ROCKETRAJA
FULL MEMBER
New Recruit
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2012
- Messages
- 71
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
Published March 16, 2013 | By admin
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL
Indias blood and guts army chief General Bikram Singh on Friday delivered a strong message to Pakistan on its double game, saying it could not continue to bleed India and shake hands at the same time.
Two days after a terror strike on a CRPF camp in Srinagar and a day after the Pakistan national assembly passed a resolution condemning Parliament attack convict Afzal Gurus hanging, General Singh chose the India Today Conclave 2013 to be blunt as he referred to Pakistans subterfuge in its relations with India.
You cannot have double standards. You say they are not in our control, but yet we have non-state actors. They are bleeding us and you want us to shake hands with you at the military level. I think that is not done. We got to be fair and there has to be a level-playing field, the General said.
In the session, The Generals Debrief: Armys Contribution in Nation Building, the army chief went on to make a powerful pitch against the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), emphasising that any decision on the issue should be in the national interest and above political considerations.
In doing so, the General appeared to shoot down moves to politicise the removal of AFSPA from Jammu and Kashmir. As the audience listened in rapt attention, the army chief kept the tone steely.
He said the armed forces had paid a heavy price in dealing with terrorism and the withdrawal of the legal shield from soldiers. He said that this would only turn the clock back to the point of no return, and stressed that the time was not ripe to tamper with the existing arrangement.
His strongest response was reserved for a question on Siachen. It is our area. Why are we even talking about it being given to somebody else? he said matter-of-factly.
And then on the possible withdrawal of troops from the glacier, the General held Pakistan responsible for the trust deficit between the two armies and identified it as the main hurdle coming in the way of normalising ties. General Singh backed this point with reason.
He had been a colonel and the governments spokesman during the Kargil war of 1999.
At the India Today Conclave, he recalled how Pakistan was always in denial on the involvement of its regular soldiers in occupying Indian posts, a lie that has now been exposed by its own retired generals.
The army chief, however, claimed that Pakistan can still improve the situation by destroying the terrorist infrastructure in its territory.
The army chiefs attention was drawn to India-Pakistan military relations by Pakistan journalist Wajahat Khan who was on the panel of experts for the session.
The General allayed apprehension about the presence of Indian military formations on the border saying they were normal deployments and not aimed at vitiating the atmosphere.
In dealing with insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, the General pointed out that army drew a distinction between the locals and foreign terrorists.
The locals are presented with restrictive rules of engagement while terrorists are dealt with full force. He rejected the often used reference to the Indian army being an occupational force in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming the situation on ground was very different.
The General was opposed to the idea of keeping the army engaged in internal security situation beyond a point.
We should be used as last resort and only after optimal utilisation of other agencies, he said, adding that use of the army should be avoided in handling communal and ethnic troubles and student unrest.
On expanding the role of women in the Army, he said: We are identifying 200 additional slots for women in army. Our women are physically fit, mentally robust and have intellectual prowess.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL
Indias blood and guts army chief General Bikram Singh on Friday delivered a strong message to Pakistan on its double game, saying it could not continue to bleed India and shake hands at the same time.
Two days after a terror strike on a CRPF camp in Srinagar and a day after the Pakistan national assembly passed a resolution condemning Parliament attack convict Afzal Gurus hanging, General Singh chose the India Today Conclave 2013 to be blunt as he referred to Pakistans subterfuge in its relations with India.
You cannot have double standards. You say they are not in our control, but yet we have non-state actors. They are bleeding us and you want us to shake hands with you at the military level. I think that is not done. We got to be fair and there has to be a level-playing field, the General said.
In the session, The Generals Debrief: Armys Contribution in Nation Building, the army chief went on to make a powerful pitch against the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), emphasising that any decision on the issue should be in the national interest and above political considerations.
In doing so, the General appeared to shoot down moves to politicise the removal of AFSPA from Jammu and Kashmir. As the audience listened in rapt attention, the army chief kept the tone steely.
He said the armed forces had paid a heavy price in dealing with terrorism and the withdrawal of the legal shield from soldiers. He said that this would only turn the clock back to the point of no return, and stressed that the time was not ripe to tamper with the existing arrangement.
His strongest response was reserved for a question on Siachen. It is our area. Why are we even talking about it being given to somebody else? he said matter-of-factly.
And then on the possible withdrawal of troops from the glacier, the General held Pakistan responsible for the trust deficit between the two armies and identified it as the main hurdle coming in the way of normalising ties. General Singh backed this point with reason.
He had been a colonel and the governments spokesman during the Kargil war of 1999.
At the India Today Conclave, he recalled how Pakistan was always in denial on the involvement of its regular soldiers in occupying Indian posts, a lie that has now been exposed by its own retired generals.
The army chief, however, claimed that Pakistan can still improve the situation by destroying the terrorist infrastructure in its territory.
The army chiefs attention was drawn to India-Pakistan military relations by Pakistan journalist Wajahat Khan who was on the panel of experts for the session.
The General allayed apprehension about the presence of Indian military formations on the border saying they were normal deployments and not aimed at vitiating the atmosphere.
In dealing with insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, the General pointed out that army drew a distinction between the locals and foreign terrorists.
The locals are presented with restrictive rules of engagement while terrorists are dealt with full force. He rejected the often used reference to the Indian army being an occupational force in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming the situation on ground was very different.
The General was opposed to the idea of keeping the army engaged in internal security situation beyond a point.
We should be used as last resort and only after optimal utilisation of other agencies, he said, adding that use of the army should be avoided in handling communal and ethnic troubles and student unrest.
On expanding the role of women in the Army, he said: We are identifying 200 additional slots for women in army. Our women are physically fit, mentally robust and have intellectual prowess.
