Should First Chief of Defence Staff Have Been from the Army?

Has General Bipin Rawat been ‘rewarded’ for his orientation with the ‘ruling ideology’, and made the first CDS?

• Hopefully, General Rawat will be able to navigate the hierarchical shoals but there is a larger issue that merits comment: should the first CDS have been from the army – the lead service in India?
• It will be instructive to see how General Rawat will function as the CDS and arrive at inter-service fund allocation when there is a shrinking of the purse
• In selecting General Rawat as the first CDS, the Modi government has created a perception of ‘rewarding’ those senior military officers whose orientation is visibly in consonance with the ideology of the government.

The appointment of Army Chief General Bipin Rawat as India’s first CDS (Chief of Defence Staff) announced on Monday, 30 December – a day prior to Rawat demitting his office – is an important first step in the much needed re-structuring of India’s higher defence management structures.

The creation of such a post has been in the pipeline for almost 20 years – since the Kargil war of 1999 – when the lack of ‘jointness’ and integration among the armed forces came to the fore. But what has finally emerged is a dilution of the CDS as envisioned, and a complex dual-hat role has been outlined. The CDS will NOT render single-point advise to the political apex but instead will only be the principal adviser to the RM (Raksha Mantri.)

How Will General Rawat Navigate Hierarchies?

The degree to which this profile of the CDS will enable the realisation of the objectives — of jointness and integration, moving towards theatre commands, and giving a fillip to the use of indigenous equipment — will depend on the competence and astuteness of the first incumbent, namely, General Rawat.

The CDS will continue to remain a four-star officer and will be the permanent Chairman of the COSC (Chiefs of Staff Committee) but will have no operational role – that being the sole purview of the three Service Chiefs.

Yet in protocol, the CDS will be deemed to be the ‘first among equals’, and some innovative harmonisation of hierarchy will be called for.

At present, the Service chiefs are on par with the Cabinet Secretary in pay scale and hence, a notch above the Secretary-level official. If the CDS is deemed to be a Secretary equivalent in the Ministry of Defence and on par with the Chiefs as a four-star officer, the institutional dissonance would need deft handling.

Hopefully, General Rawat will be able to navigate these shoals but there is a larger issue that merits comment: should the first CDS have been from the army – the lead service in India?

General Rawat Has Some Tough Decisions to Make

The core challenge for the Indian military is to ‘modernise’ and be on par with the current technological changes that have radically transformed warfare and the battle-field. The conceptual challenge would be to enhance significantly India’s TBMI (trans border military index) and also acquire desirable levels of professional acumen in the high-tech cyber-space-spectrum continuum.

The only way there can be successful modernisation is if the overall share of the Army comes down and that of the Navy and the Air Force increases. So, can an Army General do that? The army is an inherently border-focused force, and in the Indian case, the tasking of the olive green in matters of internal security for decades, through the creation of the RR (Rashtriya Rifles), has taken the force closer to the khaki fraternity.

This, in no way, detracts from the inherent professionalism and courage of the Army that was proven in the Kargil War — in blood.

While accepting the proposition that a very gifted military leader can grow out of single service orientation, the really tough decision a CDS in India would have to make is symbolised in this dilemma: more funds for the mountain corps or invest in cyber-space-spectrum for the next three decades? Maybe nuclear subs and satellites, as opposed to tanks?

It will be instructive to see how General Rawat, a highly experienced Gorkha regiment officer, will function as the CDS and arrive at inter-service fund allocation when there is a shrinking of the purse — and even capital expenditure for modernisation and inventory acquisition for the military is in the doldrums.

Has General Bipin Rawat Been ‘Rewarded’?

And finally, in selecting General Rawat as the first CDS, the Modi government has created a perception of ‘rewarding’ those senior military officers whose orientation is visibly in consonance with the ideology of the government.

Even before the current controversy about Rawat’s public comments about the student-led anti-CAA protests, it may be recalled that fairly early in his tenure as the Army Chief (he took over as COAS in December 2016)  he triggered a  controversy over the ‘human-shield’ issue in April 2017. Major Gogoi, the officer who ordered this highly questionable practice in the Kashmir Valley, was swiftly awarded a commendation by the army chief. It is a different matter that Gogoi was charged with moral turpitude later.

Be that as it may, the fact of the matter is that the government has appointed General Rawat as the first CDS, and the country must hope that he will succeed.

(The writer is a leading expert on strategic affairs. He is currently Director, Society for Policy Studies. He can be reached at @theUdayB. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)