Valleys and Valour

THE DICHOTOMY OF POLITICAL ALOOFNESS BY INDARMY AND UPHOLDING THE TENTH COMMANDMENT   “ For the political class it is a truism that in pre-election scenario the voter is their God, and post-election victory they fear no God. But let it not be said of the military leadership that they fear their political masters more than they fear God .” – Veteran Col RS Sidhu The Tenth Commandment “Only fear God, Uphold Dharma (Ethical mode of life-the path of righteousness) and enjoy serving the country.” https://indianarmy.nic.in/Site/FormTemplete/frmTemp1PTC2C.aspx?MnId=o9J7q2qhhWWGEWbZQrC6qQ==&ParentID=BcOo+vJcRZVJdsm+0I/JtQ== Yes, the Tenth Commandment is part of the ‘TEN COMMANDMENTS’ formulated by the first CDS in context of Military’s conduct in counter-insurgency operations, but it also most crisply defines the fighting ethos of the Indarmy! Backdrop The armed forces of a nation are the last line of defence of its citizenry when faced with external adversity and a...

  INDARMY TOUR OF DUTY REFORMS A CONCEPTUAL LOOK AT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES   Synopsis “Law of Unintended Consequences Politically influenced structural military reforms undertaken by a committed bureaucracy and submissive military leadership possess inherent potential to release parallel forces of unintended consequences more powerful from those intended.” “Fusion of advanced military technology with innovative military thought disturbs global power status quo, arising an era of international conflicts and upheavals”. ‘ The exclamation ‘Oh my God!’ lends itself to differing interpretations based on the tone and inflection point of the verbal delivery. Whether handled deftly or not, the TOD reforms has full potential to be the ‘Oh my God!’ moment for India and probably the world too. ’ Preamble To call a spade a spade and be objective may be looked at askance or be treated as a virtue, depending on the reader perception and volatility of the subject. The TOD reforms have deepl...

  NATIONAL AMBIVALENCE ON INDIAN MILITARY   “ The power elite distances from it, the deep state abhors it, and the common man adores it!!! This in a nutshell may best sum up the ambivalence of the Indian nation to its military.” - Veteran Col RS Sidhu                                                       Backdrop This politico-military commentary is being written under the backdrop of two recent and momentous events , one in the domestic arena, and the other in the geopolitical sphere. These two happenings are as distinct from each other as ‘ cheese is from chalk’ , but yet bounded by one common factor, their impact on the future security of the Indian state. The first is celebrating the Indian Naval mutinies of 1946 by the Indian Navy under the benign eye of the Indian state, as part of the ‘ Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav ’, which ha...

AN ADJUTANT RECALLS OCCULT INFLUENCE OF COMMANDANT POONA HORSE DURING 1971 WAR   “ In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle .” – Paramhans Yoganand, ‘Autobiography of A Yogi’   The new discoveries by modern science in 'Quantum entanglement', prove the interconnectedness of two spatially apart particles where information is exchanged at speeds greater than the speed of light. T he medically accepted theory of ‘Placebo effect’ is interestingly premised on the power of human thought or auto suggestion. The scientific finding of conscious mind affecting the reality is again reflected by t he ‘Observer Effect’ experiment in the field of quantum theory, which establishes a relationship between an observer and observed reality. The three happenings point towards convergence of the Western scientific and Eastern philosophical thoughts on the phenomenal power that can be accessed by a pr...