S.K. Sinha

Aug 08, 2010
S.K. Sinha

S.K. Sinha

Integrate & command

After Independence, joint committees were set up ensuring the supremacy of the civil over the military and quick decision-making with due participation of the military. Over the years all these committees have been wound up and a bureaucratic stranglehold established, marginalising the defence services from decision-making on defence matters. There has been no attempt to rationalise the higher defence organisation, not even after the great debacle of 1962 following which Jawaharlal Nehru died a broken man in 1964. Nehru’s defence minister Krishna Menon, Army Chief Gen.

A new command

The three Service Chiefs are reported to have pitched for greater say in decision-making on national security matters. For the first time they have taken a united stand on this vital issue. However, their proposal to have military officers posted as joint secretaries and directors in the ministry of defence is only tinkering with a most irrational higher defence organisation in the world, which has developed in India.

Misguided feelings

The recent unfortunate statement of a distinguished Supreme Court lawyer urging plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir ignores both history and present ground realities. From time immemorial, Kashmir has been an integral part of India. The city of Srinagar was founded by emperor Ashok. Kashmiris are by no standard a separate nation.
The Indian Independence Act of 1947, passed by the British Parliament, provided for Muslim majority provinces to go to Pakistan and the rest to remain in India.

Calibrating a security strategy

Strategy must keep pace with the changing international and internal security scenarios. National strategy is based on a tripod of economic, diplomatic and military power.

Kashmir ’47: How the day was won

All our combat units around Delhi had their sub units widely deployed for internal security duties. I had accompanied Gen.

Kashmir 1947: A war remembered

October 27, 1947 is a landmark date in the history of the Indian Army and of our nation. On that date the nation faced a grave challenge. The Army was given the task of rescuing the people of Kashmir. Against all odds, we succeeded in our mission. This sketch covers the backdrop of the first war that we fought after Independence and the events of the first 10 days of that war.

Someone blundered: Ours to reason why

George Tanham, the American security analyst, stated that Indians had no strategic doctrine and formulated strategy on ad hoc basis. I regretfully accept that he was not far wrong. However, recent events show that despite all its security think tanks and vast resources, the United States has not done much better in dealing with Islamic fundamentalism.

New India’s fast fiesta

Political leaders communicate with people in various ways. In Britain, constituencies being small, candidates campaign house to house.

General conduct

General V.K. Singh is an officer of high repute. I have interacted with him when he was a major general in Kashmir and have great regard for him. Documentary evidence of his date of birth fully supports his claim. Year after year the annual List issued by the military secretary’s office for nearly three decades and more and readily available to all officers, unlike the adjutant-general’s Branch Record, showed the wrong date.

No, minister

The architect of our Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, warned, “Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul but, in politics, bhakti or hero worship is a sure road to degeneration and eventual dictatorship.” Jawaharlal Nehru, in an anonymous letter in the early Thirties published in the Modern Review, made a scathing criticism of himself.

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.

Horoscope