What
is the way out? I am reproducing here a pithy article from TR
Ramaswami, a retired bureaucrat, who has come out with a workable
solution, courtesy Economic Times
But
who is blocking the change? Sheela Bhatt writing in www.rediff.com
contends it is the bureaucracy which wants to preserve their hold and
are loath to allow any change. If you are interested read her article
"Babus now oppose General Singh's vision for MoD" available at URL:
---------------------------------------------------
Defence
sector needs to be streamlined and reformed to stay relevant in a changing
India
T R Ramaswami, Apr 5, 2012
The leaky-weaky-snafu-cum-imbroglio in the defence sector has
provoked very interesting reactions and suggestions. Historically, armies have
been around millenniums before the words 'democracy', 'parliament' and 'civil
service' came about.
There are unstated fears that the army is getting too big for its boots. The
truth is that the army has already taken over this nation. They ensure that
elections are held without fear. They are fighting on the borders, fighting
insurgency (police work) within the borders, handling floods, earthquakes,
tsunamis (all civil work), finishing stadiums and even winning medals.
They run some of the best schools, A-class medical and engineering
colleges. Each institution - NDA, IMA, DSSC, AWC, NDC, HAWS and CIJWS - is AAA+
where the world comes to learn. Their cantonments match Singapore and Shanghai.
Last but not least, their betis dominate Bollywood and beauty contests.
They are effectively in charge without sitting in 10, Janpath (Race Course
Road and Rashtrapati Bhavan are rubber stamps) because the other arms of state
have proved to be totally inept. Even babies falling in borewells trust only
the army.
The no-love-lost relationship between the neta, babu and jawan goes back to
pre-Independence days. The neta, of course, claims to have fought for
Independence though the British knew which neta really fought and these were
either bumped off, hounded out of the country or sent far away to the Andamans
so that their josh, methods and patriotism, etc, didn't spread within the
mainland.
Some netas contrived to get into jails like Nainital, Allahabad, Yerawada
and so on from where they could write letters which became books. Unfortunately,
it is this brand of netas who became leaders post-Independence and wrote
history to suit themselves.
Many think that the army did not have a role to play in the Independence
struggle. The truth is that two armies played a huge role in our Independence,
deliberately not acknowledged. First, the Imperial Japanese Army that swept the
British from Singapore to the tennis court of Deputy Commissioner Charles
Pawsey's house in Kohima (hence the name, Battle of the Tennis Court) and
showed that Asians can defeat Europeans on land too.
Earlier, the Japanese had demonstrated this on sea when in 1905 in Tsushima
Bay, under Admiral Heihachiro Togo, they plastered the Russian Navy. And don't
forget Pearl Harbor.
The second army that played a role in Independence was our own British Indian Army - by pushing the Japanese from
the tennis court and culminating in the Second Battle of Sittang in July 1945,
the last major land battle in WWII, they sent a terse and firm message to the
British: you cannot rule Indians any more.
One institution sat pretty throughout the Independence struggle and the war
with its contribution equal to zilch: the Indian Civil Service
- the daddy of today's IAS. The neta, too busy holding annual talk-shops, was
unprepared for Independence that was suddenly handed over within five months of
Mountbatten's arrival.
The political leadership continued with British armed forces' chiefs and
babus and the Prime Minister wanted them to continue for 15 years. So much for
the preparedness of the political class for Independence, which they claim to
have been 'fighting' for decades.
Thus, an unprepared neta class with a zero-contribution civil service were
suddenly scared - and are - of the only force that had and still has not only a
pan-India image, cohesion, organisation and efficiency that none can match, but
also the respect and backing of the people. We elected the first elected
Communist government; will we also have the first democratically-elected
military government?!
Questions have been raised regarding the reorganisation of the armed forces and the defence ministry. Some
have looked at the US Goldwater-Nichols Act model of 1986. But that requires a
level of political and civil maturity and expertise that is unavailable here.
Further, that model is only suitable for a country that has no enemies on
its borders and all campaigns are overseas. Here, with every inch of the border
and even the coast a hot zone, we need a model that suits our problems.
The Railway model suggests itself. With a CoDS or chairman of the Defence
Board (MoS status like NSA) at the helm with the chiefs and the defence secretary as
members and everyone on the same side, we can avoid a repeat of today's
tragicomedy. In fact, do we need a separate army, navy and airforce? Can we at least start
integration by coinciding the borders of commands?
The defence budget will also be separate. What about indigenisation? One
does not expect aircraft-carriers and planes - the huge investment and our
minuscule demand makes it unnecessary - but what about rifles, bullets,
bulletproof jackets, night-vision equipment, all-weather boots and small
artillery?
Is 65 years too little even for this or is there a cabal among all sections
that prefers status quo? Lastly, when defence equipment takes 10-20 years to
design, develop, test and induct, you cannot do it with five-year plans and
two-year chiefs/defence secretaries. We need a rolling modernisation and
acquisition board with industry, armed forces, finance and other luminaries
where one-third retires every five years.
Only then can a long-term perspective plan be developed, sustained and
implemented. Otherwise, even if recent TV telecasts and newspaper headlines
were rebroadcast/printed 10 years hence, they will still be relevant. Considering
the status of the Kargil Report implementation - this is a safe bet.
Any takers?
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