India has no 'Cold Start' doctrine: Army chief

NEW DELHI: Army Chief Gen V K Singh on Thursday 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 media 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 description of the Indian army's mobilisation process as "slow and lumbering", saying that is "his perception" with which he does not agree. "We don't necessarily agree with that perception. We know what has to be done," Gen 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, Gen Singh explained that it is mainly due to procedures and the fact that authorities want to be cautious to ensure nothing goes wrong.