Defence Matters That Matter

The Defence Ministry has been in the line of fire for some time now. There are crucial issues of shortages and delays dogging the military..Disclosures have revealed the extent to which military preparedness has been diluted in all three services.

The bogey of middlemen has been so unsettling that products selected by the military for their technical suitability and quality have been blacklisted   without identifying alternatives – the familiar cutting of the nose to spite the face !

In the  ministry, like OROP* which has been allowed to escalate into an avoidable confrontation  the CDS** proposal has also been hanging fire for too long. It is suspected, rightly or wrongly,  that the bureaucracy-military rivalry has something to do with these delays and in implementing  pertinent recommendations of the comprehensive Arun Singh Committee report. The government has only itself to blame for the strong promises made by the ruling party before and after the election perhaps without ascertaining the possible roadblocks in their implementation. It is the credibility of the present government that is being questioned.

In the matter of the divide that exists between the military and the Defence Ministry there is a view that it is caused by the belief that the supremacy of the civil government over the military has to be sustained at every level. This belief  is baseless as the civil supremacy is well defined and established in the Constitution. The point that is being missed is that the civil government contemplated in the Constitution  is the government elected by the people and not the bureaucracy. The military and the bureaucracy are two parallel arms of the Defence Ministry set up to implement the will of the people in defence and related  matters  as articulated through the elected government..It is obvious that the military and  the bureaucracy have to work together in their separate roles if the military is  to  stay in readiness to deal with any contingency.

The bureaucracy is the medium through which the elected government exercises control over the military. The bureaucracy by itself has no supervisory role. From this it is also obvious that the military has its role in decision-making as this final process has direct implications on the preparedness of the military.

       

The Arun Singh report has clear views on the degree of participation of the military in the functioning of the ministry.It is time that the collaboration of the military and civil service be established at the earliest. The appointment of a CDS as the principal military adviser  will go a long way in remedying the present scene and bolstering advisory support for the Defence Minister. Many of the Defence Ministry scandals and the shortages in military hardware could have been avoided if protection of personal haloes had not taken precedence over mature decision-making.

On OROP it seems to be blocked by unpredicted obstacles. If that is so, a candid admission to the ex-servicemen with a new and firm timeline would be in order. The ex-servicemen are a disciplined and loyal group and only know the language of blunt truth. If, on the other hand, the delay is bureaucratic, that is an excuse which will be difficult to sell. The government can ill afford to lose the support of  a traditionally reliable and disciplined band of citizens.

The government and the Prime Minister, in particular,  who led the BJP in its election charge to a historic victory, are under close watch. Deadlines are becoming crucial and it is the PM’s word that everybody waits to hear as the only authoritative voice of government.

*One Rank One Pension                                ** Chief of Defence Staff