Ashok K. Mehta
{{Other uses|Ashok Mehta}}
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{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Ashok K. Mehta
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|allegiance={{flag|India}}
|branch=Indian Army
|serviceyears=1957–1991
|rank= Major general
|unit= 5 Gorkha Rifles
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|battles=Portuguese-Indian War
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Siachen conflict
Sri Lankan Civil War
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Ashok K. Mehta is a former major general of the Indian Army, as well as a radio and television commentator and a columnist on defence and security issues.{{cite web|url=http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2007/11/who-is-general-ashok-k-mehta.html | title=Who is General Ashok K. Mehta? | publisher=Sri Lanka Guardian | date=November 2007 | access-date=26 January 2012}} 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. Ashok Mehta is married to journalist Aditi Phadnis. {{Cite web|url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/uncovering-the-war/1168571/00|title = Uncovering the War - Indian Express}}
Maj. Gen. Mehta is an alumnus of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun, an Indian military preparatory school formerly known as the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College.
Military career
Mehta joined the Indian Army in 1957 and was commissioned in the 5th Gorkha Rifles 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 of 1962, during which time he was on a peacekeeping mission in Zaire.
He undertook special military courses at the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kingdom in 1974 and at the Command and General Staff College in the United States in 1975. He taught at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun and at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, Tamil Nadu.{{cite web|url=http://icsr.info/seminar/general-ashok-k-mehta-managing-indias-internal-security-challenges | title=General Ashok K. Mehta: Managing India's Internal Security Challenges | publisher=The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence | date=1 October 2009 | access-date=26 January 2012}} Mehta's last assignment in the Indian Army was as Maj. Gen. Harkirat Singh's successor to the position of General Officer Commanding in the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1988 to 1990.{{cite web|url=http://www.iiss.org/about-us/intranet/training/south-asia/round-table-discussions/2004-round-table-discussions/major-general-ashok-k-mehta-retd/ |title=Major General Ashok K. Mehta (retd.) -The Maoist Uprising in Nepal: Trends and Implications |publisher=International Institute for Strategic Studies |date=26 February 2004 |access-date=26 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415013040/http://www.iiss.org/about-us/intranet/training/south-asia/round-table-discussions/2004-round-table-discussions/major-general-ashok-k-mehta-retd/ |archive-date=15 April 2013 }} He took a premature retirement in 1991.{{fact|date=August 2020}}
Post-retirement
{{BLP unsourced section|date=April 2020}}
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, a member of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, 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
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.india-seminar.com/1999/479/479%20mehta.htm Tackling the Tigers] Major general Mehta's speech at a symposium on low intensity conflicts (1999), about Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
{{Sri Lankan Civil War}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Ashok K.}}
Category:People of the Indian Peace Keeping Force
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Indian Military Academy alumni
Category:Academic staff of the Defence Services Staff College