lt Gen (Retd) KK Khanna, former Commandant of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), has given the quintessence of his experience in the army in his recently published book titled, 'Art of Generalship'. Talking to The Pioneer, Khanna said the book had been written to help officers become better Generals in the Indian Army. “Better the generalship, greater the victories,” he said.
He said that it was important to first understand what is good generalship. “The Army needs to institute measures to improve the quality of generalship for the future, but there is a lot that the officers can do themselves,” says the author. Gen Khanna has collected materials on how some outstanding Generals won brilliant victories in World War II and later. These include Generals like Guderian, Manstein, Model, Rommel, Patton, Eisenhower, Zhukov, Douglas McArthur, Moshe Dayan, Ariel Sharon, Giap and Schwarzkopf.
The author analyses the Indian Generals since independence. Then follows a tri-service analysis of all wars since 1947 onwards. The book highlights how political leadership sidelined upright professional officers in the 1950s and encouraged sycophancy and intrigue. This led to opportunities missed in 1965. The book shows that there was improvement after 1965 and a better performance in 1971. The long period of peace after 1971 brought up Generals who conducted operations in Punjab and Sri lanka.
The author examines political and bureaucratic interface with the military before discussing future threats and conflicts, both external and internal. The author writes that, “Mediocre Generals always ask for more and more resources and always find someone to blame for their failures. Good Generals know how to use existing resources skillfully and create conditions which favour their armies.”
He says better leadership at top levels would help save precious national resources by smart utilisation of resources, reducing plenty of “fat” in the army to make it lean, smart and effective.