Editor's Note The much-publicised discussion/debate/ dialogue was held on 21 Aug 23. The 110-minute video recording of this event was made available by ORF on 25 Aug 23. MVI circulated it to all its readers and invited responses from its esteemed Veterans. The responses received are published below to give the overall impression, perception and feelings of Veterans on this much-hyped subject of 'Theatre Commands’ that has been at the centre stage of the military world and occupied national media space/ time for a long time. There were high expectations for better / more clarity of the subject ..read more

General Observation of Conduct of Discussion 1.     When I saw the video of the conference and decided to pen my views, I found it difficult to collate it as a single piece. Hence, I had to see/hear the video thrice more to record the views of each speaker and then offer my comments. 2. Holding a discussion on Theatre Commands is three years too late. 3. The cardinal precept to be observed by any professional moderator, was violated with the use of disparaging words for IAF while inviting views of IAF officers. The time allocation to each service was biased, perhaps deliberately? 4 ..read more

Editor's Note                           Ref. article by Sushant Singh on the Agnipath Scheme published by The Indian Forum on 13 July 2022. Comprehensive comments of Gp Capt TP Srivastava are placed below each para and Comments are underlined. The original article of Gp Capt TP Srivastava carrying the original Sixth Pay Commission report is at the end of his comments. The Message from Agnipath: India Can’t Afford the Military it Needs The signals that the Agnipath scheme sends to India’s adversaries is that under the current di ..read more

"On the Western Front in the first eight months of 1916, Germany / France / Britain lost a staggering 2.2 million men.  At Somme on 01 Jul 1916, Britain suffered more than 57000 dead in just one day." " Introspection and critical reviews in Britain exposed unjustified human loss; flawed tactics, callous military leadership supported by greedy unconcerned politicians and a disconnected citizenry. And most of all the public was mute. Like the Indian public has been for years? Every British / French / German has been fatally impacted by their many wars, which is not the case with us Indians ..read more

Being a military man, it’s indeed a matter of great pride to boast in an after-retirement talk, of being part of what was almost a war, or a chaotic internal security situation, during your service. But, sometimes many of us haven’t even seen a military skirmish. Yet our Generals like to feel important by stating and talking of an inevitable war. The adage goes like this … ‘HISTORY HAS BEEN WITNESS THAT WAR IS INEVITABLE. THE HUMAN RACE IS BOUND TO RAISE CONFLICT, ON MATTERS CONNECTED TO LAND, IDEOLOGY, AND NEED’. In the Indian context to call a two-front war waiting to happen is not only pess ..read more

Editor's Note Reference article on ' India's Two Front War 'by Gen Manoj Naravane, former COAS, published by The Print on 7 Aug 2023. Gp Capt TP Srivastava has promptly responded to this article with his para-wise comments in bold on the article. The entire article and comments are published below. The link to Gp Capt TP Srivastava's earlier article on the subject is also given at the end. Editor, MVI India faces unique challenges due to its inimical nuclear-armed neighbours, Pakistan on the western border and China on the northern border. India has fought wars with both countries, and the thr ..read more

Editor's Note Parth Satam's article titled ' NDA faces unprecedented burnout ' was published by Asia Times on 1 Jan 2018. The article has several supportive responses from senior military veterans who themselves are NDA alumni and also served as instructors in NDA or other military academies. Some have also served in SSBs and are well aware of the officer selection system. Two high-ranking veterans, Admiral Arun Prakash and Air Mshl Raj Kumar have been Comdt and Dy Comdt respectively at NDA. Hence, this piece by Parth Satam has been adequately validated for the contents that are well-backed wi ..read more

1. The subject of readjusting forces under different 'umbrellas' keeps happening with changing scenarios and threats. The strong objection from mostly army veterans to the Theatre concept is understandable because of many reasons. One, there is this feeling that "Why did I not think of it". Second, "what a waste of time & effort"? Third, "Why change it when it is working ok now?" There are many more such points and arguments. The objectors have tremendous exposure to force levels, planning, threat assessment, the ability to do battle, and so on. It is also true that many veterans object no ..read more

Editor's Note A PIB release on Jun 18, 2023, re-triggered the dormant Theatre Command debate amongst a few keen military veterans. This debate now hovers around the creation of three new theatre commands: First - Integrated Theatre Command (ITC) at Jaipur by Aug 23 for Pakistan threat, Second ITC at Lucknow for the entire   China border, Third - Maritime Theatre Command (MTC) at Karwar Naval Base in Karnataka. Besides the two ITCs and one MTC, the Govt is creating additional commands, such as - Cyber, Space, Intelligence, Missiles, Drones, National Defence University (NDU) and Logistics C ..read more

Let me be very frank - there is a need to look below the surface. What we see is not the real cause of the Manipur issue —ethnic violence, rapes, riots, histography and politics are now secondary issues. The ethnic conflict had laid the foundation; the Indian constitution complicated it by outright discrimination of one tribe (Meitei); politicians repeatedly exploited it. Thus, the stage was set for outside intervention. And repeated central Govts failed to resolve the ethnic conflict. It now needs some harsh decisions to arrest the situation. Believe it or not, it is China’s OUTSOURCED WAR O ..read more