DeansMusings

One of the enduring views about the 1962 war is that India could have used the Air force to attack the Chinese and not doing so was a lost opportunity. However, this view has been made without any analysis and is typical of a lot of revisionist history and a what-if’ done without analysis. Even air force analysts have had mixed opinions about the use of air power in 1962. Both sides in my view have insufficient analysis. One point if view is that the military was keep to use air power but Nehru declined as he was concerned about Chinese retaliation by bombing Indian cities.   This is an attempt to analyse the situation, as known at the time and look at the impact of using the air force in the 1962 war.   Before the war : In 1959, as Indo-China relations worsened and the border dispute became serious, the army was notified that the Chinese were building airfields in Tibet. That was something that would influence our thinking during the war. In 1960. GOC Eastern Command Lt ...

  Water Wars II: India finally acts In my earlier blogpost on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), written in 2023, referencing my paper on Pakistan of 2016, I argued that India did not need to abrogate the treaty to put pressure on Pakistan. It first needed to fully utilise the rights that the treaty already gave it. The points made were: 2023 Blogpost on the IWT -India is not utilizing even its (20%) share of river water. -India is not utilizing the power and irrigation capacity on the Western (Pakistan’s) rivers  that is entitled to. Consequently J&K, where the rivers flow through, has a power and w ater shortage. - India has taken no steps to divert any water from Pakistan’s rivers – in fact, we should have  actively helped Afghanistan negotiate an equitable water sharing treaty for rivers rising in Afghanistan and flowing into Pak.  The reality since 2025. We cannot simply `turn off' water to Pak. If all the current and planned projects  are completed on sc...