Indian Army lumbering and slow??

On the other hand our Indian Army denies this allegations/observations, plz. read the news item below,

Wikileaks: Indian Army dismisses US perception it is 'slow and lumbering'

Army chief General V K Singh today said India has no Cold Start' doctrine as claimed in the secret American documents and dismissed the US perception about the Indian Army being "slow and lumbering".

"There is nothing called 'Cold Start' (doctrine) in the Indian Army. We don't have anything called 'Cold Start'," he told PTI reacting to Wikileaks documents in which US Ambassador Timothy Roemer analyses India's military approach towards Pakistan in the wake of 26/11 attacks.

He also dismissed Roemer's descripttion of the Indian Army's mobilisation process as "slow and lumbering", saying that was "his perception" with which he does not agree.

"We don't necessarily agree with that perception. We know what has to be done," General Singh underlined.

He said the Indian Army has "things in place" and, "We practice our contingency depending on situations. We are confident that we will be able to exercise the contingency when the time comes."

Asked about the slow process of modernisation of the Armed forces, General Singh explained that this is mainly due to procedures and the fact that authorities want to be cautious to ensure nothing goes wrong.

General Singh said: "We are aware the modernisation process is subject to procedures of procurement. It takes at least two years, sometimes it may take more because somebody raises an issue about a company – that this company is doing this and that. It may be blacklisted. It happened in the case of Bofors. Procedurally, we have problems because this is a democracy and nobody wants to take a chance."

... contd.

https://www.indianexpress.com/news/wikileaks-indian-army-dismisses-us-perception-it-is-slow-and-lumbering/719337/

Perception of U.S. that Indian Army is "Lumbering and Slow" should not be taken lightly. Any General of any army in the world will always praise his army. There is lot of scope for improvement in Indian Army.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy, it is taught to various armies of the world and has been used successfully by various generals throughout history. It is said that Americans used it during gulf war with success. If one anylyses any battle, some or the other aspect of this master treatsie has been used by the victorious forces over the vanquished. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

as big brother US creating ilusion in the mind of rival  countries of india.  The CIA other agencies are involving in the this matter of publishing the matter

Learned Friends ,

I have been very closely associated with the Indain army .As an army officers wife who suffered a lot and stil suffering due to army's red tapisim and also because of merry making attitude of the officers of Indain army .Anyways in the whole process I found that that Indian army officers unit needs a revival .The soldier part is not tainted yet and is rythmatically following the gracefull tradition of brave Indain concept but officer wing (Not All) is in the hands of liquior ,merry making .pride ,selfishness and lethargy .The micro level study by me also reveals the same and matches with the report said above. It is also to be mentioned that infantry is still maintaining the dignity of the high profile jobs but some add on wings like supply and engineering etc are not up-to date and for sure confirms with the NEWS above .General V.K.Singh is far better than the last general and hope he contributes for the betterment soon .

Regards(Its my personal opinion gathered in my journey aginst the wrong doers in Indain army ).

Bharti

Yes Bharti madam,

Superiority feeling/pride and corruption has entered into the officers of Indian Army.

"The soldier part is not tainted yet and is rythmatically following the gracefull tradition of brave Indain concept but officer wing (Not All) is in the hands of liquior ,merry making .pride ,selfishness and lethargy."

My observation fully matches with the above observation. This has been prevelant from day one, but now the percentage has increased to undesirable levels. 1971 the Pakistani Army was also facing simlar problems and this was also one of the major reasons for their defeat. To make the soldiers respect their officers and be ready to jump into death during war, it is very necessary that officers conduct themselves in a manner that is fit for officers. Otherwise soldiers also start copying their officers.

A fine example was put forth by Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, who inspite of failure of his seniors was able to inspire his 120 men to rather than surrender, instead fight till death against 3000 soldiers and 65 tanks. When he was asking for reinforcements he was getting a most incompetent reply one would like to hear when faced with death "wait for it for some more time please.................." IAF had already informed a presence of large column of tanks across the border 2 days ago, but Army High command ignored the information.

"What would have happened if ‘A’ Company of 23 Punjab had lost heart and abandoned Longewala Post? The Pakistanis would really have had dinner at Jodhpur as there was virtually no Indian defence in between and there is no prize for guessing what that would have entailed. This really was an epic battle that saved Rajasthan."

Reference: https://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20001216/windows/main2.htm

Another failure on part of senior Commanders in Indian Army was the Battle of Chawinda. Indian troop strength at one point was ten times more the Pakistani troop strength, but failed to make achieve the objective due to various reasons including timidity on part of the Commanders.

"When half of this squadron did finally got going and crossed the border at 1000 hours it went south towards Zafarwal by some misunderstanding after crossing the Degh Nala instead of advancing parallel and north of the Degh Nala as originally ordered!This squadron crossed the Degh Nala and reached Zafarwal in Pakistani territory absolutely unopposed and later recrossed the Degh Nala to go north once it probably realised that it was supposed to stay north of Degh Nala!Once this squadron was recrossing the Degh Nala it was engaged by an Indian artillery battery providing fire support to the 1st Armoured brigade,which naturally mistook it for Pakistani tanks seeing it approach from south of Degh Nala. In turn this squadron also opened fire on the Indian battery which they thought to be a Pakistani battery destroying several guns and vehicles!38  By 1300 hours Brigadier K.K Singh Commander 1st Armoured Brigade was a mentally defeated man.He reached the conclusion that ‘He was held up by at least two Patton regiments and that there was no possibility of advancing  direct towards Phillora without suffering unacceptable losses’.He was further unnerved by reports of a ‘raid by enemy tanks on guns and soft vehicles’ (which in reality was the firing between 62 Cavalry’s tanks coming recrossing Degh Nadi!)39 Commander 1 Armoured Brigade concluded that ‘his line of communication was not secure’40    and ‘decided to adopt a defensive posture for the security of his command at 1400 hours issued orders withdrawing the brigade into a ‘box’ around Sabzpir cross roads! The 17 Poona Horse which had encountered opposition but was taking positive measures to deal with it was also withdrawn and deployed to cover the eastern flank in the area,and the 4 Hodson’s Horse was also detailed to defend the southern flank41. All this was happening at a time when there was just 25 Cavalry in front of the whole 1st Indian Armoured Division!"

Reference: https://www.defencejournal.com/2001/mar/chawinda.htm and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chawinda