Army Chief Credits Lt Gen Raj Shukla’s Guidance for Shaping Response Framework Behind Operation Sindoor

By A Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI — Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday credited retired Lieutenant General Raj Shukla’s strategic insights for laying the intellectual foundation that later shaped Operation Sindoor. Speaking at the unveiling of “Civil Military Fusion as a Metric of National Power and Comprehensive Security” and the coffee table book “Portraits of Valour: Timeless Military Art” by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Gen. Dwivedi reflected on how early exposure to strategic decision-making prepared him for future challenges.

“Higher command course always talks about ‘why’. Three things which I picked up from him [Lt Gen Raj Shukla] at that point in time... The second thing was the foundation for Operation Sindoor,” Gen. Dwivedi said.

He added that in 2016, following the Uri attack, Lt Gen Shukla conducted a detailed analysis and discussion of various operational options. “At that time, he conducted a detailed discussion and various options on how to go about such situations in the future. So, I must concede very frankly, when this situation came to me, it was a very normal thing for me because I had already seen this earlier,” he noted.