10-31-2004, 03:37 AM
Bob had a question on the military front: do we have a military strategy? If not, should we develop it, should we articulate it? We do talk a lot about what strategy we have and the way we have developed it, but people donât pay any attention, and then they accuse us of being ambiguous. <b>As far as military strategy is concerned, the Indian armed forces are structured for a defensive role to ensure the territorial integrity.</b>
Now Mr. Narasimha Rao, in the portion which S.K. read, did no justice to himself. <span style='color:purple'>What he was trying to say was this: at this stage of our national development and in the role that we see for ourselves in the world, we are in a defensive mode. That we have been in a defensive mode for the last thousand years and that this has not been successful at times is a separate issue that one can debate. But if you are in a defensive mode, the resources that you put into military organization are infinitesimally less than if you are interested in power projection.</span>
I have talked to Mr. Narasimha Rao many times on this subject, and he said, "<span style='color:blue'>Admiral, there must be power to project, you must have social power, you must have economic power, you must have military power." So long as we donât have that, talk of power projection is baloney.</span> So the military strategy has been quite clear to the military leaders, and I have been part of that organization for 39 years. I was never in any doubt as to what was expected of me.
Now Mr. Narasimha Rao, in the portion which S.K. read, did no justice to himself. <span style='color:purple'>What he was trying to say was this: at this stage of our national development and in the role that we see for ourselves in the world, we are in a defensive mode. That we have been in a defensive mode for the last thousand years and that this has not been successful at times is a separate issue that one can debate. But if you are in a defensive mode, the resources that you put into military organization are infinitesimally less than if you are interested in power projection.</span>
I have talked to Mr. Narasimha Rao many times on this subject, and he said, "<span style='color:blue'>Admiral, there must be power to project, you must have social power, you must have economic power, you must have military power." So long as we donât have that, talk of power projection is baloney.</span> So the military strategy has been quite clear to the military leaders, and I have been part of that organization for 39 years. I was never in any doubt as to what was expected of me.