Four Horsemen: A General, A Terrorist, A Spymaster, A Naxalite

Is formal education in top universities prerogative for hitting pinnacle in chosen field ? Maybe yes, but not necessarily . We seldom hear IIT/IIM alumni starting something like Fortune 500 companies. Once ISRO chairman remarked that his top engineers are from ordinary colleges, not IIT/MIT. Maybe they are brilliant minds but not game changers. RGV film director said he never learnt film making in traditional way. One camera man working for him during his first film was astonished by his level of clarity and depth of subject despite being total novice. However I have little knowledge on general subjects but nevertheless enjoyed military history and global conflict from entertainment perspective.

Reading on some of these characters revealed that these were nobody with no formal education. But they made their mark in their chosen field. Iam not glorifying them nor i say they are good people , kind hearted, noble men. In war, only one things counts: “Victory”. Nothing else matters. (Perhaps , Being still alive is another that counts ). I have listed four of them. There could be million others. But I confess, i don’t know any of them. If you know, please tell me in comments.

The four are  Gen Giap (Vo Nguyen Giap), Pottu amman, Amrullah saleh, and Tech Madhu

1. Gen Giap, was nicknamed as Red napoleon &  was self taught Vietnamese soldier with no military training yet gained his place in pantheon of greatest military generals. He converted rag tag gang of rebels into fighting force that defeated French and USA (Most popular image of Americans fleeing in chopper from terrace of embassy). Americans frustrated fighting against his army must have bombed million bombs in two weeks, poured tons of brutal Agent Orange which burnt entire forests to flush rebels. He brilliantly countered hitech american weapons with simple jugads, determination, personal charisma and built whole new cities under the ground from where warfare was effectively carried out. ( Google to know more about these ratlines & underground cities)

2.  Pottu Amman was Intelligence chief of LTTE, the dreaded tamil rebel group of sri lanka , the only militant group that had functional army, navy and airforce. This guy was considered as idiot as student , introvert and paranoid as youth. But these very qualities made him most effective & dangerous intelligence chief in this region. Academic brilliance is never prerequsite to run intel-agency. Lateral thinking is. Always eager to learn, he procured training manuals across the world and localized the lessons to suit local conditions. He was so effective that no one knew how he looked. For decades, intelligence agencies tried to get his photo but in vain (Reminds me cold war East german intel head “Marcus Wolf- known as Man without a face, who made America and its allies run for money, Wiki him friends). Under him , two Prime ministers of two nations (Sri lanka and India ) were assassinated, checkmated Indian army (IPKF), converted LTTE into massive military machine. 

3. Amerllah saleh though born in poor family in Afghanistan rose in ranks to become Spy master of Afghan intelligence. His network so effective that he was 1^st to state that Osama bin laden was in Pakistan much before US Navy seals took him out in abbotabad, Pakistan. As young guy he impressed his USA CIA trainers with his hard work and enthusiasm to learn beyond syllabus. One of his famous lines that I read “ Sure & if they kill me, I have told my family & friends not to complain about anything coz I ve killed many of them with pride, so iam very legitimate target when I stand against them”

Recently I was listening to interview of Tech Madhu. Like any of Naxalite, he is known by many names but popularly known as Tech Madhu. Born in poor family, he had intense desire to become engineer. After 10^th , he joined industries as helper, picked up trade, always curious how machines worked. He worked more for knowledge than money. Maoists lured him into their organization by appealing to his thirst for knowledge. (he was promised he could become engineer within their ranks. Moreever he never had money to pay for higher education). Just with 10^th class education, he procured books on weaponry, developed designs, learnt engineering through hands on and finally developed rocket launcher tech which shook nations security agencies. Ofcourse later he was arrested and now runs a small industry with 50 employees. When questioned how he developed modern machines without formal knowledge : he simply said “ I think intensely on problem for long time till the solution comes up”

One common pattern I observed that all these were born out of circumstances, War ravaged nations or perceived injustices. Born in conflict situations, they were able to leverage their natural talent by fighting against much bigger opposition. There are millions like them in different fields. Anyone you know? Lemme know?

Kargil- War on peaks

 Where soldiers from all regions(including north east), religions (including islam) backed by all other overt n shadow agencies fought most bloodiest battle in history of india. There was no religion here except Patriotism. There was no race here except Tricolour. That's Kargil conflict for you all in brief.

I specifically mentioned All Regions coz we tend to associate armed forces mostly to north India when we had martyrs from North east and south India also. All Religions again,patriotism is assumed as owned by some religions while ignoring others esp when Muslims soldiers as well died for perching flag on frozen heights.

It was not just army, but also commandos from Navy ( MARCOS) Paramilitary, intelligence (RAW-VIKAS commandos), Airforce gave their blood on snowy peaks. Again wars are fought on multiple fronts. Be at borders or in Board rooms. Other agencies like Diplomats swung world's opinion to back India; Intel agencies who were able to tap mushraff secret secured call from China to paki field commanders. That single call nailed pak's lies to world and changed America views on kargil conflict.

Loc region is always Grabbers Keepers. Musharraf plan was perfect. Occupy peaks & stay on. What he couldn't factor in was grit of jawan of Indian army. War was bloody & brutal & no holds barred. Fighting uphill, with scant resources ( only then Indians realised we lacked what we need in high level mountain warfare) was sheer mind-boggling challenge. But grit of Indian army was made more tougher than iron nails. They soon conquered the peaks. Kargil was fought led by young officers. Sacrifices of these young officers Inspired even veterans, legends were born.

After 1971 war, Pakistani POW Gen Niazi was confined in Jabalpur cantonment. Eminent journalist Kushwant Singh interviewed him & in some context asked him what's urdu inscription hung behind him. He said " Allah stands on side of truth". Kushwant Singh then said " yes, India won because India was on side of Dharma". Same applies to kargil.

What happened later was sadly Like any other major crisis incident. Review commitees set up, blame game between armed forces vs intelligence agencies vs political class while no one took blame (remember how 1971 war credit was taken by everyone).

 Kargil & 1971 war are two wars I read extensively. As kargil issue happened between May-July 1999, these memories rose in my mind & spontaneously written this post. 

KILLING FIELDS ........

KILLING FIELDS:

AC hummed as my cell phone crooned its 5 am alarm song into my ears. Another uneventful day of my uneventful  life. By 5.30, I was all fresh and dug into my daily ritual of reading The Hindu newspaper. Top to bottom. Front page to last word. The front page carried a photo of young cute wide eyed child. Underneath the photo was written the name of the boy. Balachandran Prabhakaran. The son of worlds deadliest terrorist of Sri lanka: V.Prabhakaran who introduced the concept of suicide bombing to the world.

Inside editions carried more photos of child before he was shot from point blank range in most cold blooded manner by sri lankan military forces. I wondered what might have gone through young mind of unfortunate child. He had such an innocent eyes which could haunt the killers forever.          I wondered what could be his fault?. Just being born to Prabhakaran.!! Should child suffer for sins of his parents? Just accident of his birth to Prabhakaran was his only fault and consequence was a cold blooded murder.

“Truth is the first casualty of the war”

As my emotions got calmed after sometime I introspected how in all Wars , Man forgets his basic human nature before becoming worst beast human the mind can imagine. You take any war in since the birth of mankind, pattern would be the same where soldiers of the war would commit unimaginable horrible atrocities against their enemies with no sense of humanity. 

Afghans during medieval age used to chop of heads of enemies and catapult them into opponents territories to strike fear. WW-II has stories of horror that would make your hair rise. Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland was where German Nazis killed 6 million jews in gas chambers but not before stripping them of their belongings which include even shoes,clothes,glasses anything of value during war scarcity. Hitlers nazi conducted all kinds of bizarre human experiments on helpless prisoners. I remember reading a book “Munich(iam not sure of title)” which gives graphical details of horrors commited on common german folks during last days of WW-II . 

Rape was all common weapon soldiers used against women. The reasons were obvious. There would be complete break down of law and order. There wont be anyone to punish our crimes and worst behavior. No wonder in that environment, Man becomes whatever he wants, more often than not it’s the Beast which hidden all the time emerges out and commits crimes with impunity.

 

When germany was losing the war , there was crude fear in hearts of all germans. They feared they would be raped by advancing Russian troops. Women started to sleep with any stranger as long as he was a german man. Later Russian soldiers raped german women at will irrespective of age. In Africa , insurgents of Somalia use sharp end sticks to mutilate private parts of females, chop of hands to prevent them voting.

Closer home., in 1971 war, Pakistani soldiers raped more than million women of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)  before they got defeated by Indian war. In afghanistan  Abu gharib prisons leaked photos show how afghan prisoners were subjected to worst abuses by American soldiers . in one instance, father and son were made nude in front of each other, or a female American soldier tying a dogs leash to a prisoner. 

Where ever there is a scope of a gun, I believe there is a potential for Human Rights abuse. Gun in hand probably makes man feel like God how can snuff anyones lives with little pressure on trigger. All theatres of insurgency, anywhere in the world ,carries the same pattern. We Indians are no better. Remember how Manipur women stripped their clothes carrying banner “INDIAN ARMY-RAPE US” when it was alleged that army raped a local girl and later killing her . It’s the same in North east or Jammu and Kashmir. Infact a book “Lost opportunities by SK sinha” which speaks about insurgency in north east states that 

One of the former Chief of the Army Staff, late General BC Joshi, issued the Ten Commandments for troops employed in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and the North-east:

·    No rape.

·        

    No molestation.

·       

         No torture resulting in death or maiming.etc

Two wrongs cannot right the things. LTTE killed lankan civilians, two Prime minster (including Rajiv Gandhi) doesn’t authorize sri lankan troops massacre/ rape/ maim/ in cold blood manner.

People all ways close their eyes saying that’s these things happen to other people. Just like germans closed their eyes when jews were massacred by Nazis or shia muslims were targeted in sunni paksitan. Its time we remember the touchy poem by martin neimoller

REMEMBER?

"First They Came for the Jews"
By Pastor Niemoller

 
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.