Ashok K. Mehta

Ashok K. Mehta is a former Major general of the Indian Army, and a radio and television commentator, and a columnist on defence and security issues. He was founder-member of the Defence Planning Staff in the Ministry of Defence, India. He is also the elder brother of the renowned journalist and editor, Vinod Mehta.

Mehta joined the Indian Army in 1957, and was commissioned in the 5th Gorkha Rifles infantry regiment in the same year. Since then, he fought in all the major wars India went into, except in the Sino-Indian Warof 1962, as he was on a peacekeeping mission in Zaire that time.

He undertook special military courses at Royal College of Defence Studies (UK) in 1974 and at Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth (United States) in 1975. He taught at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Mehta's last assignment in the Indian Army was as the General Officer Commanding, in the Indian Peace Keeping Force, Sri Lanka (1988-90), after Major general Harkirat Singh. He took a premature retirement in 1991.

After the retirement, he serves as a regular radio and television commentator, and a policy analyst/columnist on South Asian security affairs. Major general Mehta is an Advisor to the Gurkha Memorial Trust, Kathmandu, and Member of the India-Nepal Track 2 Dialogue. He has also been a consulting editor in the Indian Defence Review, a member of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and the director of Security and Political Risk Analysis.

Mehta is the author of a several books:

• War Despatches: Operation Iraqi Freedom
• The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal and the Royal Nepal Army
• Operation Parakram: The Military Standoff of 2002