Principal of power
The passing of Brajesh Mishra, who under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was India’s first national security adviser, on Friday, should be a reminder of the responsibility placed on India for being a democracy which is a nuclear weapons state in a region in which the other two nuclear-armed countries are, in essence, militarised bureaucracies.
This is a difficult situation to be in. Democracies have greater obligation to keep the people factor in mind than other systems, and Brajesh Mishra kept this in view in helping shape this country’s nuclear doctrine which eschews “first use” of nuclear weapons while stressing credible minimum deterrence. This will perhaps rank as the late strategist’s signal contribution.
While the institution of NSA was kicked off with Brajesh Mishra, the uniqueness of his position lay in the fact that he was also simultaneously the Prime Minister’s principal secretary. In India, no single official has seen such concentration of power in his hands. The NSAs who have succeeded him have not been principal secretary.
Whether in the present Indian system having an NSA of the kind we have hurts other institutions, such as the foreign secretary and the heads of IB and R&AW — is a serious matter to consider. Only P.N. Haksar under PM Indira Gandhi had comparable influence, and he was only principal secretary. Also, Brajesh Mishra was the virtual deputy PM in his day and this caused resentment among Mr Vajpayee’s senior Cabinet colleagues and clouded decision-making.
Comments
For anyone to understand the
Snjay
30 Sep 2012 - 22:01
For anyone to understand the contribution of Mr Brajesh Mishra you should understand the period in which he helped shape policies for India. Pre-1998 India was a country which lacked self confidence and belief in itself. One of the biggest contributions of NDA government (although they too made some mistakes, but atleast they where brave to take decisions and learn from their mistakes) was to generate a self confidence and belief in people of this country with a series of actions on economy front and defense security front like Nuclear test and Kargil war (If congress was in govt during Pakistan's Kargil invasion we would have handed over Kargil also to Pakistan like Pak Occupied Kashmir). Even after Narsimha Rao's reforms our country still lacked the self belief in itself and an assured fture direction. This is where NDA and Mr Brajesh Mishra played an invaluable role to built a confidence in a Generation. Today's generation (who dont even make an effort to understand our countries history of last two decades atleast) may not understand and might even make a mockery of the contribution of Mr Mishra, but for someone who have lived in those times he will be remembered as someone who helped chart a direction to a modern India. Country will miss him dearly.
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