NEW DELHI, Jan 21: Indian Army Chief General Nirmal Chand Vij has said that his troops can be recalled at a short notice “as the score with Pakistan has not been settled,” a former army officer turned columnist quoted him on Tuesday as saying.

Retired Major General Ashok Mehta said quoting an interview with his former colleague: “Vij is quite clear that despite the partial withdrawal of troops the army can be called up any time at short notice in the future as the score with Pakistan has not been settled as yet.”

General Vij, who took over on Jan 1 as the 22nd Chief of Army Staff to lead the fourth largest army in the world and one that nearly went to war last year, was the key planner of the Kargil operations, General Mehta said.

His last operational duty was coordinating the deployment and partial withdrawal of the Indian Army during Operation Parakram which was called off on Oct 16 last year.

Gen Vij spelt out a four-fold agenda: Operational Preparedness; Modernisation of the army; Welfare of soldiers and ex-servicemen; Better understanding between the military and the media.

Contrary to media reports of deployment fatigue during the year-long deployment, General Vij said his troop morale is very high.

“In fact, they have benefited by receiving nearly Rs20,000 each as field service allowance while posted in the trenches,” General Mehta said.

He said General Vij is conscious of the need for consolidating the gains of Parakram as well as restabilising the army after the year-long dislocation caused by the deployment.

“He confided he would soon order a study to examine the lessons from Parakram, restructuring of the forces and enhancing their operational capability. He also wants to relocate forces so that there is minimum turbulence during mobilisation. Operational readiness is therefore his number one priority,” the report said.

General. Vij was recently in Israel to look at the methods adopted by the Israelis to foil suicide attacks and terrorism, General Mehta said.

Major General Mehta, a prominent military analyst, said a key concern of General Vij would be to “draw lessons from the most recent operational deployment, Operation Parakram, and to ensure that mobilisation is carried out even more swiftly and with fewer accidents than the last one.”