Ashok K. Mehta is a former major general of the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

, as well as a radio and television commentator and a columnist on defence and security issues. He was a founding member of the Defence Planning Staff in the Indian Ministry of Defence. He is also the elder brother of the renowned journalist and editor,

Vinod Mehta Vinod Mehta (31 May 1941 – 8 March 2015) was an Indian journalist, editor and political commentator. He was also the founder editor-in-chief of ''Outlook'' from 1995 to 2012 and had been editor of publications such as '' The Pioneer'', ''The S ...

. Ashok Mehta is married to journalist Aditi Phadnis. Maj. Gen. Mehta is an alumnus of the

Rashtriya Indian Military College The Rashtriya Indian Military College (abbreviated RIMC; formerly known as Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College) () is a military school for boys situated in Doon Valley, Dehradun in India. The RIMC is a feeder institution for the Nation ...

(RIMC), Dehradun, an Indian military preparatory school formerly known as the

Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College The Rashtriya Indian Military College (abbreviated RIMC; formerly known as Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College) () is a military school for boys situated in Doon Valley, Dehradun in India. The RIMC is a feeder institution for the Nation ...

Military career

Mehta joined the Indian Army in 1957 and was commissioned in the

5th Gorkha Rifles 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), also abbreviated as 5 GR(FF) is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army comprising Gurkha soldiers of Nepalese origin. It was formed in 1858 as part of the British Indian Army. The regiment's battalions serve ...

infantry regiment the same year. Since then, he fought in almost all of the major wars India went into, with the exception of the

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

of 1962, during which time he was on a peacekeeping mission in

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

. He undertook special military courses at the

Royal College of Defence Studies The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest leve ...

in the United Kingdom in 1974 and at the

Command and General Staff College The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or, obsolete, USACGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military ...

in the United States in 1975. He taught at the

Indian Military Academy The Indian Military Academy (IMA) is one of the oldest military academies in India, and trains officers for the Indian Army. Located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, it was established in 1932 following a recommendation by a military committee set up ...

in Dehradun and at the

Defence Services Staff College The Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) is a defence service training institution of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. It trains officers of all three services of the Indian Armed Forces – (Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air ...

in Wellington, Tamil Nadu. Mehta's last assignment in the Indian Army was as Maj. Gen. Harkirat Singh's successor to the position of

General Officer Commanding General officer commanding (GOC) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (and some other nations, such as Ireland) to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC ...

in the

Indian Peace Keeping Force Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lanka ...

in Sri Lanka from 1988 to 1990. He took a premature retirement in 1991.

Post-retirement

Following his retirement, he began serving as a regular radio and television commentator. He also began acting as a policy analyst and columnist on South Asian security affairs. He is an advisor to the Gurkha Memorial Trust and a member of the India-Nepal Track 2 Dialogue. He has also been a consulting editor in the

Indian Defence Review Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

, a member of the

Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), is an Indian think tank for advanced research in international relations, especially defence, strategic and security issues. It also provides training to civilian, military ...

, and the director of Security and Political Risk Analysis.

Publications

Mehta is the author of several books: *''War Despatches: Operation Iraqi Freedom'' *''The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal and the Royal Nepal Army'' *''Operation Parakram: The Military Standoff of 2002''

References

External links

Tackling the Tigers
Major general Mehta's speech at a symposium on low intensity conflicts (1999), about

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Ashok K. Indian generals Living people People of the Indian Peace Keeping Force Year of birth missing (living people) Indian Military Academy alumni Academic staff of the Defence Services Staff College

Military career

Post-retirement

Publications

See also

References

External links