At 92, Narendra Vohra is strapping fit in body and mind. He is the most experienced and versatile bureaucrat India has produced. What K Subrahmanyam, present Foreign Minister S Jaishankar's father, was to strategic thought, Vohra is to defence and security. I got to know both of them fairly well during my stint with Defence Planning Staff. Vohra has been organising seminars serially on national security for many decades, the last of which was held recently at IIC Delhi and was probably the most engaging and unusual as  speakers contradicted  one another over fundamental issues at a time when liberal expression has become so rare. A Service Chief, an Army Commander, two Defence Secretaries, a Foreign Secretary, all retired, constituted the panel.  Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, not new to the theme, chaired the discussion. Vohra began by enunciating the fraught state of civil-military relations, an unresolved malaise of growing intensity as civilian assertion of military control has become vital for the ruling establishment. Indian generalship has progressively allowed the diminution of its power, perks and prestige lately through the diversion of its intellectual resources towards shedding  colonial legacy.  Even  the unprecedented politicisation of the military is being accomplished with the cooperation of higher military leadership principally by the Army. Compliance has become the pass word! Vohra reminded ; that 'defence of India and every part thereof' is governed by Rules of Business 1961 under authority of MoD - inclusive of Defence Minister, Defence Secretary and........

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