welcome
   Date :26-Dec-2019
THAT the Union Cabinet has finally lent its assent to the creation of the all-important position of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), is a welcome news for which the nation had been waiting all these years. The assent offers a new impetus to India’s defence-preparedness at the leadership level. It will add a special flavour, flair and fastness to decisions on security and defence issues. The already keyed-up national leadership on defence-related issues will find itself more suitable to making critical strategic and tactical decisions without any bureaucratic hurdles that might have affected leadership thinking in the past.
 
For too long this moment had been waiting in the wings. Even Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi was eager to push this moment through, but could not do so for whatever reasons during his first term. The decision was reportedly mired in bureaucratic roadblocks without any proper explanations, without any logical reasons for delay. That difficulty overcome, the Union Cabinet cleared the pending issue, in the process empowering India’s top leadership to take better decisions and effect their faster implementation in larger security interests.
 
Already, India’s Defence Services enjoyed a terrific reputation for their high levels of professionalism. No matter what the political leadership thought and did, the Defence Services were led by professionals of high merit, capable of making fine decisions in the larger interest of national defence. Despite some sluggishness at the political level, India’s Defence leaders gave enough proof of their quickness and firmness in decision-making whenever serious issues arose.
In the past five years, India’s political leadership showed an altogether different paradigm shift in the nation’s security doctrine and handling of issues of national defence from external as well as internal threat-perceptions. India’s diplomacy, too, was given a sharper edge with an appropriate use of military leverage to extract right benefits in favour of complex multi-lateral ties that the national leadership was weaving for long-term interests. This factor added a special edge to the India’s effort to make its presence felt on global and regional issues using a part of its financial muscle as well.
 
The new arrangement of Chief of Defence Staff will add a very critical flair to India’s overall projection and promotion of national interests in the regional and global security scenario. It may not be advisable to speculate who could be the occupant of the coveted position, easy to tell that he would be a person of great stature, insight and foresight.
 
Social media posts make no sense when they suggest that the three Service Chiefs -- Lt. General Manoj Naravane (when he takes over as Chief of Army Staff); Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria; Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh -- are batch-mates in their training days and their camaraderie would lend a greater weight to military decision-making. Such media-posts only indicate the naivete of the people who indulge in such flights of imagination. They do not realise that the high levels of professionalism of India’s military leaders have always ensured that the Defence Services were fully prepared to take right steps when the need arose.
Now, with the creation of the new position Chief of Defence Staff, India’s military capabilities would acquire a sharper edge. It will also eliminate bureaucratic obstacles that might have affected issues arising in strategic and tactical domains. The process of military acquisitions, too, would gather a newer momentum which India needs the most at this stage. This is one development the nation had been waiting for for years. The Government has done well to move a frozen issue out of the limbo.