Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'We need Top Brains to rule in all walks of life' that was published in Newsband

We need Top Brains to rule in all walks of life

To counter terrorism we need a long term policy, says former commander of the Northern Command, Lt. Gen. (retd.) D.S. Hooda. He is the man who helmed the 2016 surgical strikes. He was the one who had made a vision document on national security that he presented to Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

According to him, India needs a national security strategy. Hooda has structured it in the format that there are five pillars of national security strategy that we need to focus on. First of these is how India stands in global affairs. What should India’s place be in national affairs? Second is having a secure region. The third pillar is resolving our internal conflicts. The fourth pillar of the strategy is protecting the people. The last one is we build up our capabilities. In this he talks of border management posture, military capability, indigenisation, restructuring of police, cyber, nuclear, space and also our strategic communication capabilities.

The 2019 elections seem centred around nationalism especially after the Pulwama attack and Balakot air strike. How healthy is such politicisation for the armed forces, questions Hooda. There are major issues of economy and jobs. Those issues should also be brought to the front.

The ruling party has been saying that nobody should ask questions of the armed forces. Are armed forces above accountability? In a democracy, all institutions are accountable, says Hooda.

After the cross border strikes were carried out (2016), He was of the view that people of the country needed to be told that this is what that they had gone and done. He agrees that the military shouldn’t be pulled into each and every debate. But he thinks at some stage the leadership has to turn around and say this is what they have done.

According to Hooda, we need a consistent and long term strategy which combines all elements of national power, diplomacy, economic pressure, political pressure and where required, military pressure. Just killing the terrorist is not enough. We need to see how we can mainstream Kashmir with the rest of India. Long visionary bilateral table negotiation may bring peace.

Now, Mr Hooda has written a document to tell the politicians how they should deal with neighbours and fix Kashmir issues.  He is the right man to talk about this since his Army cantonments were raided by terrorists few times during his tenure. So his views about how the politicians run the country should be considered. If possible he should personally enter politics: the way he has presented his views are less like a soldier more like a politician.

Gen Hooda’s views are apt and comes from experience. He has answered all the questions with sincerity and without mincing words. The way he talks reveal the "brain-quality" and excellence in Lt. Gen. (retd.) D.S. Hooda. One can be sure that India has such superb "thinking" Officers, not only in the Armed forces but also in every other sphere. But then, the Bureaucracy, in collusion with wily Politicians, would not want to allow the flourish of such "brains" - lest they lose their "control". Hooda’s expressions of his views do tell us that India needs to empower "brains" from amongst our Officers - not only in Military but in all walks of life. Will our wily Politicians allow this?