India must be cautious in dealing with US: Ex-Army chief Bikram Singh
Mumbai (PTI): Former Army chief General Bikram Singh has urged the government to exercise caution while dealing with the United States on strategic matters, saying the world's mightiest nation so far has not proved its trustworthiness to its close allies.
He said despite India being a member of the Quad grouping, it should move cautiously when it comes to dealing with the US, which has expanded and deepened its ties with New Delhi in recent years.
The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, comprises India, the US, Japan and Australia.
"While it's good that we are part of the Quad (seen as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region), it will be in our interest that we move cautiously with the US, because Washington has never made itself trustworthy in its dealings with any of its strategic and defence allies," he told the SBI Banking & Economic conclave here on Thursday evening.
Further explaining his call for a cautious approach in strategic dealings with Washington, General Singh, who was the 24th Army chief and served between May 31, 2012 and July 31, 2014, said, "The US extricated itself first from Vietnam, then twice from Iraq, and recently from Afghanistan. We must be very cautious in dealing with the US."
He maintained the US has failed in all its external military interventions and one of the main reasons for the same was that Washington has been outsourcing its work to others.
The Quad started as a diplomatic network originally floated by former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in early 2007 and later took shape as a four-nation bloc. It aims to strengthen a free and open international order based on the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
