It's a task I am happy to do: Lt Gen DS Hooda on leading Congress’ Task Force on national security

Panchkula (Haryana) [India], Feb 22 (ANI): Lt Gen (retd) DS Hooda, who has been roped in by the Congress party to prepare a "vision document" for the country's security, said that it is a task that he is happy to be a part of.
“They (Congress) requested me if I could lead a Task Force which will look at our National Security challenges, internal and external, and come out with a vision document that should guide our diplomatic and security policies, say for over a period of the next five years,” Lt Gen Hooda told ANI.
“It's a task I am happy to do...The Task Force has been set up on the initiative of Congress party, but as far as I am personally concerned, I have not joined the Congress party,” he added.
The Congress on Thursday roped in Hooda to prepare a "vision document" for the country's security, more than two months after the former Army Commander said the surgical strike was "overhyped and politicised".
"The Congress President (Rahul Gandhi) is setting up a Task Force on National Security to prepare a vision paper for the country,"' the Congress said in a statement here.
It added that Lt Gen Hooda will lead the Task Force and prepare the paper in consultation with a select group of experts.
Hooda, who had overseen the surgical strike of September 2016 on terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, retired from service in November 2016.
In December, he had triggered a controversy by saying that the surgical strike was “overhyped and politicised.”
“The military operation was important and we had to do it. Now how much should it have been politicised, whether it is right or wrong is something that should be asked to politicians,” he had said.
“I do think that there was too much hype over it,” Hooda had said. (ANI)