India's strategic loss

My first post in the new year, from a new location - Hyderabad (I should now rename the blog perhaps) has to do with some sad news - the passing away of K. Subrahmanyam – regarded as the father of strategic planning on issues regarding defence and foreign affairs. Unfortunately, I had no interaction with him – except for reading most of his columns appearing in the press – where he was a prolific contributor.

Subrahmanyam – a one-time nuclear hawk – inconsistently supported the nuclear deal that India signed up with the US – a move I would ascribe to advancing age, and a lack of appreciation of the economic realities of the new world. That opinion notwithstanding, I always found his writing to be interesting and well informed. While his insights were called upon by many governments – the Congress government, and the NDA, they were not always taken to their logical conclusion - many of the recommendations of his report after the Kargil war remain unimplemented.

In his demise, India has lost a strategic thinker who had the best for India at heart. May his soul rest in peace.