Articles By Lt Gen Harwant Singh
Kargil Controversy: Mismanagement of Higher Defence
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 10 Jul , 2023
During the Second World War the British Army’s operations in Greece ran into near disaster and to save the army, its immediate evacuation by sea became imperative. During this phase of the war,...
Pak paid a Heavy Price for it’s Misadventure across the Line of Control
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Mar , 2021
On release of Mufti Mohammed’s elder daughter by local dissenters, as-quid-pro quo for this, some of the terrorists in Indian jails were released. This led to, large scale jubilations in the...
J&K Imbroglio
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 19 Oct , 2019
The abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, came as a surprise to some and shock to some others, though many of us have over time been demanding their abrogation. Some are knocking at the doors of...
Balakot Imbroglio: Do tell us what happened at Balakot
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 Jun , 2019
Did India over play the “surgical strike” of September 2016 in an effort to draw maximum political millage from that? Pakistan’s reaction had resulted in, increase in cross border firing and...
Defence Forces and National Budget
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 04 Feb , 2019
The size of nation’s defence budget is related to a wide range of factors. With GDP as the base, the percentage of it, which should be allocated to defence depends on a number of issues. The...
1965 War: General Chaudhury did not order withdrawal behind River Beas
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 27 Aug , 2018
Fifty three years have passed since the 1965 war with Pakistan, still controversies and confusion on many issues and events persist. It is so because the official history of this war is shrouded...
Trimming Down the Indian Army
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 16 Jul , 2016
At the Commanders Conference, in Dec 2015, the Prime Minister made a number of points related to outdated military doctrines, financial realities, incompatibility between modernization and...
Soldiers: Waste of highly skilled national asset
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 16 Nov , 2015
More than 80 percent soldiers retire at the age of 36/37 years and their yearly number is almost fifty thousand. They do not even get up to the midway point of their pay band, miss out on...
Chief of Defense Staff: An Elusive Concept?
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Vol. 30.2 Apr-Jun 2015 | Date: 03 Nov , 2015
The CDS system would also be able to evolve a mechanism to acquire the right weapons and equipment for integrated and complementary deployment and performance of all the three services. Given the...
The Men Who Saved The Kashmir Valley
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Date: 27 Oct , 2015
Oct 27 is celebrated as ‘Infantry Day’ in the Indian Army. On this day, Indian troops were air lifted from Delhi and landed at Srinagar to protect the airfield and save the town of Srinagar...
Resettling Kashmiri Pandits: A National Responsibility
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 16 Jun , 2015
The need to settle Kashmiri Pandits is unexceptionable. They were uprooted quarter of a century ago and little has been done to resettle them. Most of them still live as internally displaced...
Bargaining with the defence services
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 01 Jan , 2015
First it was the then officiating defence minister shri Jaitley, who, during his meeting with a delegation of veterans, told them to lower their demand for One Rank One Pension, (OROP) Now the...
Fight against ISIS and possible fallout on India
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 25 Sep , 2014
During his election campaign, President, Obama had promised to the American people that if elected, he would pull out troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. This was perhaps what a war wary nation...
Fight alienation and not AFSPA
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 03 Sep , 2014
Periodically Omar Abdullah demands abrogation of AFSPA from certain areas of the state of J and K. He claims that there is complete peace in these areas and therefore there is little justification...
Speeding up DRDO output
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Courtesy: HT (Chd edition) | Date: 30 Aug , 2014
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called upon Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to speed up projects and advance delivery schedules. He has opined that India can be world...
Kargil Controversy: Army pinpoints IAF failures
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Vol 25.2 Apr-Jun 2010 | Date: 24 Jul , 2014
Every military operation carries many lessons. The receptive imbibe some while the obstinate simply ignore. To be in a state of denial or finding alibis for mistakes rather than learn from...
Government should give due consideration to selection of defence minister
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Courtesy: HT (Chd edition) | Date: 23 May , 2014
There are many contenders for ministerial berths in the new government at the centre. Prime minister has the onerous task of putting the right man in the right job. There will be pressure on him...
Election Commission and Defence Services voters
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Courtesy: HT (Chd edition) | Date: 12 May , 2014
Just and fair elections are the very bed rock of democracy, where no group or groups of people are disadvantaged in any manner or denied this basic right, by subterfuge or through coercion or any...
New game plan to deny soldier’s right to cast the ballot
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Courtesy: HT (Chd edition) | Date: 05 Mar , 2014
Earlier soldiers (which includes sailors and airmen too) were required to cast their vote by postal ballot. The procedure devised for this was so convoluted, that it was simply inoperative. Less...
Defence Forces of the nation persistently wronged
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Date: 18 Dec , 2013
Defence forces have been disadvantaged in a wide range of areas. Firstly they has been persistently wronged by successive Central Pay Commissions, (CPCs) While defence forces are the largest...