Defence experts bat for direct connect between public and armed forces

To ensure better interface between the public and the armed forces, various defence experts on Saturday emphasised the need to bring far more openness in defence matters to mobilise public opinion in the larger interest of national security.

Sharing their views during an interactive session on 'Valour, History, Politics and Media' with eminent columnist Vir Sanghvi on the second day of Military Literature Festival-2018 here at the Lake Club on Saturday, they were also of the opinion that there should no politicisation of the defence forces, which was gradually creeping into the system.

The penalists included Lt Gen (Retd) N S Brar, Lt General (Retd) T S Shergill, UK based Brig. Justin Maciejewski, NDTV channel head Arati Singh, besides Actors Sonu Sood and Gurmeet Chaudhary.

Lt Gen (Retd) T S Shergill that the media should play a pro-active role in boosting the morale of the armed forces to enable them to discharge their duties diligently with a sense of utmost professional commitment to safeguard the integrity, security and sovereignty of our country. He cited the 26/11 Mumbai attack, when the media was telecasting real-time, which led the perpetrators to know about the counter insurgency operations.

Lt Gen (Retd) N S Brar underlined the need for general debates in the public domain on matters related to National Security and defence forces. "Thus, intimate interface was required more frequently between the government and defence forces on issues of higher defence management," he added.

On the allocation of funds for defence forces, Lt Gen N S Brar opined that Media should come forward in mobilising public opinion in this regard to put pressure on the Union Government for adequate allocation of funds in the annual budget.

Participating in the discussions, actor Sonu Sood and co-star Gurmeet Chaudhary of Hindi movie 'Paltan', directed by JP Dutta, gave a brief account about an action-war drama based on incident of 1967 Indo-China. Sonu said the film vividly presented the real-time war account, thus portraying the patriotic spirit of Indian soldiers with the objective of imbibing the spirit of nationalism amongst the countrymen, especially the youngsters.