Nitin Pai quoted in the Mint article

Nitin Pai is quoted in the Mint article titled, “Defence Security Corps: India’s overlooked soldiers". The article deliberates on the function of the Defence Security Corps and the learning from the Pathankot incident. Nitin stresses that the threat of encroachment of the defence installation area is graver than that caused from lack of modernization in defence security:

“It is a very commoditized part of the army. If the special forces are the elite, this (defence security corps) is their exact opposite in the defence network,”

“In the 1970s and ’80s, there were no places for these people to get employed if you were an ex-serviceman; there were very few job opportunities. Banks needed to have someone with a weapon to guard the currency chests, some big companies may be used to hire some ex-servicemen. But by and large, once you are a jawan and after you are retired, you were pretty much jobless,”

Although the cantonments and plants were first built 20-30km away from cities, they are right in the middle of residential and commercial establishments now as those cities have ballooned, says Pai.