India, Oct. 31 -- A corrosive argument has crept into recent commentary on Indian defence affairs: that the political leadership has 'usurped' military command, reducing the Armed Forces to executors of tactics and builders of hollow narratives. This claim-most loudly expressed in analyses asserting that "PM Modi serves as Strategic & Operational Commander" while service chiefs are relegated to the margins-is not only poor strategy; it is a dangerous misreading of how modern conflict functions in the nuclear age.

This rebuttal dismantles that thesis. What critics label 'usurpation' is, in fact, an evolved and necessary form of political-military integration suited to hybrid warfare, sub-conventional contingencies, and escalation manageme...