Chief of Defence Staff should play the role of the primary military adviser | The Indian Express

Chief of Defence Staff should play the role of the primary military adviser | The Indian Express

Written by J S Sandhu |Updated: November 21, 2019 10:03:40 am

The writer was General officer Commanding of the Indian Army’s Chinar Corps in Kashmir.

Chief of Defence Staff should play the role of the primary military adviser

The Chief of Defence Staff should not become another interposed level between the Raksha Mantri and the service chiefs, whose access to the minister should remain as prevalent.

In the debates on CDS, one often heard the designated profile as “providing single-point military advice”.

Consequent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement from the ramparts of Red Fort, the proposed structure for the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has been deliberated upon. We should soon be seeing the first CDS take charge. The proposed charter of the CDS, his powers and status, etc, has been debated intensely. One school of thought recommends an evolutionary, incremental expansion of the role, while some feel he should be given greater operational control ab initio. Like many bureaucratic approval processes, turf battles often cloud judgements, the resistance to change tends to only marginally alter the existing status quo. In this case, too, Service HQs prefer to retain their powers, resources and establishments. Hence, to avoid a dilution of their spheres, they are in favour of the CDS taking charge of new organisations, domains, and also to handle the integrated structures.