119-536: Other conflicts Border skirmishes Strikes Operation Brasstacks was a major combined arms military exercise of the Indian Armed Forces in the Indian state of Rajasthan . The operation took place from November 1986 to January 1987 near Pakistan border. As part of a series of exercises to simulate the operational capabilities of the Indian armed forces, it was the largest mobilization of Indian forces on
238-482: A National Policy on Education to modernise and expand higher education programs across India. In 1986, he founded the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya System, which is a Central government-based education institution that provides rural populations with free residential education from grades six to twelve. His efforts created MTNL in 1986, and his public call offices—better known as PCOs—helped develop
357-457: A nuclear deterrent . Combined arms Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects—for example, using infantry and armour in an urban environment in which each supports the other. According to the strategist William S. Lind , combined arms can be distinguished from the concept of "supporting arms" as follows: Combined arms hits
476-624: A battle would have lasted months with many hundreds of thousands of casualties. Co-ordination and planning were the key elements, and the use of combined arms tactics in the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918 allowed the Allied forces to exploit breakthroughs in the enemy trenches, forcing the surrender of the Central Powers . In World War II combined arms was a fundamental part of some operational doctrines like Heinz Guderian 's Blitzkrieg , or
595-488: A combination of these skilled and unskilled forces to win battles. An army that has multiple skills available can engage a larger force that incorporates mainly one or two types of troops. Each type of military formation – infantry, archers, cavalry, or peasants – has certain advantages that the other does not have. Infantry allows a force to hold ground and in the event of overwhelming enemy forces withdraw into terrain that mounted troops cannot maneuver as easily, thus negating
714-573: A combined arms approach, seldom operating without supporting infantry. The French army of the Valois kings, composed of heavily armoured gendarmes (professional versions of the medieval knight ), Swiss and Landsknecht mercenary pikemen , and heavy cannons took form during the transition from the medieval way of war to the early modern period . The late 15th century saw the development of combined pike and shot formations in Europe, starting with
833-622: A cricket match between the two countries. Zia's estimation was that he and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi could meet quite cordially, but could not agree on substantive issues. According to the Indian Army, Brasstacks was only an exercise and not supposed to be a provocative one. The media, particularly the Western media, was involved after this and intense diplomatic manoeuvres followed preventing any further escalation in hostilities. On multiple occasions, General Sunderji maintained that: "This was,
952-474: A degree, though he kept in touch with his former mentor in his retirement. In 1966 he began a course in mechanical engineering at Imperial College London , but also failed to complete it. Gandhi really was not studious enough, as he went on to admit later. Gandhi returned to India in 1966, the year his mother became prime minister . He went to Delhi and became a member of the Flying Club , where he trained as
1071-431: A few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little". According to Verinder Grover, the statement made by Gandhi was a "virtual justification" of the riots. Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar wrote, "Did it constitute an incitement to mass murder?" He also criticised Gandhi for his reluctance to bring the army from Meerut to handle
1190-603: A general perception of being free of a background in corrupt politics. Gandhi took his oath on 31 December 1984; at 40, he was the youngest prime minister of India. Historian Meena Agarwal writes that even after taking the Prime Ministerial oath, he was a relatively unknown figure, "novice in politics" as he assumed the post after being an MP for three years. After his swearing-in as prime minister, Gandhi appointed his fourteen-member cabinet. He said he would monitor their performance and would "fire ministers who do not come to
1309-490: A large exercise is conceived", the movement of Indian forces is going to attract the attention of Pakistan. General Hoon maintained that, General Sundarji did not inform Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi about the scale of the operation and such details were hidden from him. Hoon also wrote in his memoir: "Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up the situation for a fourth war with Pakistan." Indian scholar, Paul Kapur further argues that during Operation Brasstacks,
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#17328761428181428-489: A large scale military exercise to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support. He issued orders to mobilize the mechanized and armoured divisions, and armed tanks were sent to take position in the Thar desert . In December 1986, with more than ten thousand armoured vehicles spread across its western desert, India launched the final stage of a huge military exercise that stirred new tensions with Pakistan. The scale of
1547-524: A meeting of the All India Congress Committee . Vasantdada Patil proposed Rajiv as a candidate for the Amethi constituency , which was accepted by all members at the meeting. A week later, the party officially announced his candidacy for the constituency. He then paid the party membership fees of the party and flew to Sultanpur to file his nomination papers and completed other formalities. He won
1666-672: A pass mark in chemistry. During Gandhi's final year at Doon, his mother and Albert D'Rozario, the scientific attaché at the Indian High Commission in London , arranged his application to Cambridge University . D'Rozario, who had been a college classmate of Gandhi's father Feroze, recommended that Gandhi should read engineering, and met with Mark Pryor , the Senior Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge . Pryor arranged for Gandhi's conditional admission to Trinity, contingent on his passing
1785-418: A pilot. In 1970, he was employed as a pilot by Indian Airlines ; unlike Sanjay, he did not exhibit any interest of joining politics. In 1968, after three years of courtship, he married Edvige Antonia Albina Màino , who changed her name to Sonia Gandhi and made India her home. Their first child, a son, Rahul was born in 1970. In 1972, the couple had a daughter, Priyanka , who married Robert Vadra . Gandhi
1904-457: A professional pilot for the state-owned Indian Airlines . In 1968, he married Sonia Maino ; the couple settled in Delhi for a domestic life with their children Rahul and Priyanka . For much of the 1970s, his mother was prime minister and his younger brother Sanjay an MP ; despite this, Gandhi remained apolitical. After Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980, Gandhi reluctantly entered politics at
2023-516: A simple form of combined arms, with a combination of dismounted knights forming a foundation for formations of English longbowmen . The lightly protected longbowmen could down their French opponents at a distance, whilst the armoured men-at-arms could deal with any Frenchmen who made it to the English lines. This is the crux of combined arms: to allow a combination of forces to achieve what would be impossible for its constituent elements to do alone. During
2142-512: A small cavalry unit. The legion was sometimes also incorporated into a higher-echelon combined arms unit – e.g., in one period it was customary for a general to command two legions plus two similarly sized units of auxiliaries, lighter units useful as screens or for combat in rough terrain. Later during the Roman Empire, auxiliary soldiers outnumbered the core legionary troops. The army of the Han dynasty
2261-626: A tank company to an infantry battalion. Combined arms operations date back to antiquity, where armies would usually field a screen of skirmishers to protect their spearmen during the approach to contact. Especially in the case of the Greek hoplites , however, the focus of military thinking lay almost exclusively on the heavy infantry. In more elaborate situations armies of various nationalities fielded different combinations of light, medium, or heavy infantry, cavalry, chariotry, camelry, elephantry, and artillery (mechanical weapons). Combined arms in this context
2380-670: A telegram from the Indian ambassador in Germany, stating that an Indian agents had received commissions in the HDW submarine deal. He told Rajiv Gandhi about this and instituted an enquiry. This led to differences and V. P. Singh resigned from the cabinet. In his book, Unknown Facets of Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu and Indrajit Gupta , released in November 2013, former CBI director Dr. A P Mukherjee wrote that Gandhi wanted commission paid by defence suppliers to be used exclusively for meeting running expenses of
2499-460: A thing for the use of the rich, but credit goes to Rajiv Gandhi for taking them to the rural masses". Pitroda also said their plan to expand India's telephone network succeeded because of Gandhi's political support. According to Pitroda, by 2007 they were "adding six million phones every month". Gandhi's government also allowed the import of fully assembled motherboards, which led to the price of computers being reduced. According to some commentators,
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#17328761428182618-432: A unified command structure . Also, most modern military units can, if the situation requires it, call on yet more branches of the military, such as infantry requesting bombing or shelling by military aircraft or naval forces to augment their ground offensive or protect their land forces. The mixing of arms is sometimes pushed down below the level at which homogeneity ordinarily prevails, such as by temporarily attaching
2737-551: A war between a de facto nuclear weapon state (India—who had already conducted a nuclear test in 1974, Smiling Buddha , and a state known to have nuclear infrastructure , that was believed to be developing nuclear weapons at that time (Pakistan). In January 1987, Pakistan had put its nuclear installations on high alert, and the crisis atmosphere was heightened. During this time, Abdul Qadeer Khan gave an interview to Indian diplomat, Kuldip Nayar in which he made it clear that "Pakistan would use its atomic weapons if its existence
2856-568: Is a national endeavour. Chanderasekar withdrew the IPKF in 1989. On 30 July 1987, a day after Gandhi went to Sri Lanka and signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, an honour guard named Vijitha Rohana hit him on his shoulder with his rifle; Gandhi's quick reflexes saved him from injury. The guard was then dragged off by his security personnel. The guard said his intention was to kill Gandhi because of "the damage he had caused" to Sri Lanka. Wijemuni
2975-465: Is also an example, fielding mêlée infantry (equipped with a variety of different weapons ranging from swords to pikes to halberd-like weapons), archers, crossbowmen, and cavalry (ranging from horse archers to heavy lancers). One recorded tactical formation during the Han dynasty included three ranks of halberds, swordsmen, and spearmen, supported by crossbows, and with cavalry on the flanks. Civilizations such as
3094-442: Is and always has been a training exercise. I can't answer why there have been misperceptions about it in some quarters." India repeatedly accused Pakistan of continuing scientific research on atomic bombs; Pakistan continued to sharply reject the claims. A few days later, A. Q. Khan also rejected any statements issued regarding atomic bomb development, and has since said "his comments were taken out of context." The real motives behind
3213-469: Is supplemented by satellite photos and passive reception of enemy radio emissions, forward observers with digital target designation, specialized scouting aircraft, anti-artillery radars and gun-laying software for artillery. Based on this doctrine, many US ground vehicles moved across the landscape alone. If they encountered an enemy troop or vehicle concentration, they would assume a defensive posture, lay down as much covering fire as they could, designate
3332-597: Is the very condition of human survival in our age. The foiled bid of India recently to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group , echoed his policy of non-proliferation to be linked to universal disarmament, which the World Nuclear Association refuses to recognise; non-proliferation being seen by India as essentially a weapon of the arms control regime, of the big nuclear powers as United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China. In February 1987,
3451-418: Is usually given as a major contributing factor in the failure. It is an example of why generals needed to use combined arms to overcome the tactics used by enemy officers to frustrate an attack by a single arm of an army. In contrast the 27th (Inniskilling) suffered 478 casualties from an initial strength of 750 because of their exposure to attack by French combined arms. They were located near
3570-627: The Carthaginians and Sassanids also were known to have fielded a combination of infantry supported by powerful cavalry. At the Battle of Hastings (1066) English infantry fighting from behind a shield wall were defeated by a Norman army consisting of archers, foot soldiers (infantry), and mounted knights (cavalry). One of the tactics used by the Normans was to tempt the English to leave the shield wall to attack retreating Norman infantry only to destroy them in
3689-739: The Indian subcontinent , involving the combined strength of two Army Commands - almost 500,000 troops - half the Indian Army. Operation Brasstacks was tasked with two objectives: the initial goal was the deployment of ground troops. The other objective was to conduct a series of amphibious assault exercises by the Indian Navy near to the Pakistan naval base. Operation Brasstacks involved numbers of infantry, mechanized, air assault divisions, and 500,000 army personnel who were massed within 100 miles of Pakistan. An amphibious assault group formed from Indian naval forces
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3808-589: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 , the Indian Army had long been advocating for practicing modern methods of land-based warfare and professionalism. The Chief of Staff of the Indian Army , General Krishnaswamy Sundarji , an officer who earlier had commanded the infantry division in the Bangladesh Liberation War , threw himself into the Indian Army's modernisation. He was granted permission, and ordered
3927-632: The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987. The accord "envisaged a devolution of power to the Tamil-majority areas", dissolved the LTTE, and designated Tamil as an official language of Sri Lanka. Gandhi said: The Government of India believe that, despite some problems and delays, many of which were foreseen but unavoidable in the resolution of an issue of this magnitude and complexity, this Agreement represents
4046-577: The Janata Dal . Singh led the National Front coalition to victory in 1989 elections and he was sworn in as prime minister. Though the coalition won 143 seats compared to Congress's 197, it gained majority in the lower house of the parliament through outside support from the Bharatiya Janta Party under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani and the left parties such as
4165-598: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). His party was defeated in the 1989 election . Gandhi remained Congress president until the elections in 1991 . While campaigning for the elections, he was assassinated by a suicide bomber from the LTTE. In 1991, the Indian government posthumously awarded Gandhi the Bharat Ratna , the country's highest civilian award. At the India Leadership Conclave in 2009,
4284-595: The Napoleonic Wars . After 25 years of near continuous warfare, the armies that met at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 were organized in a similar manner – into corps which contained infantry, cavalry and artillery (see Order of battle of the Waterloo Campaign ), and used similar combined arms tactics. Within each corps were divisions of infantry or cavalry made up of brigades and an artillery unit. An army would usually also have reserves of all three arms under
4403-842: The Operation Black Thunder to clear the Golden Temple in Amritsar of arms and gunmen. Two groups called National Security Guard and Special Action Group were created; they surrounded the temple in a 10-day siege during which the extremists' weapons were confiscated. Congress leader Anand Sharma said, "Operation Black Thunder effectively demonstrated the will of Rajiv Gandhi's government to take firm action to bring peace to Punjab". Gandhi's prime-ministership marked an increase of insurgency in northeast India . Mizo National Front demanded independence for Mizoram . In 1987, Gandhi addressed this problem; Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh were given
4522-521: The Rajiv-Longowal Accord with Akali leader HS Longowal. Punjab's state assembly election was scheduled in September 1985, but Longowal died and was replaced by Surjit Singh Barnala , who formed the government. After two years, in 1987, Barnala resigned his office because of a breakdown of law and order, leading to the implementation of President's rule in the state. In May 1988, Gandhi launched
4641-722: The colunelas of the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba , evolving into the tercios of Hapsburg Spain and the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire during the 16th century . In Japan, at the battle of Nagashino (長篠の戦い) in 1575, forces of the Oda clan successfully employed combined arms against the Takeda clan , which heavily relied on cavalry. The Oda army erected palisades to protect their ashigaru musketeers that shot down
4760-544: The "whole gamut" of Rajiv Gandhi's foreign policy was "geared towards" making India "strong, independent, self-reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world." According to Laskar , Rajiv Gandhi's diplomacy was "properly calibrated" so as to be "conciliatory and accommodating when required" and "assertive when the occasion demanded." In 1986, by request of the president of Seychelles France-Albert René , Gandhi sent India's navy to Seychelles to oppose an attempted coup against René. The intervention of India averted
4879-579: The Code. Indian magazine Business and Economics called it a minority appeasement by Gandhi. Lawyer and former Law Minister of India, Ram Jethmalani , called the Act "retrogressive obscurantism for short-term minority populism". Gandhi's colleague Arif Mohammad Khan , who was then a Member of Parliament, resigned in protest. In his election manifesto for the 1984 general election , he did not mention any economic reforms, but after assuming office he tried to liberalise
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4998-660: The Congress party joined opposition parties. Rajiv Gandhi had announced 'Sandesh Yatra' at the plenary session of AICC in Mumbai in 1985. The All India Congress Seva Dal ran it across the country. Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) and party leaders made four simultaneous trips from Mumbai, Kashmir, Kanyakumari and the Northeast. The yatra, which lasted for more than three months, concluded at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan. In 1990, Rajiv Gandhi undertook Bharat Yatra through different modes – padyatra,
5117-466: The Congress party signed a proposal and went to Indira, urging Rajiv to enter politics. Indira told them it was Rajiv's decision whether to enter politics. When he was questioned about it, he replied, "If my mother gets help from it, then I will enter politics". Rajiv entered politics on 16 February 1981, when he addressed a national farmers' rally in Delhi. During this time, he was still an employee of Air India. On 4 May 1981, Indira Gandhi presided over
5236-479: The Congress party won the largest Lok Sabha majority to date, 414 seats out of 541 . Gandhi's period in office was mired in controversies such as Bhopal disaster , Bofors scandal and Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum . In 1988, he reversed the coup in Maldives , antagonising militant Tamil groups such as PLOTE , intervening and then sending peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in 1987, leading to open conflict with
5355-405: The Congress party. Mukherjee said Gandhi explained his position in a meeting between the two at the prime minister's residence on 19 June 1989. In May 2015, Indian president Pranab Mukherjee said the scandal was a "media trial" as "no Indian court has as yet established it as a scandal". Opposition parties Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Socialist) and Jan Morcha united under Singh to form
5474-461: The Indian Army lobbied the government multiple times, but unsuccessfully, to attack Pakistan. It is theorised by author Robert Art and others that the Brasstacks crisis was not an inadvertent and accidental crisis caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation of a large scale Indian Army exercise, confined mainly to the vast Rajasthan desert sector, as provocative. In this theory, General Sunderji's strategy
5593-480: The Indian Embassy that he had an important message from President Zia. Noorani officially advised Singh that in the event of violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity by India, Pakistan was "capable of inflicting unacceptable damage on it." When Singh asked Noorani whether this implied an [atomic] attack on Bombay , Noorani replied: "it might be so". The situation could have potentially lead to
5712-1122: The Mechanical Sciences Qualifying (MSQ) Examination with acceptable marks. After studying for his A-levels at the sixth form college of Davies, Laing & Dick in London, Gandhi sat the MSQ Examination in March 1962 but was unsuccessful. He passed on his second attempt in June, and was admitted to Trinity on 4 September 1962, joining the college in October. While at Trinity, he joined the Cambridge University Boat Club . During Gandhi's time at Cambridge, his mother and D'Rozario remained concerned about his well-being. D'Rozario, who along with his wife Sophy often hosted Gandhi at their Finchley home, took Gandhi to task for his inattention towards his studies. Despite his support, Gandhi failed end-of-year exams and left Trinity in 1965 without
5831-540: The Middle Ages military forces used combined arms as a method of winning battles and furthering a war leader or king's long-term goals. Some historians claim that during the Middle Ages there was no strategic or tactical art to military combat. Kelly DeVries uses the Merriam-Webster definition of combat "as a general military engagement". In the pursuit of a leader's goals and self-interest tactical and strategic thinking
5950-556: The Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs , amid fears that India might attack Pakistan, who was on route to becoming a nuclear power . Since 1981, the commanders of the Pakistan Armed Forces were given standing orders to mobilize their forces at once, from all directions, as quick as it could to divert such attacks. When Brasstacks was executed, Pakistan quickly responded with maneuvers of its own forces, first mobilizing
6069-545: The Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq visited Delhi, where he met Gandhi to discuss "routine military exercises of the Indian army" on the borders of Rajasthan and Punjab . Gandhi reciprocated, in December 1988, by visiting Islamabad and meeting the new prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto , to reaffirm the 1972 Shimla agreement . The Sri Lankan Civil War broke out with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which
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#17328761428186188-570: The Parliament of India passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 , which nullified the Supreme Court's judgment in the Shah Bano case. The Act diluted the Supreme Court judgment and allowed maintenance payments to divorced women only during the period of Iddah , or until 90 days after the divorce, according to the provisions of Islamic law. This was in contrast to Section 125 of
6307-592: The Revolutionary Leader of Modern India award was conferred posthumously on Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was born in Bombay (Mumbai) on 20 August 1944 to Indira and Feroze Gandhi . In 1951, Rajiv and his younger brother Sanjay were admitted to Shiv Niketan school, where the teachers said Gandhi was shy and introverted, and "greatly enjoyed painting and drawing". He then studied at the St. Columba's School, Delhi . Thereafter, he
6426-604: The Soviet deep battle doctrine, which was based on combining tanks, mobile units (mechanised infantry or cavalry) and infantry, while supported by artillery. In 1963 the United States Marine Corps formalized the concept of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force , which combined Marine aviation and Marine ground units for expeditionary missions. The Vietnam War had a profound influence on the development of
6545-518: The Swedish arms company Bofors through Italian businessman and Gandhi family associate Ottavio Quattrocchi , in return for Indian contracts. Upon discovering the scandal, Singh was dismissed from office and later resigned his Congress membership. Gandhi was later personally implicated in the scandal when the investigation was continued by Narasimhan Ram and Chitra Subramaniam of The Hindu newspaper, damaging his image as an honest politician. In 2004, he
6664-463: The Takeda cavalry while their samurai cut down any enemies who managed to approach melee range. The 17th century saw increasing use of combined arms at lower (regimental) level. King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was the proponent of the idea. For fire support he attached teams of "commanded musketeers" to cavalry units and fielded light 3-pounder guns to provide infantry units with organic artillery. In
6783-544: The US Army in Vietnam also learned to combine helicopter operations and airmobile infantry with the armoured and artillery units operating from fire support bases as well as the US brown-water navy and USAF close air support units supporting them. AirLand Battle was the overall conceptual framework that formed the basis of the US Army's European warfighting doctrine from 1982 into
6902-476: The US Army's combined arms doctrine. Due to the very difficult terrain that prevented access to the enemy-held areas of operation , troops were often deployed by air assault . For this reason, US troops in Vietnam saw six times more combat than in preceding wars, due to less time spent on logistic delays. The result: an infantry unit increased in effectiveness by a factor of four for its size, when supported with helicopter-delivered ammunition, food and fuel. In time
7021-467: The Western Front, fighting descended into stagnant trench warfare . Generals on both sides applied conventional military thinking to the new weapons and situations that they faced. In these early stages, tactics typically consisted of heavy artillery barrages followed by massed frontal assaults against well entrenched enemies. These tactics were largely unsuccessful and resulted in large loss of life. As
7140-429: The advantage of the horse. Archers provide standoff with their bows or crossbows. Cavalry can maneuver faster and provide fast attack before the enemy has had time to prepare defenses. Peasants are more numerous and cheaper on the royal coffers. Over the long term the army can cross-train and learn the skills of the specialties to increase combat effectiveness . This is known as a combat multiplier today. The combination of
7259-622: The anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi said, "When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes"; a statement for which he was widely criticised. Many Congress politicians were accused of orchestrating the violence. Indian politics got the youngest ever Prime minister in Rajiv Gandhi. This phenomenon attracted attention the world over. . . his winsome smile, charm and decency were his valuable personal assets. . . A senior opposition member, while talking to me, conceded that . . . he could not conceal his feeling that Rajiv Gandhi would be invincible for
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#17328761428187378-467: The behest of his mother. The following year he won his brother's Parliamentary seat of Amethi and became a member of the Lok Sabha , the lower house of India's Parliament . As part of his political grooming, Rajiv was made general secretary of the Congress party and given significant responsibility in organising the 1982 Asian Games . On the morning of 31 October 1984, his mother (the then prime minister)
7497-409: The biggest since World War II". Even today, Pakistani military analysts and strategists regard it as a planned " blitzkrieg-like " integrated deep offensive strategy to infiltrate into dense areas of Central Pakistan. On the other hand, India maintained that "[the] core objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by Indian army." After
7616-541: The centre of Wellington's line, but unlike most of the rest of Wellington's infantry were in a declivity on the exposed side of the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment . Exposed as they were, they were forced to stand in square for most of the day for fear of cavalry attack and so made an easy dense target for Napoleon's massed artillery. The development of modern combined arms tactics began in the First World War . Early in
7735-406: The clock" on the 1982 Asian Games . He was one of 33 members of the Indian parliament who were part of the Games' organising committee; sports historian Boria Majumdar writes that being "son of the prime minister he had a moral and unofficial authority" over the others. The report submitted by the Asian Games committee mentions Gandhi's "drive, zeal and initiative" for the "outstanding success" of
7854-744: The country's economy. He sought to liberalise India's trade policies but faced stiff opposition to the proposed reforms. He did so by providing incentives to make private production profitable. Subsidies were given to corporate companies to increase industrial production, especially of durable goods . It was hoped this would increase economic growth and improve the quality of investment. Rural and tribal people protested because they saw them as "pro-rich" and "pro-city" reforms. Gandhi increased government support for science, technology and associated industries, and reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on technology-based industries, especially computers, airlines, defence and telecommunications. In 1986, he announced
7973-429: The coup. This mission was codenamed as Operation Flowers are Blooming . In 1987, India re-occupied the Quaid Post in the disputed Siachen region of the Indo-Pakistani border after winning what was termed Operation Rajiv . In the 1988 Maldives coup d'état , the Maldives president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom asked for help from Gandhi. He dispatched 1500 soldiers and the coup was suppressed. On Thursday, 9 June 1988, at
8092-453: The desert area that was signed the same month. While negotiating the withdrawal accord, India vowed to proceed with Brasstacks , asserting that Pakistan had no reason to feel provoked. India did delay the beginning of the last stage of the operation until the following week, while the latest withdrawal agreement was being negotiated. To prove its intentions were peaceful, India took the unusual step of inviting diplomats and journalists to observe
8211-403: The different skills help provide a commander the flexibility to minimize risk when it comes to engagements. The overall objective of any military force is to fight and win, while also preserving the largest number of combatants to carry on the larger strategic aims of the king. This can be seen in some of the engagements during the Middle Ages. Generally the savanna cavalries of West Africa used
8330-402: The direct command of the army commander which could be sent in support of any corps or division of a corps to increase any arm which the army general considered necessary. The great French cavalry charge commanded by Marshal Ney during the battle failed to break Wellington's squares of infantry and Ney's failure to supplement his cavalry with sufficient horse artillery to break the squares open
8449-418: The eighteenth century, the concept of the legion was revived. Legions now consisted of musketeers , light infantry , dragoons and artillery in a brigade sized force. These legions often combined professional military personnel with militia . Perhaps the most notable example is the use of light cavalry , light infantry and light horse artillery in advance detachments by France's La Grande Armée during
8568-402: The enemy with two or more arms simultaneously in such a manner that the actions he must take to defend himself from one make him more vulnerable to another. In contrast, supporting arms is hitting the enemy with two or more arms in sequence, or if simultaneously, then in such combination that the actions the enemy must take to defend himself from one also defends himself from the other(s). Though
8687-657: The entire Armoured Corps , with the V Corps, to move to the front lines. By mid-January 1987, the Pakistani Armed Forces and Indian Army personnel stood within firing range along an extended border area. The Foreign Office of Pakistan summoned the Indian Ambassador to Pakistan, S. K. Singh, at midnight, to meet with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs , Zain Noorani , who had just returned from an emergency meeting with Pakistan's President Zia-ul-Haq . Noorani advised
8806-519: The entire V Corps and then the Southern Air Command , near the Indian state of Punjab . Within weeks, the Pakistan Navy 's combat ships and submarines were deployed for the purpose of intelligence management, in the northern Arabian Sea . The Government of Pakistan viewed this military exercise as a direct threat to Pakistan's physical existence. This included further orders to deploy
8925-528: The exercise remain disputed. In 1999, a former senior Indian Army officer, Lieutenant-General P. N. Hoon, remarked that the operation had mobilized the entire Indian Army to Pakistan's eastern border. He further notes that, Brasstacks was a plan to build up a situation for a fourth war with Pakistan. Western scholars have theorized that Brasstacks was an accidental crisis, caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation of an inadvertently provocative Indian Army exercise. Robert Art suggests that, "General Sunderji's strategy
9044-500: The existing convention against the military use of biological weapons. The ambit of our concern must extend to all means of mass annihilation . This was based on his prior historic speech before the Japanese National Diet on 29 November 1985, in which he said: Let us remove the mental partitions which obstruct the ennobling vision of the human family linked together in peace and prosperity. The Buddha's message of compassion
9163-554: The fifteenth special session of the United Nations General Assembly , held at Headquarters, New York, Gandhi made vocal his views on a world free of nuclear weapons, to be realised through an, 'Action Plan for Ushering in a Nuclear-Weapon Free and Non-Violent World Order.' He said: Alas, nuclear weapons are not the only weapons of mass destruction. New knowledge is being generated in the life sciences. Military applications of these developments could rapidly undermine
9282-433: The games. On 31 October 1984, the prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi's mother, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, which led to violent riots against Sikhs. Sources estimate the number of Sikh deaths to be between 8,000 and 17,000. At a Boat Club rally 19 days after the assassination, Gandhi said, "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for
9401-655: The ground assault phase, tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles supported by attack aircraft swept over remaining forces. The front line moved forward at upwards of 40–50 km/h at the upper limit of the Army's tracked vehicles. In 2000, the US Army began developing a new set of doctrines intended to use information superiority to wage warfare. Six pieces of equipment were crucial for this: AWACS (for Airborne early warning and control ), JSTARS (for Airborne ground surveillance ), GPS , VHF SINCGARS (for ground and airborne communications), and ruggedized computers . The mix
9520-423: The heavy cavalry could smash and break the enemy line by achieving local superiority. The early Republic Roman Legion was a combined arms force and consisted of five classes of troops. Lightly equipped velites acted as skirmishers armed with light javelins. The hastati and principes formed the main attacking strength of the legion with swords and pila , whilst the triarii formed the defensive backbone of
9639-431: The late 1990s. AirLand Battle emphasized close coordination between land forces acting as an aggressively maneuvering defense, and air forces attacking rear-echelon forces feeding those front line enemy forces. In the 1991 Gulf War , General Schwarzkopf used a mix of strikes by fixed-wing aircraft including carpet bombing and precision bombing in combination with large numbers of strikes by attack helicopters . During
9758-556: The leaders of the Akali Dal who had been imprisoned since 1984's Operation Blue Star during Indira Gandhi's prime ministership. He lifted the ban on All India Sikh Students Federation and filed an inquiry into the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots . He also held a closed-door meeting with senior Akali Dal leaders to find a solution to the Punjab problem. Despite Akali opposition, in January 1985, Gandhi signed
9877-463: The legion fighting as spearmen (initially as a denser Greek phalanx and later as a looser spear wall formation) with long spears and large shields. The fifth class of troops were the equites (the cavalry), which were used for scouting, pursuit and to guard the flanks. The Legion then became notionally a unit of heavy infantrymen armed with just sword and pilum, and fielded with a small attached auxiliary skirmishers and missile troops, and incorporated
9996-494: The lower- echelon units of a combined arms team may be of similar types, a balanced mixture of such units are combined into an effective higher-echelon unit, whether formally in a table of organization or informally in an ad hoc solution to a battlefield problem. For example, an armoured division , the modern paragon of combined arms doctrine, consists of a mixture of infantry, tank , artillery , reconnaissance , and helicopter units, all of which are co-ordinated and directed by
10115-585: The mark". From the Third Indira Gandhi ministry , he removed two powerful figures; Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Railway Minister A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury . Mohsina Kidwai became the Minister of Railways; she was the only female figure in the cabinet. Former Home Minister PV Narasimha Rao was put in charge of defence . V. P. Singh , who was initially appointed as the Finance Minister ,
10234-566: The media for appointing many old boys to his administration. His inner circle was labelled a "Doon Cabinet" or "Dosco Mafia", and Washington Post reported, "The catch phrase around Delhi these days is that the 'Doon School runs India,' but that is too simple an analysis for a complex, chaotic country with so many competing spheres of influence." Gandhi's reliance on Doon alumni for political advice later led Prime Minister Morarji Desai to remark, "If I had anything to do with this place, I'd close it down". Gandhi's first action as prime minister
10353-525: The mob. Rajiv Gandhi was in West Bengal on 31 October 1984 when his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh , to avenge the military attack on the Golden Temple during Operation Blue Star . Sardar Buta Singh and President Zail Singh pressed Rajiv to succeed his mother as prime minister within hours of her murder. Commenting on
10472-632: The only way of safeguarding legitimate Tamil interests and ensuring a durable peace in Sri Lanka. Some have chosen to criticise the Agreement. None has shown a better way of meeting the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, restoring peace in that country and of meeting our own security concern in the region. We have accepted a role which is difficult, but which is in our national interests to discharge. We shall not shrink our obligations and commitments. This
10591-524: The open with cavalry. Likewise Scottish sheltrons – which had been developed to counter the charges by English heavy cavalry, and had been used successfully against English cavalry at the Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297) – were destroyed at the Battle of Falkirk (1298) by English archers acting in concert with mounted knights. Both Hastings and Falkirk showed how combined arms could be used to defeat enemies relying on only one arm. The English victories of Crécy , Poitiers and Agincourt were examples of
10710-599: The operation separately. Pakistani Foreign Service officers, senior diplomats and statesmen were those who were invited. According to an unnamed Western diplomat, "This was not a third-world army. This was a modern army, fully competent for any mission, easily as good as the Chinese, the Koreans or the French." Pakistan's President Zia visited India in February 1987, having been invited to see
10829-416: The operation was bigger than any North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercise and the biggest land exercise since World War II . Initially, around 600,000–800,000 troops were mobilized and stationed on Rajasthan state's western border, less than 100 miles away from Pakistan. The commander of the Indian Army's Western Command , Lieutenant General Prem Nath Hoon , maintained that, "Operation Brasstacks
10948-556: The opposition. — Satyendra Narayan Sinha Soon after assuming office, Gandhi asked President Singh to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections, as the Lok Sabha had completed its five-year term. Gandhi officially became the president of the Congress party, which won a landslide victory with the largest majority in history of the Indian Parliament, giving Gandhi absolute control of government. He benefited from his youth and
11067-504: The seat, defeating Lok Dal candidate Sharad Yadav by a margin of 237,000 votes. He took his oath on 17 August as Member of Parliament . Rajiv Gandhi's first political tour was to England, where he attended the wedding ceremony of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981. In December the same year, he was put in charge of the Indian Youth Congress . He first showed his organisational ability by "working round
11186-673: The second class carriage of an ordinary passenger train. He chose Champaran as the starting point for his 'Bharat Yatra'. Rajiv Gandhi started the Sadbhavna Yatra from Charminar in Hyderabad on 19 October 1990. In 1985, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of Muslim divorcee Shah Bano , declaring that her husband should give her alimony . Some Indian Muslims treated it as an encroachment upon Muslim Personal Law and protested against it. Gandhi agreed to their demands. In 1986,
11305-540: The seed for the information technology (IT) revolution was also planted during Rajiv Gandhi's time. Rajiv Gandhi's finance minister, V. P. Singh , uncovered compromising details about government and political corruption, to the consternation of Congress leaders. Transferred to the Defence Ministry, Singh uncovered what became known as the Bofors scandal, which involved millions of US dollars and concerned alleged payoffs by
11424-737: The state between 1951 and 1961 were given full citizenship but those who arrived there between 1961 and 1971 did not get right to vote for the next ten years. Gandhi employed former Rockwell International executive Sam Pitroda as his adviser on public information infrastructure and innovation. During Gandhi's time in office, public sector telecom companies MTNL and VSNL was developed. According to Pitroda, Gandhi's ability to resist pressure from multi-national companies to abandon his plan to spread telecommunication services has been an important factor in India's development. According to news website Oneindia , "About 20 years ago telephones were considered to be
11543-567: The status of states that were earlier union territories. Gandhi also ended the Assam Movement , which was launched by Assamese people to protest against the alleged illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims and immigration of other Bengalis to their state, which had reduced the Assamese to a minority there. He signed the Assam Accord on 15 August 1985. According to the accord, foreigners who came to
11662-465: The targets for requested air and artillery assets. Within a few minutes, on station aircraft would direct their missions to cover the ground vehicle. Within a half-hour heavy attack forces would concentrate to relieve the isolated vehicle. In an hour and a half the relieved vehicle would be resupplied. In 2020, the Israel Defense Forces established a dedicated combined arms battalion to test
11781-518: The telephone network in rural areas. He introduced measures to significantly reduce the Licence Raj after 1990, allowing businesses and individuals to purchase capital, consumer goods and import without bureaucratic restrictions. According to Rejaul Karim Laskar , a scholar of Indian foreign policy and an ideologue of Congress party , Rajiv Gandhi's vision for a new world order was premised on India's place in its front rank. According to Laskar ,
11900-465: The viability of full integration of infantry, armor, and aircraft into a single battalion command structure. The unit fields Merkava Mk.4 main battle tanks, F-16D multirole fighters, Heron and Hermes 450 drones, and AH-64 Apache helicopters. Rajiv Gandhi [REDACTED] Rajiv Gandhi ( / ˈ r ɑː dʒ iː v ˈ ɡ ɑː n d iː / ; Hindi pronunciation: [raːdʒiːʋ ɡaːndʱiː] ; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991)
12019-518: The war progressed new combined arms tactics were developed, often described then as the "all arms battle". These included direct close artillery fire support for attacking soldiers (the creeping barrage ), air support and mutual support of tanks and infantry. One of the first instances of combined arms was the Battle of Cambrai , in which the British used tanks, artillery, infantry, small arms and air power to break through enemy lines. Previously such
12138-482: Was a friend of Amitabh Bachchan , and was familiar with Bachchan even before he launched his acting career. Rajiv, Sanjay and Bachchan spent time together when Bachchan was student in Delhi University and a resident of New Delhi . In the 1980s, Bachchan entered politics to support Gandhi. On 23 June 1980, Rajiv's younger brother Sanjay Gandhi died unexpectedly in an aeroplane crash. At that time, Rajiv Gandhi
12257-497: Was a mobilization of the entire Army of India." The magnitude and large scale of the exercise led to Pakistani fears that India was displaying an overwhelming conventional superiority and was planning to invade Pakistan and dismember it by surgical strikes , as it did to East Pakistan during the Indo-Pak 1971 Winter war . According to General Hoon's memoirs, a letter was directed to Sundarji by Western Command, arguing that "when such
12376-636: Was admitted to the preparatory Welham Boys' School and then moved to The Doon School , Dehradun in 1954, where Sanjay joined him two years later. At Doon, Gandhi's senior was Mani Shankar Aiyar , who later became a prominent member in his inner circle. Gandhi was also educated at the Ecole d'Humanité , an international boarding school in Switzerland. He left the Doon School in 1961 with a second-class certificate, having performed well in his final subjects apart from
12495-476: Was an Indian politician who was the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the assassination of his mother, then–prime minister Indira Gandhi , to become at the age of 40 the youngest Indian prime minister. He served until his defeat at the 1989 election , and then became Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha , resigning in December 1990, six months before his own assassination . Gandhi
12614-558: Was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star , an Indian military action to remove Sikh separatist activists from the Golden Temple of the Harmandir Sahib . Later that day, Gandhi was appointed prime minister. His leadership was tested over the next few days as organised mobs rioted against the Sikh community , resulting in anti-Sikh massacres in Delhi. That December,
12733-655: Was demanding an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. Gandhi discussed the matter with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa at the SAARC meeting in 1986. In that year, the Sri Lankan army blockaded the Tamil majority district of Jaffna ; Gandhi ordered relief supplies to be dropped into the area by parachute because the Sri Lankan navy did not allow the Indian Navy to enter. Gandhi signed
12852-618: Was given the Defence Ministry in 1987. During his tenure as prime minister, Gandhi frequently shuffled his cabinet ministers, drawing criticism from the magazine India Today , which called it a "wheel of confusion". The West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu said, "The Cabinet change reflects the instability of the Congress (I) Government at the Centre". He also administered and created the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change . Gandhi, an alumnus of The Doon School , drew criticism from
12971-423: Was how to best use the cooperating units, variously armed with side-arms, spears, or missile weapons in order to coordinate an attack to disrupt and then destroy the enemy. Philip II of Macedon greatly improved upon the limited combined arms tactics of the Greek city-states and combined the newly created Macedonian phalanx with heavy cavalry and other forces. The phalanx would hold the opposing line in place, until
13090-420: Was imprisoned for 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 years for the assault. Gandhi later said about the incident: When I was inspecting the guard of honour and as I walked past one person, I saw through the corner of my eye some movement. I ducked down a little bit in a reflex action. By my ducking, he missed my head and the brunt of the blow came on my shoulder below the left ear. Soon after assuming office, Gandhi released
13209-404: Was in London as part of his foreign tour. Hearing the news, he returned to Delhi and cremated Sanjay's body. As per Agarwal, in the week following Sanjay's death, Shankaracharya Swami Shri Swaroopanand, a saint from Badrinath , visited the family's house to offer his condolences. He advised Rajiv not to fly aeroplanes and instead "dedicate himself to the service of the nation". Seventy members of
13328-608: Was not related to Mahatma Gandhi . Instead, he was from the politically powerful Nehru–Gandhi family , which had been associated with the Indian National Congress party. For much of his childhood, his maternal grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister. Gandhi attended The Doon School , an elite boarding institution, and then the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He returned to India in 1966 and became
13447-414: Was passing the anti-defection law in January 1985. According to this law, an elected Member of Parliament or legislative assembly could not join an opposition party until the next election. Historian Manish Telikicherla Chary calls it a measure of curbing corruption and bribery of ministers by switching parties so they could gain majority. Many such defections occurred during the 1980s as elected leaders of
13566-697: Was planned and deployed near to the Korangi Creek of Karachi Division in Pakistan. However, the most important aim of this war alert simulation was to determine tactical nuclear strategy , overseen by the Indian Army. The Pakistan Military regarded this war game as a threatening exhibition of overwhelming conventional force, perhaps even as a rehearsal for nuclear war , amounting to the most critical moment in India–Pakistan relations . The security information website Global Security.org characterized Operation Brasstacks as "bigger than any NATO exercise – and
13685-595: Was posthumously cleared of this allegation. In an interview in July 2005, V. P. Singh explained that his fall out with Rajiv Gandhi was not due to the Bofors deal, but rather due to the HDW deal . Courtesy a contract signed with the German company HDW in 1981, the Indian government had agreed to purchase two ready submarines built in Germany by HDW and two submarines in CKD form to be assembled in Mazagaon docks. V. P. Singh had received
13804-536: Was threatened"; although he later denied having made such a statement. Indian diplomats in Islamabad claimed that they were warned that Pakistan would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if attacked. Pakistan denied the veracity of these statements. The tensions diminished in March 1987, with an agreement by the two nations to withdraw 150,000 troops in the Kashmir area, followed by a second agreement to withdraw more troops in
13923-718: Was to provoke Pakistan to respond and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to the offensive against Pakistan and destroy its atomic bomb projects in a series of preventive strikes. After the success of the Israeli Air Force 's surprise Operation Opera air strike on the Iraqi nuclear power plant in Osirak in 1981, the Pakistan Armed Forces had been on alert. According to memoirs of nuclear strategist and theoretical physicist Munir Ahmad Khan , hectic discussions took place every day between
14042-557: Was to provoke Pakistan's response and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to offensive against Pakistan and take out its atomic bomb projects in preventive strikes." Even today, Pakistani military analysts and strategists regarded this as a " blitzkrieg-like " integrated deep offensive strategy to infiltrate into dense areas of Pakistan. The New York Times noted that India's accelerated drive for military technology, motivated Pakistan to turn to its rationale of stockpiling atomic bombs as
14161-409: Was used along with taking advantage of the terrain and weather in choosing when and where to give battle. The simplest example is the combination of different specialties such as archers, infantry, cavalry (knights or shock mounted troops), and even peasant militia. At times, each force fought on its own and won or lost depending on the opposing military competence. During the Middle Ages leaders utilized
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