MISSING IN ACTION The Prisoners Who Never Came Back

 

MISSING IN ACTION

The Prisoners Who Never Came Back

Chander Suta Dogra

Harpercollins Publishers India 2020

341 Pages                   ₹ 699

 

A THOUGHT FOR THE SOLDIERS’ FAMILIES

  

When the foreword is written by no less than an erstwhile Chief of Army Staff one realises the importance of the subject at hand. One agrees with the author, though, that "that there cannot be a last word … about our missing soldiers … until they are found, dead or alive”. She ends the book on a fond hope: The unexpected may be just around the corner.

 

That last sentence could be dismissed as journalistic flourish but it is loaded with the anxieties and hopes, and fears of several families and colleagues; and yet, the 600-odd preceding pages speak of the all-pervasive apathy, with journalistic detachment. She observes that the peace accords, such as were signed, were just the beginning of those anxieties, and of helplessness of the families against a faceless organisation. To explain it away as a professional hazard is to trivialise the country’s defence itself. As she talks about soldiers “who slipped through the cracks, never to be seen again, ” she fleshes out the statistics that the governments have bandied about over the decades; where families are sacrificed at the altar of bilateralism, and for political objectives like the recognition of Bangladesh and release of  Mujibur Rahman from Pakistan’s custody. Each story featured in the book carries its own pathos … and would raise the hackles of every concerned citizen, but the book is not about those stories.

 

It is about what the government could have done but failed to do; and what it has done now – half-heartedly. It took decades of persistent and unrelenting pressure from various corners, and judicial intervention, to accept that if a man is declared “missing” he continues to be a member of the armed forces and is therefore eligible for pay and promotions along with his colleagues. While this is a kind of “relief” to the family, the equally important aspect of getting our soldiers back is yet a far cry from ought to be. The author says that India could learn from the USA and Russia about efforts for getting their missing soldiers back. For one thing, India refuses to take it up with the International Court of Justice as it would “internationalise the issue”.  But, thanks to our fractious relationship, there is no chance of an investigation-based bilateral arrangement. So, in 2007, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) created a Committee for Monitoring Missing Defence Personnel (CMMDP) with representatives from the three services, the MEA, MHA, MoD and intelligence agencies, to co-ordinate information and forward it to agencies that could act on it. The author finds that the CMMDP, being toothless, has deteriorated into an “uninspiring desk exercise” – and wonders if it was ever meant to be effective.

 

The book has just the right mix of poignancy with matter-of-factness, sensitivity without sentimentality; and, she hopes, it will start a broad-based popular debate which should help bring those anxieties and fears to a close.