J&K floods: We must applaud our Army

Just a few days ago, Aljazeera.com carried a piece titled "Indian government turns Kashmir disaster into PR stunt," which can be summed up in this one sentence from the article: "The Indian Army, which has otherwise wreaked havoc in the region, is attempting to seize the stage as the saviours of the Kashmiri people." But let the dogs bark. And let's hear it for the Indian Army now.

They are supposed to be there, right, when we need them? We expect them to appear out of nowhere and fix stuff we have proved too incompetent or corrupt to do/ complete/ achieve. It's not only about the Kashmir floods, but every natural disaster that has struck India in the last many years, from Uttarakhand to the village on the outskirts of Pune.

Infrastructure

And why only natural disasters? Who got the infrastructure ready in time for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, after all the organisers had obscenely bloated their pockets and days before the event, and suddenly realised that nothing was ready?

The Army was called in to do massive civil works against impossible deadlines and we were saved from worldwide embarrassment. Did we pay any attention? Does anyone know which regiment, battalion, corps they came from, these men who worked silently, did their job and went back to their barracks?

We have something called a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). We also had, I suppose, a civil administration in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. But, it's the Army we turned to. And for good reason.

Some weeks ago, I was talking to a retired soldier friend of mine about our defence forces being the last resort in the case of natural calamities. His answer was revealing. "The first and last resort," he said.

The police, quite simply, don't have the capabilities to handle such situations, and the NDMA has concentrated on building a lot of knowledge (which has been, of course, of invaluable help to the lakhs of people in Kashmir who have lost everything) but has been unable to build any ground-level capability that makes a difference. In fact, what is little known is that the Indian Army has had capacities built in for disaster management.

In every part of the country, wherever there is a cantonment, there is a secondary sub-division geared up to liaise with the local administration. For example, if there is a major crisis in Delhi, there are two battalions primed to move into action.

In fact, in Delhi (or Kolkata or Chennai), there are local sub-divisions who are trained to take care of specific areas. Strangely, the NDMA has never taken cognisance of this, building its own Disaster Management Response Force (DMRF), mainly composed of paramilitary forces, who are not specifically trained for disaster relief.

In every Indian Army outpost, the Corps of Engineers have stores earmarked for flood relief. Water levels are monitored, and equipment kept ready. When the water level rises beyond a certain point, the stores are shifted to strategic locations. So when the alert goes off, everything is in place, it's just a question of moving the troops. And Indian troops can move very fast.

Relief

Every part of the country has been mapped by the Army: area, sub-area, down to the block level, and the chain is command is constantly upgraded and fine-tuned. The moment there is a crisis, soldiers can be moved swiftly.

Disaster management is a duty that is built into the Army fabric. Few would know that there is an ONGC territorial battalion based in Vadodara, whose responsibilities include managing calamities in oil exploration and drilling sites.

Now, what no one in the media has written about. To help the Kashmir flood victims, frontline troops were pulled in. All normal operations more or less came to a halt. The 15 Corps headquartered in the Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar has been completely focused on the relief operations. They have to be, because there seems to be no one else around.

The other thing no one is talking about. There are also more than a hundred locations in the Valley where Indian troops were marooned. Their rations were running out. Their supplies were late. And they are our most vital resources against terrorist intruders. They need food, they need diesel and kerosene.

Cynicism

We journalists are cynical people. We rarely think it's worth our while to salute someone. But today, it is time to salute that unknown soldier who's working without rest, for days and days, rescuing people, saving them from starvation and death. It is time to salute those unnamed soldiers who formed a human bridge across a roaring stream so that villagers could walk over their backs and reach the other side, to safety. They will not be getting any medals. It's part of their job, and they never think any way differently from that. They are our protectors.

Let me end this column with some really wishful thinking. The floods will recede. Let us hope that after the waters go down, at least some people in the Valley who have nurtured their grievances for so long, will look at the "occupying forces" of the Indian State in a different light, at least for some time. For some time at least.

And let us hope the relief packages that have been announced reach the people who need it, that it is not gobbled up, digested and belched out by all the men in the middle, on the way between the cheque and the victim. This must be the Modi government's and the Omar Abdullah government's overriding priority. There cannot be any compromise on this.

For, otherwise, all the heroism, all the sacrifices, all that our brave protectors have done will have been in vain.