatically shot themselves in the foot by breaking the Missile Technology Control Regime and nuclear proliferation agreements,’ said Purie. ‘They also have a record of backing losers. Cambodia, North Korea and Burma are not shining examples of success. We should persuade Beijing that Pakistan is only going one way and that is towards collapse.’

‘And let international sanctions do the rest of our fighting for us,’ said Dixit. ‘Is that what you’re saying? Khrishnanji, what do you think?’

‘I am not as convinced as the Foreign Minister, Prime Minister,’ said Unni Khrishnan. ‘If China launches a cross-border attack, we will have to respond. Already they have reinforced the border along the Thag La Ridge just west of Bhutan, which is where they made their first advances in the 1962 war. We now know they have sent Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines to the Andaman Sea. Two surfaced as they went through the shallow waters of the Malacca Straits and made themselves known to the satellite cameras.’

Dixit put his head in his hands. ‘What in Heaven’s name are they trying to achieve?’ he said.

‘They think they can threaten us and win, sir,’ said Khrishnan.