Politicisation can impact defence reforms

THE politicisation of the military is anathema to integration and jointness. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat has been pilloried over some of his recent comments on defence reforms, vis-a-vis the IAF especially, and even on his visit to the Gorakhnath temple along with UP CM Yogi Adityanath in December last year. Gen Rawat was chosen as the Army Chief overriding the seniority criterion, and was later made the first CDS. He enjoys the supreme confidence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NSA Ajit Doval, but apparently not of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). In 2018, at the Raisina Dialogue, when asked whether India should talk to the Taliban, Gen Rawat shot back, ‘yes’, adding that ‘we have spoken to our own rebel groups’. The very next day, the Foreign Ministry put out a statement saying that Rawat’s comments were his own and did not reflect the views of the Government of India.

Last month, during a talk titled ‘Towards Progressive Defence Reforms’, hosted by the India International Centre in New Delhi, Gen Rawat began by recalling Samuel Huntington’s ‘clash of civilisations’: the inevitability of convergence of Sinic and Islamic civilisations i.e. conjugation of China and Pakistan as a higher form of jointsmanship to keep India down. There was nothing objectionable in what he said. In fact, he was illustrating jointsmanship in the bonding of the Iron Brothers.

Soon after, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, speaking at the JP Morgan Investors’ Meet, described the ‘clash of civilisations’ as a battle between different schools of thought. But Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, reading Gen Rawat’s remarks superficially while meeting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, told him that India did not subscribe to any ‘clash of civilisations’ theory. To be fair, Gen Rawat was only painting the backdrop for an eloquent presentation on the transformation of national security architecture and jointness in integrated theatre commands. For the first time, he clarified aspects of the conversion of 17 single-service commands into four joint theatre commands. Ultimately, each geographical command would be threat/adversary-specific, its commanders drawn from any of the three services. Four serving Cs-in-C — two Lieutenant Generals, one Vice Admiral and one Air Marshal — are working on these new structures. War plans would be made jointly by the Chiefs of Staff Committee and approved by the CDS. Theatre Commanders will report to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC), whose permanent chairman is the CDS.

The CDS is multi-hatted: Permanent chairman, CoSC; Secretary Department of Military Affairs; Chief of Integrated Defence Staff; and single-point adviser to the Defence Minister and overall approver of war plans and prioritisation of new equipment. The CDS has virtually replaced the Defence Secretary, who is now left with making the defence policy and peripheral departments like border roads and the NCC. Former Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra had said the CDS should even take over the critical crafting of the defence policy, making Defence Secretary redundant. Gen Rawat said the selection and prioritisation of single-service platform, previously done by the Defence Secretary, was now his remit. The shelving of the Navy’s third aircraft carrier in favour of its submarine programmme is a CDS decision. The creation of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) is the most innovative step towards civil-military and tri-service integration.

Summing up, Gen Rawat said two land-based theatre commands (Pakistan and China), one maritime theatre command combining two existing naval commands and a joint theatre command would be responsible for defending India’s island territories, called the Islands of Resistance. Additional joint commands are the Integrated Air Defence Command, Joint Logistics Command, Air Space, Cyber Space and Special Forces Commands. Gen Rawat clarified the controversial division and reassembling of air assets, higher military education and declassification of restricted material. During the session, chaired by former Defence Secretary NN Vohra, Gen Rawat cleared the air on a multitude of defence reforms.

With path-breaking defence reforms on the anvil, Gen Rawat must also ensure there are no cracks in the ethos and integrity of the armed forces and they remain strictly professional, secular and apolitical. Two recent and widely circulated events concerning a recruitment attestation parade and the unethical conduct of a senior commander require immediate investigation and accountability. Any attempt to glorify majoritarianism and one faith/religion at an attestation parade will disturb the secular environment carefully nurtured in the armed forces and will also harm the jointness and integration of the military.

I have written this article after attending a recruits’ attestation parade in Shillong last week and found no deviation from the established norms and procedures.

Sucking up to politicians and influential bureaucrats will breed sycophancy in the military. The ruling establishment has indicated that it is not averse to its political leadership being venerated. So, a ‘Happy Birthday’ tweet from a Lieutenant General to the Prime Minister is a serious violation of good order and military discipline and a breach of its apolitical ethos. We have not heard about any action on these two events from the MoD. The politicisation of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) began when the autonomous think tank was named after Manohar Parrikar, former Defence Minister and Goa CM.

I attended a Sainik Sammelan in Shillong where ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ was chanted even after the National Anthem had been sung. I believe the Army has been instructed to conclude all formal functions with this chant. This is highly irregular. Politicisation will undermine defence reforms.

While Gen Rawat must investigate and act against these infringements visibly and with dispatch, a code of conduct is required for the armed forces, eschewing politicisation.