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Home > News > Commentary > Major General Ashok K Mehta (retd)



June 11, 2003



Pakistan: The need for smart action
'What India needs to do is to fight this proxy war on its own and not on Pakistan's terms. It is both essential and urgent that India raises the cost for Pakistan's failing jihad.'





June 4, 2003



The Lessons of Op Sarp Vinash
'It is feasible to turn the tables by terrorising the terrorist. The resources and wherewithal can be mustered but the political will and stamina is lacking.'




May 15, 2003



Lessons from the New Romans
'The Republican Guard were decimated from the air and by artillery fire. Baghdad was won from the air. The truth is, no real ground battle was fought anywhere.'




May 8, 2003



Losing the vantage point in Nepal
'Ironically it is the evergreen US-UK combine reportedly encouraged by the palace that has outpaced India in its own front yard in shaping the prescriptive advice for Nepal.'




April 25, 2003



The need for robust Special Forces
'Ongoing studies of Operation Parakram and Operation Iraqi Freedom would have established the urgency of augmenting and employing clandestine forces to raise the cost of Pakistan waging proxy war.'.'




April 10, 2003



Full marks to Tommy Franks
'The question that will be debated in the days ahead is what happened to Saddam's elite Republican Guards who had established 'two rings of steel' around Baghdad?' says Major General Ashok K Mehta (retd).'




March 27, 2003



The battle for Baghdad
'The decision to go for Baghdad if everything else fails will not be an easy one and will inevitably be bloody and brutal' says Major General Ashok K Mehta (retd).'




March 17, 2003



The middle path advantage
'India's best bet will be to try and find a prominent place in the reconstruction of Iraq as it has in Afghanistan and not take the offensive against the war,' says Maj Gen Ashok Mehta [retd].




March 5, 2003



Time is on India's side
'India and Pakistan have to start a dialogue seriously on turning the LoC into a border,' says Maj Gen [retd] Ashok K Mehta.




February 10, 2003



A Strategic Forces Command, finally!
'Nearly five years after the nuclear tests and four years after unveiling its unofficial nuclear doctrine, India's minimum credible nuclear deterrence is certainly more credible and the military at last inducted in the nuclear loop.'




January 21, 2003



What General Vij plans to do
'The army Chief is clear that despite the withdrawal of troops the army can be called up at short notice as the score with Pakistan has not been settled,' says Major General Ashok K Mehta.




January 2, 2003



'India was on brink of war twice'
'Once, around January 7, 2002. The second, after the Kaluchak attack.'




November 21, 2002



The bizarre saga of the AJT
'Nearly 150 aircraft and 60 pilots have been lost for want of an advanced jet trainer. Something fishy is going on even 17 years after the Indian Air Force sought the AJT.'




November 7, 2002



The truth about Sikkim
'Sikkim is the country's most stable and secure frontline state, a model for social cohesion and security. It is the only border state without any palpable threat of insurgency or social disorder.'




November 1, 2002



The cost of a war that wasn't
'Operation Parakram will go down in Indian military history as the first time a grand deployment ended in a mere redeployment, a la withdrawal.'




October 7, 2002



The flux in Nepal
'In Kathmandu the impression among most intellectuals was that King Gyanendra could not have acted without India's nod. Multiparty democracy had become so messy that Indian policy makers had a difficult time choosing who to deal with: the elected/caretaker prime minister or the constitutional monarch.'




August 19, 2002



America's double game
'It was hoped that the US would help India address its security concerns after it had brought about a regime change in Afghanistan. That has not happened.'

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