Army planning to invite Rahul to witness wargames

New Delhi, Nov 8: Army is planning to invite Rahul Gandhi along with several other young MPs to witness its massive war games to be held in Pokharan desert range in Rajasthan next month.

"We are planning to invite young MPs from both the Houses of Parliament including Rahul Gandhi to witness the wargames to be held in December," sources told PTI here.

The MPs who are likely to get the invite for viewing the exercise codenamed 'Operation Sudarshan Shakti' include Congress' Naveen Jindal, Meenakshi Natarajan, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Jayant Chaudhary and Varun Gandhi from BJP, they said.

The sources said the army wants to give exposure to young leaders about its strengths and capabilities in the battlefield and the conditions in which the troops operate in field areas.

Army is holding the war games jointly with the IAF mobilising over 40,000 troops and over 200 tanks involving the Bhopal-based elite 21 Strike Corps.

The exercise will involve precision munitions and advanced surveillance systems to achieve a greater degree of network-centric capability. It is held to validate the operational preparedness of the Southern Army in a tri-service environment.

The war games will be based on the Integrated Theatre Battle concept under Southern Army Commander Lt Gen AK Singh and South Western Air Command chief Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi.

PTI