India must be prepared for conflict on western and northern fronts: General Rawat

New Delhi [India], Sept. 6 (ANI): Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said that India should be prepared for conflict on its borders, considering the prevailing situation on the western and northern fronts of the country.

Speaking at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) on the Future Contours and Trends of Warfare, General Rawat said that no scope of reconciliation can be seen on the western adversary (Pakistan) because the military, the polity and the people of the region are made to believe that India is all out to bring their nation into pieces.

"The kind of propaganda that is prevailing on the west makes them believes that India is their long term adversary and will continue to remain. Therefore, while they have launched this proxy war against us, how long will the country (India) will be able to bear this proxy war or when will the country decide that the threshold level has been crossed that is something very difficult to predict and because of this proxy war there is always scope for conflict on the western side," he said.

Taking about the northern adversary of India (China), he said that "flexing of muscles has started" and added that "testing India's limit for threshold is something we have to be worried about and remain prepared for situation emerging which would gradually emerge into conflict."

General Rawat further said that a nation should always be prepared for war as when one starts believing or are made to believe that there will be no war then the kind of budgetary support that the military forces deserve starts dwindling.

He also pressed on the importance of fighting the war in an integrated manner, with all the three forces fighting together.

"The sooner it gets integrated, the better it is for the armed forces. War will be fought on land and, therefore, the privacy of the army must be maintained. The other forces, the navy and the air force will play a major role which will be operating on the ground," he said.

He also added that war has been unleashed to bring about the change and, therefore, to say that in future there will be no war in future may not always be true.

"It is not just militaries that fight war. A nation goes to war with another nation and therefore when a war has to be fought, it is the nation that has to be prepared and not just the military," he said.

"To say that a democracy does not go to wars is a myth. There will be bitter war if they are not allowed to go to war," he added.

The statement of the Army Chief came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping, in their first bilateral talks after the Doklam standoff at the sideline of the BRICS summit, affirmed to maintain peace and tranquility along the border.

The Indian and Chinese troops, recently, ended a tense stand-off along the Doklam border that began in June and which seriously affected their bilateral ties.

Earlier in June, General Rawat, in an interaction with ANI, said that the Indian Army is well prepared to face external, as well as internal threats to the country. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI