“In my first book I examine the tentative initial discovery of Armed power as an instrument of state policy from ‘47 to ‘48 and its degradation from ‘49 to the national humiliation of ‘62 and its resurgence in ‘65,” lists out General Bajwa, who will further delve on national security from 1966 to 2007 and internal and external dynamics of India as an emerging power in the next two works. For someone who has raked and dug into British archives to get the true picture, the retired officer is miffed at the zilch importance given to strategic planning right from the time India got its independence. “You know it’s a tragedy that India became a free nation in a vacuum of realistic geo-strategic thought. Our leaders were too naive and were taken for a ride by the British. When Panditji was asked by the then British Commander in Chief of the Indian Army after Independence on the government’s specific assessment of military threats likely to be faced, he had replied, ‘We foresee no military threats...’ Within a month we were were fighting to defend Kashmir,” General Bajwa reels out the facts. He also believes that in today’s big, bad world, there can be no friends. “Countries will be good neighbours only as long as interests converge,” the General voices his beliefs loud and clear.