Letters: A consensus on defence

This refers to Ajai Shukla's column "A K Antony's intellectual dishonesty" (Broadsword, December 10). Considering the highly sensitive nature of the issue and its possible adverse future implications on the security of the country and its citizens, one cannot find fault with the healthy stand adopted by the then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee in 2005, that the creation of a Chief of Defence Staff required a "broad political consensus", which is now stated to have been rightly reiterated by current Defence Minister A K Antony on the appointment of a four-star permanent chairman for the chiefs of staff committee. No right-thinking person can underestimate the likely adverse impacts of the decision, viz. the ease for a future military coup, endangering our hard-earned democratic set-up. By expressing his reservations against blindly supporting the proposal in question, Antony has, on the contrary, kept in his mind the well-being of the citizens of the country.

Augustine Jose Vadodara

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