Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi spoke of the unpredictability of future threats while addressing a gathering of students at his hometown of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
“Coming to what lies ahead, what the future holds and the challenges it will bring — in Hindi, we often describe this as asthirta (instability), anischitata (uncertainty), jatilta (complexity), and aspashtata (ambiguity). These four elements sum up what we can expect. Chaar kuch aisi cheez hain agar aapko simple words mein bolun toh aage aane wale din kaise honge yeh na aapko pata hai na mujhe. Kal kya hone wala hai, yeh bhi kisi ko nahi pata. Trump ji aaj kya kar rahe hain, mere khayal se Trump ji ko bhi nahi pata hoga kal kya karne ja rahe hain. (To put it simply, we don’t really know what the future will look like — what we should do, or what might happen tomorrow. Even Mr (Donald) Trump probably doesn’t know what he’s going to do tomorrow,” General Dwivedi said at TRS College in Rewa.
He said the armed forces face the same challenges “whether at the borders, through terrorism, natural disasters, cyber warfare, or the new frontiers like space warfare involving satellites, and chemical, biological, and radiological threats”.
“Then there’s information warfare… For instance, during Operation Sindoor, there were rumours that Karachi had been attacked. We, too, heard such reports and wondered where they came from and who started them. That’s how fast and confusing things can get,” he said.
Sharing the lessons learned from Operation Sindoor, General Dwivedi said, “First, Operation Sindoor wasn’t only about defeating the enemy — it was also about restoring sovereignty, integrity, and peace. When the Prime Minister told me that the operation would be named Sindoor, it reminded me how, during the Kargil war, the Army called its mission Operation Vijay, and the Air Force named its own Operation Safed Sagar. This time, the Prime Minister himself chose the name Operation Sindoor. And what was the biggest benefit of that? The entire nation united under a single name — Sindoor. It resonated emotionally across the country.”
In a battle, he said there would always be “a significant risk factor involved”.
“Whenever you launch an attack or come under enemy fire, you never know what will happen next. There is always uncertainty — you don’t know how many soldiers you might lose, what actions you’ll need to take, or how many civilians may be affected. Despite these risks, during this operation, we made sure that any position or setup that posed a threat to us was attacked directly. Even if it meant entering enemy territory, we went in up to 100 km deep and struck,” General Dwivedi said.
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He said the armed forces were also “embracing change”. “We adopted new technologies, prepared to use drones, improved ammunition and precision missions. It was because we adapted that we achieved victory.”
He explained that today’s battles are not fought only with “boots on the ground”, but also with “minds on the ground”.
“That means we need your intellect, your participation. For example, when Pakistan was spreading fake news and rumours, a man from Secunderabad reached out, saying, ‘Sir, I have 3 lakh followers on Twitter. Tell me what to do — I’ll expose their fake news.’ We received many such offers from across the country. Some people, fired up with patriotism, said, ‘Recruit us into the Army.’ We had to tell them, ‘Not yet training is essential,’” General Dwivedi said.
He also spoke about Indian civilisation, saying, “Our culture is assimilative and inclusive, meaning whoever comes, we absorb them. Our roots are deep, our culture strong. People from every background have blended with us — be it those who brought Islam, Christianity, or any other belief from abroad, they all became part of Indian civilisation.”
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He said India also “shared our culture with others, Buddhism spread from India to China, Japan, and Indonesia”.
General Dwivedi also made a plea to “Generation Z”.
“Generation Z is digitally fluent, technologically advanced, socially aware, and globally connected. They have access to information from all over the world. If such a powerful generation receives discipline and proper guidance, India could advance by several generations in just a moment, leap ahead by many ages. So, it means that in the coming days, Generation Z will be the fuel that drives India forward,” he said.
