Atal Behari Vajpayee with Naval Chief Sushil Kumar, Governor PC Alexander and Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane at a funciton of INS Mysore. (Express Archive photo by Manoj Patil)Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001, a high-level delegation, deputed by the US President, came to India with a request that it join its war on terror in Afghanistan. At a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh was all for India joining Operation Enduring Freedom. But the three chiefs of the Indian armed forces did not want to get involved. After listening to all, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said: “Isko thoda aur sochna padega” (this may need more thought).
Known for his one-liners, some of which disarmed his political rivals and some created history, Vajpayee's remark put an end to weeks of negotiations and dialogue between New Delhi and Washington over a united war on terror.
Admiral Sushil Kumar, who was Navy chief between December 1998 and December 2001, offers this glimpse into Vajpayee's way of handling issues in his book A Prime Minister To Remember: Memories of a Military Chief, published by Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd.
According to Kumar, Admiral Dennis Blair, Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Command (now known as US Indo-Pacific Command) had led a large entourage to India with several high-ranking US military officers. Blair told Kumar that the delegation was personally deputed by the US…
