Chief of Defence Staff

The story so far

• On August 15, 2019 the Indian Prime Minister announced the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) who will be above the three Service Chiefs.
• This is one of the country's biggest higher-level military reform to bring in jointness and tri-service integration.

Post of CDS

• The CDS is meant to be a single-point military advisor to the government, and to coordinate long-term planning, procurements, training and logistics of the three services.
• As future wars become short, swift and network-centric, coordination among the three services is crucial.

• Also as the stress on resources increases and defence budgets remain flat, the way forward is optimisation of resources by joint planning and training.
• The CDS, being above the three Service Chiefs, is expected to play this role by optimising procurement, avoiding duplication among the services and streamlining the process.

• India being a nuclear weapons state, the CDS will also act as the military advisor to the Prime Minister on nuclear issues.

History of CDS

• The proposal for a CDS is not new to India, it has been there for two decades.
• It was first made by the K. Subrahmanyam committee appointed after the Kargil conflict of 1999 to recommend higher military reforms.
• However, lack of consensus and apprehensions among services meant it never moved forward.
• In 2012, the Naresh Chandra committee recommended the appointment of a Permanent Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee as a midway to allay apprehensions over the CDS.
• The CDS is also one of the 99 recommendations made by the Lt General D.B. Shekatkar (retd) Committee which submitted its report in December 2016 which had 34 recommendations pertaining to reforms in the tri-services.

Current status

• In the absence of a CDS, presently the senior most of the three Chiefs functions as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC).
• But it is an additional role and the tenures have been very short.
• For instance, Air Chief Marshal (ACM) B.S. Dhanoa took over as the Chairman of the COSC on May 31 this year from outgoing Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.
• However, ACM Dhanoa will be in the role for only few months as he is set to retire on September 30 after which the baton will pass to Army Chief General Bipin Rawat who will then be the senior most.
• General Rawat too is set to retire on December 31 after three years in office.

CDS status on other countries

• All major countries, especially the nuclear weapon states, have a CDS.
• The U.K. from which the Indian armed forces and the Defence Ministry are modelled on, has a Permanent Secretary, equivalent to the Defence Secretary, and also a CDS.

• The U.K. Government guidelines state that the CDS is the professional head of the British armed forces and, as military strategic commander, is responsible for how operations are carried out.
• He is also the most senior military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister.
• The Permanent Secretary is the government's principal civilian adviser on Defence, has primary responsibility for policy, finance and planning, and is also the Departmental Accounting Officer.

Criticism

• Theoretically, the appointment of a CDS is long overdue, but there appears to be no clear blueprint for the office to ensure its effectiveness.
• India’s political establishment is seen as being largely ignorant of, or at best indifferent towards, security matters, and hence incapable of ensuring that a CDS works.
• Militaries by nature tend to resist transformation.
• The absence of foresight and understanding might end up making the CDS just another case of “jobs for the boys”.

Way forward

• The first draft of the national security strategy is to be submitted shortly to the government. 
• According to Defence sources, the Defence Ministry will now initiate the process of creating this position and this is expected to take few months.

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