“The sad part of civil-military relations in India is that the interaction is yet to result in a National Strategy Document, even 70 years after Independence,” said Lt. Gen. Prakash Menon (retd.), officer of National Security Council Secretariat, India.
“The meta question is what India wants to be – for instance, a maritime power or a continental power. But, in the absence of a national strategy document, what India and its military must be is open to interpretation of military leaders,” he said. “Not that there is no guidance from civil leadership. But we need more of it. Like elsewhere, the political leadership is more focused on the short-term goals than the long-term ones,” he added.
But, he was quick to note that civil-military relations are the best in India during a crisis, like during the recent Doklam crisis. “But that is not how a nation state of the size of India, with its threats and opportunities, must be managed,” he said.
