PM Modi reopens security debate

He has given us an opportunity to raise and explore one of the oldest questions in our national security debate: Which was the most dangerous decade in our history?

In his reply to the no-confidence motion earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought back two vital, contentious and tragic turning points in India’s national security history.

The first, in March 1966, was the use of the Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft to strafe Aizawl — then a district headquarters and now capital of Mizoram — to drive out insurgents. And second, Operation Blue Star, which resulted in the destruction of the Akal Takht, the seat of Sikh spiritual and temporal power located in the Golden Temple complex.

It is hard politics, and the Prime Minister is within his rights to