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Ashok K Mehta
Ashok K Mehta is a retired Lt General of the Indian Army. He writes extensively on defence matters and anchors Defence Watch on Doordarshan
The cross of valour
Three Victoria Crosses for Second Fifth Gorkhas are a reminder of unparalleled action that prevented the Japanese army from reaching India Three Victoria Cross-winning actions of a single unit along the Tiddim-Bishenpur-Imphal road and one unknown British Sergeant and seven soldiers in a trench along with others at Garrison Hill in...
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A ride into military school
23 October 2019 | Ashok K Mehta -
Break the impasse
09 October 2019 | Ashok K Mehta -
Lanka’s electoral test
25 September 2019 | Ashok K Mehta -
Needed, a healing touch
11 September 2019 | Ashok K Mehta -
Soldiers battle two fronts
28 August 2019 | Ashok K Mehta -
Lost art of development
14 August 2019 | Ashok K Mehta -
Of broken promises
31 July 2019 | Ashok K Mehta
Defenceless defence
The Budgetary allocation to the armed forces has been stagnant as Governments have failed to address the concern that modern warfare needs upgradation When former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman — one of four in the Modi 1.0 government — presented her maiden finance budget, hope and expectation about the defence allocation...
Sandwiched in between
Setbacks in India-Nepal ties have helped Beijing make considerable gains in that country. But close cultural ties bind Kathmandu and New Delhi and the Govt should work on them Yahan sab China ki taraf ja rahe hain. Aapko kuch karna padega (Here everyone is being drawn to China. You have...
Forked road in Sri Lanka
In a conflict between parallel enquiries into the Easter bombings, the question of accountability will be drowned. The Sirisena Government can’t evade tough questions by vilifying Muslims Two months after the Easter bombings, while the dots have been connected, accountability is still playing truant. Besides others, India had alerted Sri Lanka...
Tango with Pakistan
Even though Modi has raised the bar for peace talks with Islamabad, he must seize the opportunity to pull aside Khan at Bishkek to break the ice. We cannot ignore Pakistan Last October, I took a bet that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan would be invited for the swearing-in of...
Engage with Taliban
While the US has made several U-turns in brokering peace in Afghanistan, India’s biggest policy failure has been the inability to make its only military base in Tajikistan operational The Afghanistan peace process has undergone nuanced changes and several U-turns under the Trump dispensation. These are worth reflecting upon. It is no...
Nobody joined the dots
The Easter Sunday self-inflicted tragedy was in military parlance a total command failure, which is likely to take Sri Lanka a decade back Neither Sherlock Holmes nor Alfred Hitchcock would have been mystified by intelligence oversights that led to one of the world’s most dastardly terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka last...
Nurture ties that bind
Post the economic blockade of 2015, relations between India and Nepal have moved from static to steady. The next Government must do all it can to win Nepalese hearts In 2015, after the India-Nepal ties hit the lowest point during the promulgation of Nepal’s new Constitution and anti-India sentiment saw a...
