Lack of clarity about the role of Chief of Defence Staff and bellicose talk by politicians are not reassuring | The Indian Express

Lack of clarity about the role of Chief of Defence Staff and bellicose talk by politicians are not reassuring | The Indian Express

Written by Arun Prakash |New Delhi |Updated: October 17, 2019 9:41:36 am

The writer is a retired chief of naval staff.

Lack of clarity about the role of Chief of Defence Staff and bellicose talk by politicians are not reassuring

The past five years have seen the last vestiges of the Nehruvian legacy being progressively swept away. Conclusive proof of this came when the present government ordered retaliatory raids, in peace time, on Pakistani soil.

(Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

Strategic culture is said to have a significant impact on national security and state behaviour. In 1992, RAND Corporation analyst, George Tanham had pronounced that a combination of “lofty Hindu philosophy and a fatalistic outlook” had prevented the development of a strategic culture in India, and that “… Indian elites showed little evidence of having systematically thought about national strategy”.