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Switching from counter-insurgency operations to fighting a war is tough, more so when there is little time at hand. Perhaps few would know it better than Maj. Gen. Mohinder Puri (who subsequently retired as Lt Gen), who commanded the 8 Mountain Division in 1999.
In May 1999, we were located in Sharifabad and given the task of counter-insurgency operations in North Kashmir, he told Bharat Shakti Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale as part of our special series ‘Kargil, 25 Years On’.
Around the third week of May, the Corps Commander called him up and asked him to be prepared to move to Dras. He did a recce of the area, returned and made plans. Then, he was told to hang on as some other formation would be deployed there. Hours later, the plans changed. Then Army Chief Gen. VP Malik asked him whether he would like to undertake the operation. Maj. Gen. Puri agreed. “There was no choice and there should be no choice. War comes only once in a lifetime.
“We would appreciate if there is no pressure on us. Given the terrain, the casualties are going to be high,” he told the Chief who gave the go-ahead and kept his word till the end.
25 years later, he credits the young officers and jawans for the military victory. “We owe it to them; they did a spectacular job.” Listen in for more.
Author, thought leader and one of South Asia's leading strategic analysts, Nitin A. Gokhale has forty years of rich and varied experience behind him as a conflict reporter, Editor, author and now a media entrepreneur who owns and curates two important digital platforms, BharatShakti.in and StratNewsGlobal.com focusing on national security, strategic affairs and foreign policy matters.
At the beginning of his long and distinguished career, Gokhale has lived and reported from India’s North-east for 23 years, writing and analysing various insurgencies in the region, been on the ground at Kargil in the summer of 1999 during the India-Pakistan war, and also brought live reports from Sri Lanka’s Eelam War IV between 2006-2009.
Author of over a dozen books on wars, insurgencies and conflicts, Gokhale relocated to Delhi in 2006, was Security and Strategic Affairs Editor at NDTV, a leading Indian broadcaster for nine years, before launching in 2015 his own digital properties.
An alumni of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, Gokhale now writes, lectures and analyses security and strategic matters in Indo-Pacific and travels regularly to US, Europe, South and South-East Asia to speak at various international seminars and conferences.
Gokhale also teaches at India’s Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), the three war colleges, India's National Defence College, College of Defence Management and the intelligence schools of both the R&AW and Intelligence Bureau.
He tweets at @nitingokhale
