Asia Times: Defense bureaucracy takes on real soldiers



	February 23, 1999	atimes.com

India-Pakistan

Defense bureaucracy takes on real soldiers
By Rahul Bedi

NEW DELHI - India has embarked on a massiveexercise to restructure the civilian-dominated Defense Ministry,to reduce mounting tension between the ministry and the armed forces andreorient it to serve the needs of a nuclear weapon state.

''The service chiefs have been asked to put their ideas ofrestructuring the ministry in the form of full fledgedproposals,'' said Defense Minister George Fernandes.

The government's effort to integrate the military into theministry has been welcomed. ''We need new doctrines and equipmentin addition to restructuring,'' Indian army chief Gen. Ved PrakashMalik told reporters recently.

He added that Indian, Pakistani and Chinese nuclear capabilityhad added a new dimension to regional security, renderingnecessary the restructuring of defence management.

Official sources, however, said the urgency behindrestructuring the ministry was because relations between itsbureaucrats and the service chiefs had reached ''breaking point''over the last few months.

The service chiefs, for instance, were told about the nucleartests in May last year just hours before they took place and thattoo as insurance against any ''adverse reaction'' fromneighboring Pakistan.

The military was also unaware of India's cache of chemicalweapons stored at various Defense Research and DevelopmentOrganization laboratories across the country that are now beingdestroyed under the Chemicals Weapon Convention.

A recent Indian Navy Strategic Defense Review strongly statesthat the military cannot afford an ''entrenched, all powerful,civil service, whose vested interests and hijacking of policyformulation have served to curtail the country's progress,despite the quality and energy of its human resources."

One senior army officer said though inexperienced in mattersmilitary, the civil service remained the final arbiter of allresource and equipment allocations to the military and was evendominating operational and intelligence gathering tasks.

He said recently bungled counter-intelligence operations, because of poor interaction between the navy and the civilian-dominated Joint Intelligence Committee, had led to demands by thenavy to create a separate Defence Intelligence Agency.

Meanwhile, a ''turf battle'' has broken out amongst India'sthree services over the proposed appointment of a chief ofdefense staff (CDS) in a restructured Defence Ministry.

Military sources said the Indian Air Force and Indian Navyfear the CDS would always be from the army, the largest service.The air force is particularly opposed, saying air power willdominate any future conflict, as proved in the Gulf War.

The navy, for its part, believes India has been land-centricfor too long and failed to grasp the imperative of guarding a7,000km coastline, distant island territories and untold mineralresources in its 2.8 million sq km exclusive economic zone.

Analysts said inter-service rivalry for supremacy that hasplagued the military for decades has become more acute with theupcoming changes in the Defence Ministry. ''The fight between theair force and the army over operational matters has never beenresolved,'' said a senior army officer.

The Indian army. at 1.2 million strong. is the world's thirdlargest. But that could be changing. A shrinking defence budget -also with the government considering creating a nuclear deterrentand building missiles - is necessitating an ''in house'' revampof the army.

Army sources said the restructuring effort will concentrateon ''consolidating'' the army's manpower and equipment to greaterlevels of economy and efficiency. The money saved will beutilized for desperately-needed modernization programs,constantly deferred due to shrinking budgets.

Various recommendations including some from the Army TrainingCommand at Shimla, 250km north of New Delhi, have suggested arevaluation and modernization of the outdated War Establishmentscales for equipment and manpower in combat units and PeaceEstablishment standards dating back to World War II.

Some infantry, mechanised and armored corps and artillery unitsdating back to World War II may also be disbanded on therecommendation of regimental commanding officers, but withoutcompromising security.

This will release equipment and trained personnel for activedeployment elsewhere, particularly for internal security to battle armed separatists in the disputed northern state ofKashmir and several north-eastern provinces.

The manpower re-allocation is expected to compensate for theshortage of around 14,000 officers and the cutback of 50,000soldiers announced last year, besides saving on trainingcosts. Static air defence units, for instance, are likely torevert to Territorial Army control, as in the 1970s.

The hardware from the disbanded combat arms will, after anoverall assessment, be transferred to War Wastage Reserves,presently at their lowest level, to maintain minimum equipmentlevels for times of conflict, said a senior military officer.

(Inter Press Service)

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