Cover Story
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Limits of Goodwill
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Operation Sadbhavana is an investment with limited returns |
The army-IAF personnel providing relief to civilians during the Kashmir earthquake
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Pravin Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab
The year 2011 was to have been the crowning glory of Indian Army’s low intensity conflict (LIC) management strategy and its integral component, winning the hearts and minds (WHAM) of the local people, in this case the Kashmiris. With the appointment of Lt Gen. Ata Hasnain as General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps in December 2011, it appeared that a new experiment in LIC management was underway; an experiment in which the people would not be taken as antagonists, but protagonists who would usher in a new era of peace in partnership with the Indian Army. To show that the army meant business, Gen. Hasnain declared 2011 as the year of the ‘awaam’ (people), for good measure. |
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An old slogan, coined during Lt Gen. Nirbhay Sharma’s tenure as Corps Commander 15 Corps, ‘Jawan aur Awaam, Aman Hai Muqaam’ (Both soldiers and civilians desire peace) was tweaked to ‘Awaam aur Jawan’ thereby giving precedence to the civilians. Army personnel were urged to reorient themselves, improve their interface with the civilians and generally ensure that the velvet glove that covered the iron fist was thicker than before.
Stringing these ideas together was the overarching but simple sounding eponymous programme called ‘Jee Janab’, which essentially married the cultural sensitivities of Kashmiri people to operational requirements of the army. Talking to FORCE in April 2011 (FORCE, May 2011 issue), Lt Gen. Hasnain, an old Kashmiri hand with several tenures in the Valley, explained the concept of Jee Janab. He said, “We realised now for the first time that it is not possible to exercise soft power without understanding the culture, religion and sensitivities of the people... Jee Janab signifies, simply put, the Kashmiri tradition of tehzeeb (polite mannerism)... it has been reiterated time and again that, our body language, conduct and mannerism, should be respectful in keeping with the traditions of the people. The tehzeeb must be maintained at all times. This however, does not mean that we have abandoned the hard power. We are still applying the hard power where it is required; the difference is that this time, the soft power is being exponentially exploited as a force multiplier to the hard elements of power...”
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