Kargil War, 9/11 Mumbai Terror Attack: Look Back

Salute to the War Heroes

Social media was abuzz with Kargil Vijay Diwas. On 26th July, 1999, India successfully took command of the high outposts which had been lost to Pakistan. The Kargil war was fought for more than 60 days that resulted in the loss of life on both sides.

Naik Deepchand, who went
to Kargil in 1999as a strapping 
six feet tall, returned without
both legs and a hand

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on 26 July every year in honour of the the Kargil War Heroes. We salute the martyrs and to our brave soldiers for their supreme sacrifice for the nation!

Kargil war saw India witnessing two major technologies:

1. Communicating from remote and inaccessible areas via Iridium handheld phone which works through a network of low space orbiting satellites owned and operated by a Canadian firm.

2. The luxury of live broadcast journalism in Indian television facilitating uplinking of signals directly to the satellite from any remote locations thus, making the content publicly available for viewing.

These two major technologies kept citizens glued to their television sets while many broadcast journalists turned out overnight heroes for broadcasting live from the battle field.

What did we learn from the Kargil war?

1. Broadcasting live from the battlefield and forward posts gave an advantage to our opponent since they were also closely monitoring such live feeds from the Indian TV satellite channels.

2. Victory for the Indian Army which could had been

   

   Iridium handheld phone

   achieved much earlier, was only getting stretched since strategic changes had to be done frequently due to the leaked information in live broadcast and voiceover reports through Iridium handheld phones. Pakistan army was having a ball-of-a-time since every bit of information about Indian troops movement was freely available, courtesy: Indian televisions.

3. Many would recall an episode where two young Indian army commissioned officers were interviewed live at their bunkers in the forward post. This made work easy for Pakistan army who tracked their location next day, bombarded the bunker and killed both officers.

Had there been no live broadcast coverage, then these soldiers would have lived today.

Repeat of the same act in the 9/11 Mumbai terror attack 

Outdoor Broadcast Van:
Representational Image 

In 2008 heavily armed Pakistan-based terrorists sneaked into India’s financial capital in a trawler boat, causing mayhem that left more than 166 civilians and armed forces dead. Here too, the courtesy of our Indian live broadcast television proved to be aiding the terrorists.

File Photo: Taj Mumbai 

Hotel Terror Attack

Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the Taj Hotel, infamous for killing scores of people was continuously receiving instructions and feedback in his mobile phone by his handlers based out of Pakistan soil as they were also tuned to the same Indian TV satellite channels.

It is strongly argued that had there were no live broadcast, then the casualties may had been much less though.

So where did we go wrong? 

There are several opinions and observations on both the Kargil war as well as the 9/11 Mumbai terror attack. 

During the Kargil conflict, it was the government of India seeking publicity which allowed live broadcasts coverage by news channels.There is no way that the broadcasting crew could have ever reached such places with their heavy equipments without being vetted by the ministry of defence.

Nor could they have ever got onboard a Mirage aircraft or reached remote places where firing was on without ministry of defence sanctioning it. 

The bottom line

It was an expensive lesson learnt in the hindsight. While blaming the journalists would be irrational, it would be prudent for the armed forces to be extremely strict in giving access for live broadcasts in such sensitive operations. 

In the light of the above, there is also a call for the Indian TV news channels to play restraint on their own and act responsibly. They should avoid the TRP game, shun away from the desire of a shortcut to the limelight or becoming an overnight hero especially in such sensitive situations. 

Jai Hind!