It is time our Army changed: VP Malik

General V P Malik, who headed the Army during the Kargil war, has blamed the lack of visualisation of security threats by the then government as one of the main reasons for the 1999 conflict.

Referring to the assumption in military strategy that despite all efforts to prevent it, there may be a war, he said those who found it "irritating or doubtful, I would like to remind them of the Kargil war that broke out within two months of the prime ministers of India and Pakistan signing the Lahore Declaration with much fanfare."

This assumption, he said, was therefore "a reminder to the strategists to visualise security threats, the possibility and nature of conflict and to always remain prepared for such an eventuality."

In a foreword to a book Indian Army Vision -- 2020 authored by Brig (Retd) Gurmeet Kanwal, Malik also said that military history showed that "nations who neglect this historical determinism make themselves vulnerable to military surprise, defeat and ignominy."

Without referring to the Kargil conflict, he also said it has seldom been possible to forecast the time, place, scope, intensity and the tenor of a conflict and stressed that security plans should cater to the "complete spectrum of conflict".

Defending the Indo-US nuclear deal, the former Army chief blamed "lack of ability to generate hard power" and the tendency among politicians to "fixing each other than fixing outsiders" for the "hullabaloo" over the India-US Civil Nuclear deal.

"The ability to generate hard power, and the will and ability to make use of that, is not our strong point," Malik said, adding, "We tend to remain internalised, fixing each other than fixing outsiders. There is too much of political infighting and too little consensus."

In this context he cited the example of Indo-US nuclear which has been in the doldrums because of Left parties opposition to the deal.

Attacking the bureaucracy for lack of "knowledge and experience" on defence and military issues, the former army chief said such an approach is detrimental to the country's defence interest.

"The fact is that even after 60 years of independence, knowledge and experience of defence and military issues is lacking in most of our political leaders and civilian bureaucrats," he said.

Malik said the lack of white papers, vision documents or periodic reviews over the subject of national security is "an indication that they remain shy of committing themselves to the necessary political guidance".

He also took upon the bureaucracy over the "antiquated" Official Secrets Act" and said, "that is also the reason for the government's obsession with security and continuation with an antiquated Official Secrets Act which hinder public debate and discussions on important security-related issues."

Indian Army like most armies of the world, "is highly traditional, and therefore, very conservative in its attitude and outlook. It does not visualise and accept changes easily,"he said.

Stating that there is a need for revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), Malik said this could be done by integration of new technology into existing weapons systems and integrated C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance.)

He also called for greater emphasis on electronic and cyber warfare techniques than present and said Net Centric Warfare (NCW) as seen in Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan war will not only enhance awareness, "it reduces the time for decision-making at higher levels of command."