Opinion | The General Who Saw Tomorrow: What K Sundarji Would Make Of Today’s Asymmetric Wars |
Opinion | The General Who Saw Tomorrow: What K Sundarji Would Make Of Today’s Asymmetric Wars
One can only hope that when war inevitably arrives at India’s door, we have someone with the capability of a Sundarji to take difficult decisions.
For those who think, breathe and work on defence matters, these are incredible times to live in. In 2020, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict demonstrated that low-cost drones and loitering munitions can decisively defeat traditional heavy armour and air defences, giving Azerbaijan air superiority over Armenia. Two years later, Russia hoped for a quick campaign in Ukraine but has been bogged down. Currently, a mighty US-Israel effort is unable to end Iranian resistance. The common thread in these conflicts is a shift towards asymmetric and tech-driven warfare.
In this dynamic scenario, while reading General Brasstacks—a new biography of Gen. Sundarji by Probal Dasgupta—one is forced to wonder what that forward-thinking military commander would have been doing if he were at the helm of the Indian armed forces today.
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As commanding officer of an infantry battalion (and officiating brigade commander) in Kutch in 1965, he had seen Pakistani commanders seize the initiative while Indian leadership was slow to respond. In the 1971 war, the advance on the sensitive Sialkot front had been a painful one kilometre a day. During this war, as Brigadier General Staff of 33 Corps on the eastern front, Sundarji had an inside view of more decisive leadership. Here, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 4 Corps, Lt Gen Sagat Singh, used helicopters to cross the Meghna River and surprised Pakistani defenders.
The years after 1971 saw the Indian Army transform. 2 Corps, for instance, became a strike corps mandated to use armour against enemy defences. Sundarji was in the middle of these changes. A well-read man with a penchant for technical discussions and modernisation of equipment and tactics for warfare, he became one of the rare officers to command both an infantry and an armoured division. He was........