Leading Strategic Analyst Jasjit Singh passes away.

[Vipul]

India loses leading voice in military analysis.

Leading military analyst Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, who mentored several generations of writers and military commentators and penned scores of books considered essential reading by think tanks, passed away Sunday morning after a fight against pneumonia.

The 79-year-old officer and Padma Bhushan awardee founded the Air Force think tank Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) in 2001 and was the longest continuously serving director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA). He had been unwell for the past fortnight after catching a bad bout of cold, and was hospitalised a week ago.

A regular contributor to The Indian Express, Singh earlier served as editorial advisor (defence and strategic affairs) for the newspaper.

A former IAF fighter pilot, Singh was in service during both the 1962 and 1971 wars. While air power was not used in the war with China, the IAF was extensively deployed during the liberation of Bangladesh. Singh was awarded the Vir Chakra for carrying out bombing raids against heavily defended enemy targets in the 1971 war. He later served as director of operations for the IAF.

It was after he retired as air commodore in 1987 that Singh established himself as India's best-known military analyst with his insightful writings and his deep knowledge of national strategy. The same year, he succeeded K Subrahmanyam, perhaps India's most prominent analyst, as director of IDSA. He would continue in the post for 14 years, inspiring several generations of thinkers and analysts who are currently driving national policy.

He authored and edited scores of books on national security and military affairs in South Asia, including the highly regarded India's Defence Spending: Assessing Future Needs, Nuclear India, and Air Power in Modern Warfare.

Singh, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006, was also a visiting lecturer in war colleges across the world and a known figure in seminars and conferences on security in the international community.

Till he fell ill last month, Singh was actively looking after the affairs of CAPS, considered an authority in aviation strategy. Those close to him said that till the end he stayed devoted to the cause of promoting the culture of strategic thinking in India and was working on a project to promote and run courses on national security and strategic studies in universities, along with the Human Resources Development Ministry and University Grants Commission.

He had also come out with a low-cost paperback on security with the National Book Trust.

Friends and family attended the cremation, held in Delhi Sunday afternoon. Kapil Kak, Air Vice Marshal (retd), who is also associated with CAPS, said, "In the realm of security, he trod many paths. He guided not just students of security but also academics in university."

Having known him for over 10 years, Binalakshmi Nepram, founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, talked about his efforts to involve women in studies on India's security. "He encouraged a whole lot of women researchers, going to colleges as far as Kolkata to motivate them."

Nepram also lauded Singh's role in the setting up of a Department of National Security Studies in Manipur.

[Indrajit]

RIP Sir.

[Sanku]

My humble tribute to the colossal of the legend Air Commodore Jasjit Singh was. The passing of his earthly body marks a milestone in passing of time. May he return soon to us. We need souls like him even more today than ever, in service of the mother.

[SSridhar]

Ace Pilot who Sold Pokhran-II to Foreign Audience

More than as one who headed institutes for 24 years and rationalised Pokhran-II nuclear explosions to a foreign audience, Air Commodore (Retd.) Jasjit Singh, who passed away on Sunday at 79, will be known for mentoring the intellectual expansion of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in a post-Cold War setting and setting up the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) much before the land and maritime counterparts began devoting exclusive scholarly attention to their respective domains.

Jasjit Singh was also a prolific writer, hitting an especially purple patch on either side of the Kargil conflict and Pokhran-II when he co-authored at least 10 books. But it was Nuclear India that raised the most dust. On the government side, analysts and diplomats hailed his counters to moderate the West’s queasiness with the concept of recessed deterrence. At think tanks all over the world, Jasjit Singh spoke of recessed deterrence under which nuclear weapons are not mated with delivery vehicles but his critics said this was another word for George Perkovich’s ‘Non-weaponised Deterrence.’

After the concept outlived its political usefulness, he asked the Americans not to waste time “telling us to get rid of nuclear weapons.” Scientist-activist Prabir Purkayastha felt all this amounted to media management and didn’t reduce opacity on the nuclear question. His IDSA colleague, Uday Bhaskar, thought out of the 25 books he compiled or penned, Jasjit Singh loved most the autobiography on the first and only Marshal of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh.

Former diplomat Ronen Sen recalled that Jasjit Singh’s literary contribution was matched by his unpublished ones submitted to the higher echelons of the government on several security-related tangles such as MiG-21 crashes.

The ace pilot acquitted himself well in his battles — in the sky and the corridors of Vayu Bhavan. And when he joined IDSA under India’s foremost strategic analyst K. Subrahmanyam, the consequent mentoring helped him expose the chinks in defence production as well as counter the designs of a Defence Secretary who thought military men had no place in the institute, much less head it as he would for 14 years followed by 10 years at CAPS. Another veteran diplomat Nalin Surie saw him as the pioneer of the security track II dialogue in India, one that bridged the gap between civilians and military men.

If K. Subrahmanyam possessed the un-Indian ability of grooming a successor, Jasjit Singh showed no such inclination though he trained many scholars and diplomats, one of whom (Arvind Gupta) incidentally heads IDSA. Among them are Meera Shankar, Sheel Kant Sharma, Sanjay Baru, C. Rajamohan and Dipankar Gupta. For a person said to be a builder of institutions, Jasjit Singh’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) had a short life. But as IDSA Fellow G. Balachandran points out, “we had our differences but he left his mark especially when India was under sanctions.”

Humble salute to a great man.

[Austin]

I read some of his books and article they are always insightful and delight to read even for a lay man like me.

Will Miss his Work , May his Soul Rest In Peace.

[vinod]

Is there a repository where all the writings that are available in public are available? If not, may be we can add to this thread or another as we find them on the net. What do you guys think?

[Pratyush]

A sad day for the community of Indian strategic commentators.

[SaiK]

RIP sir!

[Karthik S]

RIP sir.

[Kartik]

RIP Jasjit Singh sir.