Views of Lt Gen Satish Nabmiar

From: Satish Nambiar satishnambiar36@yahoo.co.in
Sent: 10 April 2010 20:17
To: gen_malik@airtelmail.in; prem parkash batra
Cc: Kamboj Chander; TRUNCATED
Subject: Re: Fwd:

Dear Prem,
As you are aware I receive and read your mails without fail. And am amazed at the level of stamina and perseverance you display. I have never found it necessary to respond because so many others do so with much articulation.

In this case I am taking the liberty because I had occasion to send the following mail a short while back to a media-person who had approached me for comments:

"Am sorry I was not able to access my mail over the last few days as I was busy with a workshop in Singapore. Just got back this afternoon and noticed your request.
Though it is too late to meet your deadline, it may be relevant to point out that what needs to be done about the Maoist challenge has been discussed at length at so many fora and any number of papers have been written on it. To be dealt with at two levels: first- address the genuine grievances of the tribals through effective governance; and second, tackle the armed Maoist cadres through well-planned and well-led operations.

And that leads me to your first query about what went wrong. Poor leadership and inadequate training. The answer is and always was: "lateral induction of Armed Forces personnel, including at the officer level, into the CRPF and other para-military forces, after they have done colour service of about seven or eight years in the Armed Forces in the case of the rank and file and in the case of short service commissioned officers, after they have done five or ten years. And since the problem is likely to remain with us for some time to come, I also reiterate my earlier suggestion that we resort to selective 'national service' to the extent that every individual who seeks to join the civil or police services at central or state government level, does compulsory service of a duration that can be determined in the Armed Forces, either at officer level or in the rank and file. I think our political leadership and civilian bureaucracy have ignored this essential component of our response to the internal turbulence long enough."


Warmest regards and keep the Brotherhood flag flying,
Satish Nambiar

Lt Gen Satish Nambiar (Retd)
"Aishwarya", N-19 Sector XI, NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India.
Telephone: 91-120-4335670