Does India need a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)?
This is an issue which
has been discussed time and again. The need is felt but never implemented out
of fear psychosis that a single point CDS may become too powerful and perhaps
could stage a military coup. Such a thing in Indian context is a very remote possibility.
So the people who advocate such a scenario must change their line of thinking.
The security of the nation cannot be left to the civilians alone be they
bureaucrats or politicians. It needs professionalism and the armed forces are
the best suited for the job. India is the only country in the world where its
military is not consulted on matters Military affecting national security and
decisions are taken by the bureaucracy.
We have a make shift arrangement called Chairman
Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) on the British pattern in rotation to be held
by one of the three Service Chiefs based on seniority of date of appointment as
Chief of respective service. The system is manipulated in such a manner that
the Army Chief remains COSC for the least period and majority of the time it is
either the Navy or Air Chief as Chairman.
India has a typical land and sea border. It is not
possible to ignore either of the two. An equally strong Air force is required
to support the two both tactically as well as strategically. No Chief would
accept another Chief taking a pie of his domain. So therefore a Chief should be left to manage his own
Service tactically and professionally. It would be the Army alone which
will have to play a major and dominant role in ground operations supported
tactically by airforce if army specific or navy specific or both in case of
total war. Obviously you can’t expect the army to fight at sea. It has to be
the Navy. Similarly you can’t task the Navy/Airforce to fight the ground battle
in the mountains/Siachen. Here in comes the integration/synergy between the
armed forces when one or more have to operate together in near future.
The American model of CDS and Theatre Comds may not
suit Indian war scenarios. India does not expect to deploy joint forces
globally anywhere in the near or distant future nor does have resources to do
so. So the Theatre comd concept should be ruled out. Theatre in our context
could be the Andamans & Nicobar Islands and domination of sea lanes in
South China Sea for which a tri service command is already operational.
Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CIDS) is in place
with tri service sub ordinate staff but again on rotational appointment amongst
the three services. CIDS in any case cannot
perform the duty of CDS as he is much junior and could be Chief/Army Cdr in
waiting and therefore short tenures. CIDS should function as Defence Military
Secretariat directly reporting to Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee on joint
operations and matters military. There
is no escaping the fact that the army will have to play a major role in all
joint ops and as such CIDS should be from the army who should also be a
potential Chief.
In the prevalent circumstances it would be prudent
to continue with the present system and involve the Chief of the Army Staff more in national security issues till such
time, when India may be asked to play a
major role globally. In the meantime joint ops sops should be written and tried
on ground for scenarios involving combination with army airforce, army navy,
navy airforce and the three combined. This should be handled by CIDS.
