Major General (Dr.) GD Bakshi
Bakshi lost his brother, Captain Srishthi Raman Bakshi, in a mine explosion during the India-Pakistan War of 1965. The Captain was only 23 years old at the time. “His entire body was shattered to pieces in that mine blast. People collected whatever was left and burnt his body then only. Then they gave us urn with the ashes, saying ‘here, this is your brother’,” Bakshi recalls those moments of family grief to a news portal.
“After immersing the ashes, I was filled with rage. At that moment, I decided that I would join the armed forces and take revenge for my brother.”
Bakshi was commissioned in the Indian Army from IMA Dehradun in November 1971.
He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for commanding a battalion in the Kargil War. Later, he was awarded the Sena Medal for distinguished service in commanding a battalion during counter-insurgency drives.
Gen Bakshi subsequently commanded the Romeo Force (Part of Rashtriya Rifles) during intensive counter-insurgency operations in the Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir and succeeded in suppressing the armed militancy in this area.
He served two tenures at the Directorate General of Military Operations and was the first BGS (IW) at the Northern Command, where he dealt with Information Warfare and Psychological Operations. He retired in 2008.
Nowadays, whenever the media needs a defense expert to cry war on Prime Time television, Bakshi is inevitably the man for the job. You can find him wagging a self-righteous finger on your television every other night, his gruff voice reaching a breaking point as his temper rises and his nostril flares.
For G.D. Bakshi, war is not a diplomatic disaster, but an inevitable price Pakistan must pay for being a “pagal kutta”.
He has authored many books. Among them few are Kalki Tu Kahan Hai: Life story of Swami Pranavanand Saraswati; Sarasvati Sabhyata: Pracheen Bharatiya Itihaas Mein Ek Mahatvapoorna Parivartan, in Hindi and Saraswati Civilization in English; The Quantum Book Of Soma : Reinterpreting the Wisdom of the Vedas; Bose Ya Gandhi : Kisne Dilayi Bharat ko Azadi ; Freedom Is An Eagle : Poems From an Outpost ; BOSE An Indian Samurai : Netaji and the INA A Military Assessment English, Paperback etc. All these books and more are available on various online shops besides one in your City Book Shop.