Courage and Conviction

by V.K. Singh

knew even then that I was among the toughest of men, the simplest of men, men who would never bow before what they considered unjust or unfair.

oriented classes were started and it was here that I discovered that Major HS Dalal, my squadron commander had, at my father’s request, changed my service from the air force to the army.

As are decisions made for the children by their parents always. In hindsight maybe that helped him go all the way to the top of the Indian Army

if you are truthful and have not done anything wrong, then you do not have anything to fear.

"Honest hardworking man has nothing to fear in life" is another of my beliefs

This was another extremely important lesson that I filed away: never play favourites. Every man in the formation knows what is happening and though the troops may accept the good with the bad, nothing ever goes unnoticed, especially in the eyes of the men.

that is a good lesson for any leader in any profession

As a nation, we have no choice but to guard our borders, however difficult and challenging the conditions. This sentimental nonsense has to be put aside for good.

Fighting with whatever we have has been the unfortunate circumstances of the Indian army due to the atrocious attitude of our bureacracy

Then they had tried to tie it to the top of the aircraft, but the captain of the plane had freaked out, muttering some incomprehensible stuff about aerodynamics before running off into the dark in the general direction of air traffic control. So now they were trying to tie the pole to the bottom of the aircraft.

In fact, the LTTE would always say that Indian troops moving in the jungle were at par with a herd of elephants moving through bamboo!

Stealth is of the essence in the modern army

There is a universal rule that applies not just to the Indian Army but to all organizations across the globe—don’t rub your boss the wrong way.

Touche

A large number of mines had fuses that wouldn’t fit and, in true Indian Army style, the men would try and force the fuse in. Mine after mine exploded, killing men in numbers that were shockingly high.

Casualties from mines were beginning to match the overall Kargil figures;

This was never published in the Indian press of the immense cost of the deployment post the attack on the parliament