Former Indian Army chief General (r) VP Malik has slammed political leadership for not involving army in decision making on nation’s security, saying “lack of trust” between the civil-military officials was affecting strategic policies.
He said that the decision making process in India was “fractured”, which leaves out many stake holders associated with the issue.
“Services chiefs were not informed about the nuclear tests until just two days prior to the big day even though the armed forces are meant to be the user in the event of a nuclear war,” Malik said.
Similarly, the armed forces were also unaware that India had manufactured chemical weapons until it had destroyed its stock following the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention, he said.
“The fact which bothers an Indian soldier is the absence of his voice in critical decision making,” he said.
Malik was speaking at the launch of his new book “India’s Military Conflicts and Diplomacy: An Inside View of Decision Making”. He stressed that armed forces must be involved in all decision making processes with which they are associated.
“Political leadership never involved the military leadership, which resulted in flawed decisions in many times,” the former army chief said.
Malik’s book talks about some strategic events in which he was personally involved during his long service in the Indian Army. He said that the army was not kept in the loop when the decision to send the troops to Sri Lanka was taken.
Malik also raised questions over the “suspicion of the political leadership” while involving the military leadership in decision-making process.
Malik said this “lack of trust and mutual understanding between the civil-military official is affecting the strategic policy”. He stressed on the need for the inclusive decision making for the interest of the nation.
It was always the bureaucracy in the ministry of defence (MoD) which decides everything which is resulting in the little involvement of the Armed forces leadership in higher defence management and policy planning, Malik said.
He said the leadership should understand the need of the forces and criticised the attitude of the politicians for not giving the “due respect” to the martyrs of the Sri Lanka operation.
