The fact remains that India’s Defence is in dire straits. The chinks and fissures have come up time and again in various forums and media. Yet, the Defence Minister goes on record to say all is well and the serving Chiefs can hardly repudiate him in public. The paid media is used for fruitless debates, cutting off speakers when it starts hurting and the lid of ambiguity remains in place. So where do we go from here and what should a strong Prime Minister and his government do? A few recommendations in this regard are given in succeeding paragraphs.
By their own admission, bureaucrats of MoD admit it is only in their second or third tenure in MoD that they come to grasp of matters military.
National Security Strategy. By all indications, we do not have a National Security Strategy (NSS) even after 67 years of Independence. In 2005 the CISC in HQ IDS was briefing the NSA as to how the Military can help NSA draft a National Security Strategy (NSS). After one hour of briefing, the NSA says forget all this but tell me what should be done about Nepal with the royal massacre having taken place. The CISC told him that a Net Assessment Study on Nepal had been sent to him two months back covering the massacre and how events in Nepal will likely unfold in five phases. The NSA said he was not aware of any such study. Two years later, the next NSA was briefed by the Net Assessment in HQ IDS again on a Draft NSS. Rather than commending the effort, he retorted who had asked them to work this out. He said there already is a NSS which is known to required people. He was either lying (emperor’s clothes) or if there is an NSS then it is grossly inadequate as indicated by our response to external threats.
Rules of Business. GoI Rules of Business are a British legacy saying Defence Secretary is responsible for “defence of the country” and that Services Headquarters are “attached offices”. It suited the British because their Defence Secretary indeed was the Defence Minister. The Services Headquarters were kept as “attached headquarters” because of distrust of majority Indians in the army of British India. Now if we are to have the Defence Secretary responsible for defence of India then what pray is the Defence Minister supposed to do – check cleanliness of toilets of South Block? The Defence Secretary in any case is imported from sundry ministries and has to learn from a scratch what military and security is all about. By their own admission, bureaucrats of MoD admit it is only in their second or third tenure in MoD that they come to grasp of matters military. Then our Armed Forces are all Indian and patriotic to the core, so there is no reason for Services Headquarters to continue as “attached offices” even if the bureaucracy wants so to keep their control and the mafia and ISI are blackmailing the political bosses.
Reorganization of MoD. 67 years India’s defence has suffered at hands of bureaucrats sans military background and knowledge ruling the roost, hiding their ineptness and incompetence in respective cocoons and remaining without accountability, making money through scams and appeasing their political bosses. They may slyly propose few military posts in MoD to the new government. There have been write ups as to why the Secretaries of Defence, Defence Production and Defence Finance cannot be military officers, which should have happened decades back and is at best significant patchwork. However, the state in which the country has come up to, patchwork is not the answer. What is required is a complete overhaul. Indian Railways is almost as large as our Army and the former is managed by the Railway Board, which is manned exclusively by railway officials. This needs to be followed in reorganizing the MoD. MoD should be exclusively manned by military officials with advisory civilian cells in Defence Production and Defence Finance only. Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff should be merged into MoD, providing wherewithal for institutionalized strategic planning, operations etc. A CDS with full operational powers should be appointed without further delay.
MoD should be exclusively manned by military officials with advisory civilian cells in Defence Production and Defence Finance only.
Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). The Prime Minister should himself hold the honour in steering the much needed RMA in India, akin to what Jiang Zemin did in China. This should be promulgated through an Act of Parliament like the Goldwater Nichols Act of the US and Berlin Decree of Germany to modernize respective militaries. The draft for such an act could be worked out by MoD and Services in conjunction suitable think tanks in time-bound fashion. RMA should encompass all facets of modernization including, restructuring, equipping, modernization, synergizing, R&D, technology leapfrogging etc.
NSA. We have precedence of NSA former police or IB officers. There is no reason why a former military officer cannot be appointed as NSA. The charisma of an IB officer having served abroad can hardly match military and national security knowledge of a Brigadier equivalent officer of the military albeit the latter would not have helped the political dispensation to do down their political opponents. An NSA with military background would actually provide much needed synergy with the reorganized MoD and help in speedy execution of RMA in conjunction MEA and MHA.
Border Defence. Border defence must be solely the responsibility of the Defence Minister, not as per existing arrangement partly under Home Minister with latter arrangement facilitating smuggling of narcotics, fake currency, goods and even illegal immigration with indicators that some of this is institutionalized. Few months back, Headlines Today aired a sting operation on the Indo-Bangladesh border, filming illegal infiltration into India and a BSF officer in uniform stating they have orders not to interfere. Within an hour, this news was taken off the air. While paramilitary and central armed police forces may well be deployed to guard borders, all such forces along land borders and sea borders should be directly under command the Army and Navy respectively. Despite signing of BDCA, Chinese intruded into Depsang and Chumar on December 19-20, 2013. In first week January 2014 intrusion took place in Takdip area, same place incursions had been spotted on December 13 as well. Such sensitive areas should have Ladakh Scouts deployed, not ITBP especially when the DG ITBP tells army authorities that “the ITBP has a different agenda from the Army”.
Assam has become Bangladeshi Muslim predominant because of the mischievous IMDT Act instituted in 1995 which the SC scrapped 10 years later in 2005. There appears to be a conspiracy…
Internal Security. Chidambaram as Home Minister, stated in 2010 that the Maoist problem will be over in next 2-3 years but we obviously have no cohesive policy and more importantly the will, terrorism and insurgency having become an industry and its exploitation to retain power. The NIA reported last year that some Rs 600 crores have been pumped into J&K for terror by diverting collections and donations meant for other purposes. Rs 95 cores were diverted from the J&K Affectees Fund in one single year. JKART has helped infiltrate over 1000 terrorists into J&K over the years. Goods sent by trucks from J&K to Pakistan are overpriced three times and the incoming money is diverted to terrorist organizations. Then is the issue of criminalization of politics and the creation of armed groups under political direction through intelligence agencies; LTTE, Bhindranwale group, ULFA, Bodos etc. Incidentally, MK Dhar former Joint Director IB writes that Zail Singh as Home Minister was entertaining and arming terrorists from Punjab in his residence, so the government promoted him President and kept his telephones tapped inj Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Assam has become Bangladeshi Muslim predominant because of the mischievous IMDT Act instituted in 1995 which the SC scrapped 10 years later in 2005. There appears to be a conspiracy to subject more of our states to similar fate by facilitating rapid illegal Bangladeshi immigration. Significantly, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman authored a book prior to formation of Bangladesh, in which he wrote, “Because Eastern Pakistan must have sufficient land for expansion, Eastern Pakistan must include Assam to be financially and economically strong” . The perpetrators of the IMDT Act appear to have worked to realize the dream of Mujibur Rehman. Presently, the Kerala headqurtered Popular Front of India (PFI) apparently has the blessings of the mafia because they are not banned despite having armed, uniformed, running terrorist camps, media citing R&AW and IB the organization has links with Al Qaeda and LeT , and four of their cadres killed in Kupwara (north Kashmir) four years back exfiltrating into POK. What India should also be ready to face is the next level of terrorism in the near-term; a weapon of mass disturbance like a radiological device, the recovery of a 1.5 kg Uranium mine by Army in Assam during 2013 and theft of 15 Uranium isotopes from Steel Authority of India in 2011 being pointers. Presently, we have no response mechanism. The NDRF is sans any specialization in this context with police personnel providing manpower on three year deputation forces.
Not only have we failed to see the connection between economic security and national security, our interpretation of economic security appears to be ‘individual economic security’ (read individual prosperity) of a few that have sucked the nation dry.
Asymmetric War. India has a strategic asymmetry in the sub-conventional; both China and Pakistan have advanced sub-conventional capabilities but India is lagging behind woefully. This needs to be corrected expeditiously. Asymmetric war is waged against a nation, not against the military alone. Therefore, the response too has to be at national level. Such threats are the order of the day with even powerful countries like US and China using proxy forces. The response matrix therefore needs to be synergized together by MEA, MoD and MHA, in concert with the NSA, military and intelligence agencies. In this context, the PM, EAM and HM require dedicated cells for military advice headed by senior level military officers. For creating deterrence to sub-conventional threats including proxy forces, our existing policy of conventional response has been utterly ineffective. Basing it on idealism as a standalone factor implies an inward looking policy that is not only more expensive in the long run but damaging to national security interests and in turn adverse to our economic prosperity. On the other hand, taking hard realism as standalone factor can land us into a situation like Pakistan; implosion. Special Forces should be central to asymmetric response but that does not imply physical action alone, physical action being the last resort. There is urgent need for creation of a Special Forces Command directly under the highest political authority (Prime Minister) comprising select teams of operatives focused on specific regions, to be employed on politico-military missions at the strategic level. Concurrently, an advisory group comprising serving and veteran Special Forces officers and representatives of intelligence agencies needs to be established under the PM, parallel to the PMO.
Comprehensive National Security. Comprehensive National Security (CNP) has multiple constituents; military security; political security; economic security; food security; personal security; health security; environment security; energy security; community security etc – all intertwined. Logically, any country must focus on each of these components to facilitate continuous and balanced growth of the CNP. What we have been doing is to address these issues in patchy manner including military security, which is hardly adequate.
The present NSA speaking at the 3rd International Studies Convention held at JNU recently called for an “Indian Derived Theory on International Relations. This is obvious admission that we have been following all along a faulty Foreign Policy without any theory, in addition to an absent NSS. Why it is relevant here is because present and future security threats need synergy between the Foreign Policy, NSS and Internal Security Strategy. The new government and the Prime Minister in particular will need to examine all the above issues in focused fashion. Speaking at the Security Conclave at the Delhi Gymkhana Club last year, Gautam Thapar, the only member of NSAB from the private industry, stated that for any country to have inclusive national security, a sustained economic growth of 8 to 10 percent is essential. Not only have we failed to see the connection between economic security and national security, our interpretation of economic security appears to be ‘individual economic security’ (read individual prosperity) of a few that have sucked the nation dry.
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Bye-bye India. See you divided between Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. All that will be left of India will be in the hands of its enemies. Maybe some central districts will be left to the Maoists, who are Indians. The result of all types of corruption is this. Apparently, the enemies have won and India has lost. Somebody has to lose. In fact, the enemy already rules India.
What if it happens other way around.
Bangladesh joins India and Pakistan is divided between Sindh, Balochistan & Pakhtoonistan and remaining joins India.
We want Sri Lanka to be independent so that we could pass our ships by them and thumb at them.
Very factual, revealing and interesting article. The changes in the approach and functioning of the Government and especially that of the MOD, is urgently desired otherwise the future of India is – for all of us to visualize.
Not really everything what General Katoch says is true. He is generally right in saying that AK Anthony took more advice from Babus than military chiefs. I would say military was not always right in not prioritizing in $40 billion a year Defence budget into what is needed today and what is needed tomorrow. General VK Singh has been the first to take on the Babus who were holding on the purchase of ammunition for artllery. What happened to him is a common knowledge. General Singh was not wrong. In the end he was dumped in favor of a more obedient General. The latter would have to go as soon Anthony, Defence Secretary pack up their bags this year.
You cannot buy everything you see in the brochures and hear about from marketing vizards. India is not facing the world as an enemy. It has to deal with highly motivated Pakistani Army, although modestly equipped or hypothetically large army of China with 2 million men under arms with dubious origin arms or copies (very poor) of guns developed elsewhere. They cannot deploy all the 2 million men in Tibet and Himalayas and leave everything open for invasion from Taiwan, Japan or elsewhere. They have 240,000 men in Tibet now and could increase to 400,000 at a short notice. India has built a similar force in the Himalayas. There is not much to fear from them except the fear of 1962 defeat. That is also Chinese fear. In the next encounter if they did not succeed as well as they did in 1962 then their aura of invincibility would be gone. That fear scares the Chinese. Possibility of them not succeeding are much greater now. That much discussed Strike Corp is supposed to scare them into staying put but maintain pressure.
Hence I am making these points.
1. AK Anthony, Babus etc. are to go.
2. You cannot buy everything. You are not facing the world as an enemy.
3. Chinese are smarter, they will not attack. They wish to scare you. They know your armed capability.
4. Deal strongly with Pakistan. They are overdue for a lesson.
Hari you got your figures mixed up someplace – we don’t have that many troops in the Himalayas. We are no where near to the Chinese. We don’t have infrastructure up in the mountains to support high level of troop concentrations in case of an eventuality. What we would end up fielding is underfed, unequipped and tired troops against the Chinese. Those bastards have got roads under your noses. They pushed a rail line into Tibet and are now going to push it through Aksai Chin. They are developing large farms in Sinkiang by excellent water management facilities to produce food locally. They have upgraded 10 airfields in Tibet to 10000 ft runways. Theres a lot more they are doing. While we play cricket and get over awed by Bollywood.
THE ARMED FORCES LEADERSHIP IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY . MOSTOF AGGRESSIVE , LEARNED , CAPABLE PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS ARE SIDE TRACKED BY THE TIME THEY ARE BRIGS OR EQUIVALANT. EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE ARE SOME AND HERE NAVY WAS SINGULARLY LUCKY THAT DESPITE THE BABUS MEDDLING, OUTSTANDING FLAGRANKS HAVE HONED THE SKILLS AND LED THE NAVY. THE PRESENT LOT WAS THE RESULT OF SEEDS SOWED TEN SCORES YEARS BACK.THE ARMED F FORCES MUST NOW FIGHT AND GET THE REVENUE OR RUNNING BUDGET OF THE SERVICES DELEGATED TO THE CHIEFS , PSOS , C INC , FLEET AND ADMIRALS MANNING DOCKYARDS .THERE SHOULD BE NO NEED TO RUN TO THE BABUS FOR SANCTIONS . WITH INTEGRATED CIVILAN FINANCAL ADVISERS THIS CAN EASILY BE ACHIEVED . A TIME HAS COME WHEN PUNATIVE FINANCIAL PUNISHMENTS BE GIVEN TO BABUS SITTING ON FILES
FOR RENT SEEKING AND ASKING QUESTIONS OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS WITHOUT TAKING DECISIONS . INFACT MANY NEED TO BE SENT TO SINGAPORE , HONGKONG TO LEARN THE WORK CULTURE OF BABUS .FINALLY THE YOUNG OFFICERS AND SAILORS AND OTHERS FROM ARMY AND AIRFORCE MUST GET THE RIGHT TO REFUSE TO SAIL OR WORK WITH DANGEROUS , OUTDATED EQUIPMENT AND NO THING SHOULD BE HELD AGAINST THEM . THE EXSERVICE ORGANISATIONS MUST HELP THE PARENTS OF THE TWO OUTSTANDING OFFICERS KILLED IN THE SUBMARINE TO FILE CASES IN COURTS FOR 10 CRORES EACH TO BE RECOVERED FROM THE PAY AND PENSIONARY BENEFITS OF THE CONCERNED BABUS FROM THE LOWERMOST TO THE SENIORMOST ESPECIALLY FROM THE FINANCE SIDE WHO SAT ON THE FILES FOR REPLACEMENT BATTERIES FOR YEARS .
Sir,
The Sindhurakshak submarine tragedy makes one wonder if even routine standard equipment maintenance procedures are being ignored.
1. Batteries used on non nuclear submarines are the very heart of the submarines. The lead acid batteries that are used on these installations have very limited service life. Their efficiency suffers with age and usage. Normally very specific criteria are laid down to regularly monitor the efficiency of such batteies as a routine maintance procedure. And finally decide the time for replacementof a battery that has been in service for some time. It is not clear as how such procedures are compromised and at whose orders.
2. Lead acid batteries give off hydrogen gas during their operations and the quantity of this hydrogen gas is very big explosion hazard. Modern designs of lead acid batteries incorporate systems to adsorb the hydrogen released by the batteries and prevent any exlosion hazard . Is this technique not being installed on our submarine batteries?
3. That reminds me about one of the very simple findings of Gen. Handerson Brook report. It was discovered by him that our field elephones of border scouts were fitted with very substandard telephone cords with the result that they were not able to speak audibly to communicate with rear lines about enemy movements.
Such very ordinory things get brushed under the carpet and result in catestrophic disasters.
Some Mistakes in the article :-
INS Sindhurakshak sank killing 18 sailors and not INS Sindhuratna
IMDT was enacted in 1983 and not 1995
The bane of Indian security framework lies in the adage “Civilian Control”. One wonders, since independence, how often and how many service chief’s have attempted to add the word “Accountability” and modified the adage to “Civilian Control and Accountability”. The problem lies in the system and inability of defence hierarchy to seek accountability from civilians. Over the years there has been a systematic tinkering with the stature, status and position of Service Chief’s under the garb of civilian supremacy which the successive Chief’s have failed to arrest. What we see today to an extent is manifestation of lethargy which service HQ’s themselves have displayed over the years while the bureaucrats in connivance with politicians made hay. What ails the system and our national security needs are well known to everyone, however, how to get back to the point from where the slide began and become relevant is what is important. It definitely is no rocket science and is achievable provided the Defence HQ’s start churning officers of the caliber of Bhagwat, Joshi and VK Singh’s. The solution to the problem lies within the Defence Forces provided, they are willing to address them. What would have happened, if the Commander who ordered INS Sindhurakshak to sail would have refused to do so and Admiral Joshi instead of seeing it as an act of disobedience had red flagged the issue to RM and subsequently resigned? The effect may still would have been same albeit, without the loss of precious lives.
Sir
The folly is not completely in the IAS guys of d MoD. Interestingly some of our Generals in the AHQ behave in a worse manner. The type of sycophancy displayed by our guys is not hidden. We need to check this too. Each service chief trying to get maximum budgetary allotment in d favour of his service by going to the extent of sabotaging modernisation plan of the other. How about massive corruption in services like ASC Ord Engrs and now siphoning off grants in the Arms.
In my opinion the new govt has to order a complete overhaul of d armed forces and the MoD or else v run the risk of getting the old wine in new bottle.