Twice only, in known times, has India invaded a foreign country and surprisingly both the times it was Sri Lanka who was the target. First time it was Lord Rama who invaded Sri Lanka to bring back his wife and he used an army of monkeys to successfully destroy Ravan's Sri Lanka. Then again in 1987 the Indian Army again entered Sri Lanka to ostensibly sort out the imbroglio between the Tamils and the Sri Lankans. Some have accused the Indian Army to be just monkeying around.

Operation Pawan aims at bringing out the factors that led to India getting involved in the imbroglio, and the shortcomings in the conduct of operations. More importantly it brings out the acute schism in the perceptions of the Intelligence agencies and the Indian Army.

Where the author differs in his analysis of the imbroglio is his perceptions of the importance of Sri Lanka to Indian Interests. He also makes out a case for a centralised control of the Armed Forces under one command. The Author brings out some very relevant lessons which no other book on the subject has done. In fact this is possibly the only objective account and analysis of the operation which has drawn a lot of flak.

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