By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

In an interview to the media last month, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar stated that taking over his current assignment was nothing less than an adventure for him and it took him three months to get familiar with ranks in the armed forces. Not many defence ministers would make such candid admission which is in sharp contrast to doctor know-alls like A.K. Antony who brought the defence of India to such sorry state; lip service to modernisation, obsolete weapon and equipment holdings, and absence of a cohesive policy.

But this apart, the harsh truth remains that we are in such state because successive defence ministers have remained dependent on a set of bureaucrats who themselves have little knowledge of matters military, rank structure of armed forces being no big deal. As significantly, the arms lobby is deep-rooted in MoD and the defence-industrial complex, the adverse affects of which should be apparent to Parrikar with ‘Make in India’ in defence sector reduced to sham despite the government completing one year.

The vital issue that the Defence Minister must address is reorganising the Higher Defence Organisation. Presently, the military continues to be kept outside the strategic formulation of matters military and national security. We still are without a National Security Strategy (NSS) and a Comprehensive Defence Review (CDR) in absence of which streamlining defence procurement and military modernisation are sacrificed. The vital recommendation of the Kargil Review Committee and the follow-up Group of Ministers Report to appoint a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has been ignored and move appears to be afoot to plant a permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) replacing the rotational one, which would make little change. Numerous defence scams have been in the news with alleged involvement of bureaucrats, one example being the details of MoD officials mentioned in Haschke’s diary in the Westland Helicopter deal.

The fact is that to date not a single MoD bureaucrat has been caught. This then is a major reason because of which the military has been kept away however detrimental to national security it may be. The fact is that defence has been the most neglected sector in India for the past decade with the military saddled with a dysfunctional and inefficient model at the highest levels of the government. One wonders if MoD bureaucrats would have briefed the Defence Minister that not he but the Defence Secretary is charged with the defence of India, and that MoD is not accountable to the military as the Service Headquarters are ‘Attached Offices.’ More significantly, the happy situation is that the Service Chiefs would be facing the music any which way if and when war happens. In such a beautiful set up, where is the urgency for ‘Make in India’ in defence or restructuring the Higher Defence Organisation?

Parrikar must understand that the CDS is vital not only for providing single-point military advisory to the Cabinet but also to usher in synergy vertically and horizontally between the three services that is completely lacking at the moment, and to transform the three services into network-centric warfare (NCW) capable forces. Single Service Commands need to be reorganised into Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs) and Integrated Functional Commands (IFCs) speedily rather than restricting such discussion to the pros and cons of the Mountain Strike Corps. Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) should be completely merged with the MoD and in appointing the CDS, it should also be made clear that there should be no question of MoD generalist bureaucrats doing arbitration over disagreement between services, as was cunningly inserted in the document authorising establishment of HQ IDS.

The next step required is replacing MoD with a Department of Defence headed by the Defence Minister and manned by career military specialists, with civilian cells in Defence Production and Defence Finance. Changes as these would provide a boost to defence preparedness, usher in a revolution in military affairs (RMA), evolve requisite strategies and policies including for national security, response to asymmetric war, defence procurements, R&D, technology acquisition and reorganising the defence-industrial base. On balance, India’s defence is in dire straits. The chinks and fissures have come up time and again in various forums and media. Yet, the cloak of all is well remains in place. The Defence Minister needs to take an urgent call on this.

The views expressed herein are the personal views of the author.