VISIONARY CDS (CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF)

MY “VISIONARY CDS (CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF)”: TWITTER SPACES 17 JAN 2022 

With Social Media abuzz with predictions, lobbying, and much discussion on who the next CDS would be, I thought over the issue and came up with an idea of holding a live Twitter Spaces Session on 17 Jan 2022 at 7 pm, record it live for my YouTube Channel, upload video immediately after the session and to write down the major points for my blog to be uploaded simultaneously. I also planned to write a thread on Twitter the following day giving the same points.

The aim was to put my thoughts after 26 years in uniform, 15 in retirement out of which over 14 years have been spent travelling at my own expense to meet retired soldiers of my unit each year and meeting widows of army soldiers who have children still studying, each year during all these years. 

My father was in Airforce, and I have spent the first twenty years of my life in Airforce Stations. In the later part of life, 25 years were spent in different army cantonments. More than adequate exposure to all services and my experiences of 15 years in retirement have given me an insight into the higher echelons of national security and having seen bureaucracy closely, I have developed the confidence that I can share my thoughts on the tasks of the CDS.

A good CDS at this juncture will make a lot of difference. It is even more important who the first four or five CDS are. We are at the brink of selecting the second one and hence I tagged the Prime Ministers Office, Sh. Rajnath Singh, RM, Sh. Amit Shah, HM, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary, Sh. B Anand, Secretary ESW, and headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff, Army, Navy, and Airforce.

My ‘Visionary CDS’ is a ‘VISIONARY’ and not a rank hungry, attention seeker and a megalomaniac. He is one person who has no further expectations from life and serves the nation in uniform and melts into history. He must enter the office with a crystal clear charter, work for it, and be held accountable at the end of tenure. The incumbent CDS thereafter must carry on the relay race from where the baton was taken over rather than start a new agenda afresh.

CDS. I would like the CDS not to enter South Block as a threat to bureaucracy but as a person who knows all the cracks and gaps not being addressed by anyone and take on these tasks that have a deep impact on National Security. I would like my ‘Visionary CDS’ to take on the following 10 TASKS:

TASK 1.

Remove the Military-Bureaucracy rift and convert that to a very healthy relationship. The armed forces suffer, the nation suffers, the soldiers suffer, and the veterans suffer due to this rift. The armed force’s officers have a very different view of bureaucrats for 10-15 yrs. of service, which is positive. The more senior the officers become, the rift begins. It is very safe to assume that postings to the forces HQs in Delhi are the root cause since it is just here that they interact with bureaucracy. The CDS needs to find ways to completely remove all friction points for the good of the nation.

TASK 2.

Minimize and then remove inter-services friction, Armed Forces and MoD friction, and Ministry of Defence and other ministries friction. These do not have high visibility but are consuming a huge amount of energy. The soldiers who are serving and the retired soldiers suffer extensively, and the issues are ever discussed in any forum.

TASK 3.

Give top priority to the three services. Over the last seven decades, the services require very strong and radical military reforms. Each service is expected to resist changes which are expected. The complete focus should be to put your own house in order. This affects the serving and the retired most. The Army, Navy, and the Airforce need to carry out radical internal reforms.

The army needs the reforms more than the other two services. The army is not mature enough to take on the role for CDS for a considerable period. I have been suggesting radical military reforms, which focus on Army. Being of supreme national interest, I will not release my thoughts in the public domain but write a CONFIDENTIAL note and share it with all political and government officers mentioned in this document in the fourth paragraph.

TASK 4.

The understanding between the three services is unhealthy. Constant friction has created an atmosphere of not only distrust but constant attempts to show the other service down. This is a result of poor training in understanding other services. There is an immediate need to take the following g steps:

• Creating a Joint Training Command under which complete training activities of all the three services are coordinated. The duplicity of training institutions is costing hundreds of crores and not serving its purpose. It is a known fact that the strongest understanding is a result of the training from initial years. The Joint Training Command should become the hub for creating joint manship.

• All Training Institutions from Recruit Training to Advanced Training need to be brought under this Joint Training Command.

• Layout the common minimum standard of ‘common minimum threshold’ for officers of the three services at 10 yrs. service, 20 yrs. service and 30 yrs. service. This will ensure the same level of professional knowledge in desired fields for officers of all three services.

• Completely remove the bias of Command and make it open for all based on merit. E.g., Army’s bias to Infantry and Armoured Corps, the Airforce bias to Fighter Pilot stream, and such bias need to be removed.

TASK 5.

Brainstorming on ‘Theaterisation’ should be given five years. There should be no hurry. We need to have officers of all three services who have similar knowledge at 10, 20, and 30 yrs. service. There seems to be a tremendous hurry now. We are neither prepared nor trained. We, hence, need to have CDS from the Navy for at least two tenures before considering Air Force and Army. My reasons for the same will be written as an article on my blog soon.

TASK 6.

Promotion disparity for the personnel below the officer’s rank needs to be streamlined as far as possible in all three services. The retirement based on vacancies/services in years is causing deep socio-economic pain. This is not an impossible task to achieve. Likewise, the armed forces need to be kept young and the release conditions of all the three services should be similar for each rank from Sepoy to Subedar Major and their equivalent in Airforce and Navy. Keep Armed Forces young but assure continued growth of every member up to 60 yrs. age. The traditional route of lateral induction in CAPF etc. needs to be discarded and numerous new low or no-cost solutions implemented. 

TASK 7.

Bring complete Military Engineering Service and more such services that serve the three services commonly under the office of CDS. The quality of service will not only go up but result in saving thousands of crores of the defense budget. 

Likewise, an attempt should be made to cut the tail by identifying duplicity of organizations and offices and investing heavily in IT for support.

TASK 8.

Introduce seamless documentation of all personal occurrences of all members of armed forces from recruitment to death of ESM or the Widow. At present numerous organizations deal with the serving and retired separately and do not have access to common data. The suffering at the user end is endless.

TASK 9.

A soldier’s recruitment starts a relationship with services and finishes on his or his spouse’s death. It is life ling. The organization must cater to this fact.

Create a ‘Veterans Command’ and under it bring 100% organizations connected with the veterans and those serving but in the last year of their service. The transition from serving to retired life is the most difficult and single most reason for extreme difficulties faced by veterans. The savings by combining offices will be in hundreds of crores. For example, Army has over 40 Record Offices but the poorest documentation. After retirement men, ad widows suffer maximum. Just one record office with complete data held on a common portal can be accessed by all organizations.

Kendriya Sainik Board, Zilla Sainik Board, etc need to be modernized and included under the Veterans Command.

TASK 10.

Anything for the Nation after the first nine are done.

Col Sanjay Pande (Retd)

(c) EXCEPT GOVERNMENT OF INDIA