NEW DELHI: Indian Army had planned to cross Pakistani border during theKargil War, reveals former Indian Army Chief VP Malik.
While speaking on the Kargil link war,Malik said that a leader is effective when he knows what he wants and makesit clear.
He said that he had decided then that the army must be prepared to launchforces across the border. This was counter to government’s instruction tonot cross the Line of Control.
“Prime Minister Vajpayee in public had said that the armed forces will notcross the border. I later asked him to not say that. He asked me why. Iexplained that if we cannot vacate the intruders, we will have to cross theborder.
Later, the then NSA had said in an interview that not crossing the borderholds good today, we don’t know about tomorrow,” he said.
“I had prepared the army to cross the border in six days’ notice. Ourstrategy was to show that we are capable of crossing the border anywhere,”he said.
Leadership link is knowledge,attitude, character, taking on challenges and a result of hard work,former ArmyChief link General V P Maliksaid, while explaining how leadership played a key role during the 1999 KargilWar link between India andPakistan.
Malik while explaining that there are three types of leadership— junior,middle and senior— said that it is necessary to train leaders at alllevels. He was speaking at the ET Global Business Summit- 2020.
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Malik explained whether war or business, people are the core concern. “Itis the man or woman behind the gun, which makes most of the good humancapital,” he said, The Economic Times has reported.
He added that he has five takes on leadership. He said that leadership is30 percent knowledge, while the rest is attitude and how you deal withpeople and make them do what is on your mind. “The next one is yourcharacter, a sum of good and bad, which forms a component of trust. Ifpeople don’t have trust, they won’t follow you,” he said.
Malik also said that a leader takes challenges, adding that he doesn’tbelieve leaders are born. “They are a result of hard work, self belief andopportunities they get,” he said.
His remarks on leadership comes at a time of what he calls a VUCA-Volatility, Unpredictability, Complexity and Ambiguity.
He adds that as a senior officer one should not interfere with juniorleaders, but it is important to motivate people. “Leadership training hasto happen at all levels. We start only at the Vice President level, buthave to train at all levels,” he said.
