Politicians fear about coup even now: Ex-Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash

NEW DELHI: The politico-military relationship in India is laden with suspicion even after six decades of Independence and politicians continue to fear a possible coup, putting national security strategy in jeopardy, former Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash has opined.

Successive governments in India have been influenced by civil bureaucracy in the Ministry of Defence and this did not allow armed forces to have major say in framing the national security policy, claimed Admiral Prakash while delivering the third K Subrahmanyam lecture in Delhi on Monday evening.

“Since the days of first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, there is an unknown fear of coup. As this fear grew over the years civilian bureaucracy in the Ministry of Defence grew powerful. Even a media report in the recent times claimed that the Army was planning a coup. This report could not have happened without the nod from the civilian government,” alleged Admiral Prakash, who has been a member of two review committees to revamp the country’s national security strategy – 2000 and 2011.

Subrahmanyam, considered doyen of India’s strategic thinking, headed the 2000 committee popularly known as Kargil Review Committee constituted after the Kargil war between India and Pakistan in 1999.

Admiral Prakash was speaking at the lecture organised every year by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies in collaboration with Global India Foundation.