I go with Musharraf! It is impossible to believe that Nawaz Sharif was not in the know in the operation, at best it would not have had his open approval! As Musharraf said, if the PM was not the know what his Army Chief was doing then he doesn't deserve to rule the nation! If Vajpayee played it to Nawaz Sharif then no one can be more ignorant! Musharraf is a tactless, adventure driven, yet a Pakistani patriot! Nawaz Sharif was clever, if the operation succeeded he would have had the all the glory on him; since it boomranged he is blaming Musharraf! Musharaf is a fine soldier and Nawaz Sharif a shrewd politician!
Indira Gandhi didn't make any of these goof-ups; she won a major war decisively for the country and Vajpayee had to sweat it out to pushback the enemy soldiers even that amidst controversies by forcing the then Army chief VP Malik to expedite even at the cost of losing a few youngmen not beyond their mid-thirties! Nothing proud to write home about.
RE:It's a mistake!
by Harish Gurumoorthy on Jun 28, 2007 09:59 AM Permalink
Musharraf is a fine soldier? Now that's news to us. Pray tell us which operation supervised by him was ever a success? Of course, please do not include domestic conquests such as the massacre of Gilgitis or the 1999 coup.
RE:It's a mistake!
by Kabeer on Jun 29, 2007 01:35 PM Permalink
Born and raised in a lower middle or a middle class family from an immigrant family he rose to the position of a Army Chief in a Punjabi dominated army; he might not be the best of the Army chiefs of Pakistan but he was a part of the SSG the elite wing of Pakistani Army. Despite being a Mohajir he had the guts to take on his Prime Minister when his predecessor Jahangir Karamat cowed down to Nawaz despite having his community's-the Pakistani elite Punjabi- support. Against this background, when the midair crisis broke Musharraf had just a few minutes time to take a decision and flatly refused the safer option of landing in the 'Enemy" country to the tougher option of being jailed for life in his country. Look at from Pakistani perspective. If a sililar thing happened in India how do you rate an Indian soldier opting to take safe refufe in Pakistan? He wouldn't have made it had he not been a fine soldier.Even at this age when he is mostly out of uniform, you can test his math ability.
RE:It's a mistake!
by Harish Gurumoorthy on Jul 02, 2007 11:34 AM Permalink
Yaar Kabeer, a soldier's bravery is tested against another soldier's in a battlefield, not against a politician on home turf. As for taking on Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf wasn't the first army man taking on politicians in Pakistan, he had a precedent to back him.
And please do not compare apples and oranges. The situation in India is entirely different from that of Pakistan. In India, politicians may mismanage a lot of things, but the Army has a fair degree of freedom, but never does the Army poke its nose into the political affairs.
