General Shankar Roychowdhury’s Officially at Peace  is a series of thought provoking reflections that provides an insight into our Army and its genuine zeal to protect us. The author, who believes that political parties do not acknowledge the true worth of soldiers perhaps because the Army serves the country and not any particular political party or ideology, gives a different dimension to strategic diplomacy in this book. Officially at Peace is an autobiography comprising personal recollections, and opinions which are solely the author’s as he modestly states that during his tenure in office he never maintained a diary of any sorts and had no access to any records after he demitted office. 

With a wit least expected from an Army personnel of his stature, the General light-heartedly comments while discussing the Indo-Pak altercation that " It was a twilight conflict, undeclared by Pakistan, unacknowledged by India, a strange ‘hot peace’, where India and Pakistan competed in cricket matches and mushairas while at the same time exchanging artillery fire in Kashmir. Fortunately, the results of our military action were better than our cricket results!" The book examines the different ways in which the Indian army handles crisis situations, cross-border terrorism and internal strife in strategic locations. Though India was "officially at peace", there was never a holiday for the Armed Forces and this had been the case since Independence. Also, ego-clashes between bigwigs of the political and bureaucratic and sometimes Army personnel were prominent. Politics, thus, often forced the defence and security of the nation to be relegated to the back seat. 
  

There are some amusing incidents narrated in this otherwise thougt-provoking book. One such respite is when the General broke the news of his appointment as Army Chief to his wife. He explains: "My wife received the news with her characteristic equanimity, acquired over 32 years as an Army wife. She had been subjected to three wars, 24 postings, accommodation shortages, 10 children’s schools, periodic separations, and single parentage to our two children, as well as innumerable domestic crises, the type that every Army wife has to cope with single-handed, in the absence of the man of the House. Her immediate concern was packing up-yet again! - for what would be the penultimate move of my career- this time to Army House, New Delhi". 


On the contrary, it was far from a pleasant experience when the General had to work with 4 Indian Prime Ministers starting with PV Narsimha Rao and 3 Defence Ministers within less than 3 years!! The General confesses that he was definitely "not charmed" by Narsimha Rao, who had minimal personal interaction with the Services. 


Throughout the book the General praises the spirit of the Indian soldier and his "never say die" attitude. He discusses at length the tensions involving two of our most disturbing and dangerous neighbours- Pakistan and China, with special reference to the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971. The fourth Indo-Pak war proved to be his main challenge and the Army constantly had to force back the proxy war. Taking a closer look at the innocence that was Kashmir and the terror that it is today, the General opines that "the Army would certainly not let it (Kashmir) go or let it become Afghanistan." For political commentators on the other hand, Kashmir was a bottomless pit for the Indian Army, a black hole that would soak up whatever military resources India had. Moreover, co-ordination between the military, paramilitary, Central and state police, intelligence, political and administrative components was very poor. In the absence, of these hindrances, maybe the Army could have worked faster. Is anybody listening??


The book does not make any complimentary indulges towars the national media. The portrayal was as if there were only skirmishes whereas everyday was like war with Pakistan. Lashing out at the media, the General comments that may be it was not a timely and feasible decision on the part of the Centre to give unrestricted access to Western diplomats and the foreign media. It seemed the Kashmir issue was "fashionable" where the source and accuracy were not paid any heed to. Their faltering approach projected a political and administrative leadership ill at ease and on the defensive. 


While discussing external threats to India, the General feels that "the first serious military challenge the nation faced since Independence was the Sino-Indian border war of 1962." The Sino-Pak Treaty of Friendship (1963) was a conscious attempt on the part of China to develop Pakistan as its ‘strategic surrogate’ against India. The General gives full credit to the Rajiv Gandhi Government for easing tensions with China with an official visit to the country in 1988. The General also speaks of counter-insurgency operations that the India army handled in the Northeast, mainly in Nagalnd, Manipur and Assam. The chief impediment here, once again was the political and constitutional make-up in the country. 


While sharing his experiences in the Army as Chief and while glorifying the sacrifices made by innocent soldiers who laid down their lives to defend us, the General says how vital it was for our Army to be modernised and made technology savvy. War equipment that most other Armies could take for granted for instance, night vision devices, night sights for weapons, radio sets and bullet-proof vests to mine detectors, mine-proof vehicles and helicopters with night-flying capability, were urgently required by the Indian warriors too. More so because the operational capabilities of militants were becoming increasingly substantial and these groups could no longer be dismissed as mere slogan-shouting political activists. The General states that the last significant infusion of modern technology into the Army had been the induction of the 155 mm Bofors FH-77 Gun-howitzer in 1986. Moreover, the V.P. Singh Government’s decision to end the Bofors contract was a "strategically ill-advised step, whose immediate fallout paralysed decision-making in the Defence Ministry and led to an indefinite postponement of all of the Army's modernization plans." 


Overall, Officially at Peace takes us through an eventful journey of the much volatile and novel endowments of Army life. While we are inevitably bogged down by the daily knitty-gritty, the jawan on the frontier has only one mission- to save us from death at the cost of losing his life. And this is the fundamental watershed betweeen the line of control of civilians and the Army personnel. We enjoy peace because they are forfeiting theirs. This book is a must read for every patriotic Indian, the die-hard politician and above all for the Defence Services.