00:05Bringing to you now a big exclusive, Gaurav Sarwan speaks to General Narvaneh, former
00:10army chief staff and that was primarily with regard to his unpublished book. General Narvaneh
00:16speaking over the four stars of destiny, former army chief, opening up about the controversies
00:23as much and before of course we go across to that big exclusive, I just want to bring
00:27out one quote from him. Government had full faith in the armed forces, were given a free
00:31hand to deal with China at the LAC. Jo uchit samjho wo karo is what the government had told
00:38the armed forces. Let's listen in now to this big exclusive of General Narvaneh.
00:50What is your perception, if I may, of Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh saying,
00:55Jo uchit lage wo karo ya jo uchit samjho wo karo words to that effect?
01:01No, I think it shows the great confidence that the government had in the army and its hierarchy
01:08and in the service chief that they knew that whatever decision will be taken would be taken
01:14keeping all factors in mind and at the end of the day it is a military operation. It is a
01:19military
01:20strategy which has to be applied within the overall framework of the national strategy and policy.
01:26So there is nothing, I won't use the word wrong, I think it is a correct way of having done
01:34things
01:35that you have given the complete operational freedom to the person who is best suited to exercise
01:42that freedom. So unfortunately I think people are misinterpreting that to say that it was sort of
01:53abrogation. It is not abrogation at all and I reiterate it only shows that the government has full confidence
02:00in its armed forces. It has had full confidence earlier, it has full confidence now and I am sure
02:07it will have it in the future also. Because I was covering Operation Snow Leopard in Ladakh
02:13that time and you know I don't know if that is the correct version whatever I have read in public
02:17domain
02:19I thought you were quite aggressive on ground weren't you? I mean you as the army chief, General Joshi
02:26as army commander and that entire you know those soldiers on ground. Yes so we did whatever we had to
02:33do within the you know constraints and we have various protocols in place and how to deal with the
02:41PLA so within those frameworks we tried to do our best and yes at the end of the day we
02:48did gain the upper
02:49hand. You had the upper hand, there is there some commentary that we've lost territory. We gained the
02:58upper hand and that is why if you and this is nothing to do with the book this is very
03:04well reported
03:06and it was all on TV channels the Chinese dismantling their bunkers and going back and there is nothing
03:12classified in that when it is all in the open domain. I am curious and some of that information is
03:19classified. So therefore it was definitely that we had the upper hand as well as that you know the end
03:26state of that portion of the operations Snow Leopard is concerned. So as army chief you are confident
03:34that during your tenure we haven't lost territory? Absolutely.
03:43Sir and overall how are we geared to deal with the situation like that? I mean is the government,
03:49the political leadership, the military leadership, armed forces and the nation are we on the same page?
03:54Yes we are definitely on the same page. You know the armed forces are always
04:02looking at the threat perception. They are always looking at what new challenges are surfacing
04:08and to deal with those challenges what changes need to be done whether in force structuring,
04:15whether in acquisition of new weapons and all that of course requires governmental clearance. So it is a
04:21continuous interactive process. It is not something which stops and we'll say that okay today we are
04:28prepared to meet all challenges.
04:29I have.
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