A good move by Vajpayee to allow FDI in defence in 2001

When NDA was in power in 2001, the Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and PM Vajpayee realized the great need for tapping domestic private potential to develop defense parts. So far from 1947 till 2000, Defense was purely a Public Sector Unit (PSU) and the problem was improper access to emerging technology and huge imports of weapons and equipments from Russia and other countries. When machinery came from Israel, it helped India win the Kargil war else we would have lost. Even before war had started, Vajpayee had continued discussions with Israel to get more weapons.

Hence in 2001, 100% private participation by domestic companies(like L&T) was allowed to manufacture parts of the defense equipments like radar, parts of helicopters etc. This helped better quality and high efficiency low cost materials to be infused into defense sector. In fact, Dhruv, Tejas have become very famous and countries have signed billions of dollars since then to buy them. At the same time FDI was capped to 26%. This helped foreign companies to strike deals with India.

Vajpayee made drastic changes to Defence System Structure: The first attempt after 50 years

For all along, committees and committees have been set up from 1947-1999 to make changes in defence establishments - structural changes and cohesion amongst various components, but none took any shape. This was primarily because the bureaucracy and the polity was simply unwilling to make bold steps. Rajiv Gandhi, V.P Singh and Narasimha Rao did make an attempt towards the set up of National Security Council, but failed. The first time ever proposal was brought into reality in 1998 under specially Vajpayee's intervention. It must be understood even when proposals were thought of, Kargil happened. And post Kargil, Vajpayee set up another committee under expert K.Subramanyam and after 6 months the report was given. The report was the first of its kind as Subramanyam himself points out. It was a very comprehensive study and proposed far more changes than expected to ensure that different defence establishments can work cohesively.

Although Vajpayee took the report very seriously and made changes to defence structure as per its recommendations, there were shortcomings. But it cannot be denied that it was the first concrete attempt in 50 years that Vajpayee and his team challenged bureaucracy which was against many such changes.

Vajpayee and his coterie of leaders - Advani, Brajesh Mishra and Jaswant Singh did the following:

• Created Defence Intelligence Authority - a new body directly accountable to the Defence Minister. This agency is headed by a member whose ranking is equivalent to an Air Marshal/General and could be from any of the 3 armed forces. The person heads the already existing intelligence agencies in Army, Navy and Air Force. Such an agency is now less dependable on civilian intelligence agencies like Intelligence Bureau(IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The dependency on IB and RAW caused major blunders in 1962 war. From those years, the armed forces have been demanding. Now, it is fulfilled.
  
• Created a Nuclear Command Authority whose directives are to be operationilized by Strategic Forces Command under the supervision of Air Marshal (or equivalent). This is solely responsible for management of strategic nuclear weapons
• Agreed to the creation of post of Chief of Defence Staff and Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, but could not make it a reality because of controversies involved between bureaucracy and armed forces w.r.t the impact such a post can create in decision making
• Created National Security Council consisting of 3 tiers:
  

  1) Strategic Policy Group (SPG) – includes Cabinet Secretary, Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force, (Foreign, Home, Defense, Finance) Secretary, Secretary (Defence Production), Secretary (Revenue), RBI Governor, IB chief, RAW Secretary, Dept of Atomic Energy Secretary, Secretary of Dept of Space, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, Chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) – responsible for short and long term security threats and policy options.

  2) National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) – consists of officials from outside the Govt who have in expertise in external security, strategic analysis, foreign affairs, defence, the armed forces, internal security, science and technology and economics.

  3) NSC Secretariat: JIC is the main one and it encompasses integrating RAW, IB Intelligence agencies along with Army, Navy, Air Force Intelligence agencies

• National Security Advisor (NSA) who acts as a main interface between these 3 tiers and PM.

In fact, B.Raman, defence analyst and a member of intelligence agency has stated that 70% of the recommendations of Subramanyam Committee have been implemented.

The major problem that draw flak from everyone was the post of NSA which got mixed with Principal Secretary (PS) to PM. Both were held by Brajesh Mishra and even Advani had difference of opinion on this as he quotes in his autobiography ("My country My life"). The 2 posts in terms of responsibilities are so huge that mixing them only dilutes the whole purpose of creating NSA.

There are several criticisms about all these changes - but it cannot be ignored that the attempt was the first of its kind and no doubt even NDA leaders admitted that further changes are required. So, one should be patient enough and expect that future governments (be it Congress or BJP) take this seriously. Failure to do so will only make these bodies useless.

Infact , J.N. Dixit who was the diplomat during the crucial years of East Asian Crisis and Sri Lankan Crisis and assisted the Congress was chosen to write the Defence Policy of the Congress in 2004 for Lok Sabha elections. The fact J.N. Dixit himself clarifies (as given by Congress manifesto) that all entities created are good, but certain changes are required to make them effective. But it appears that even after 5 years of being in power, Manmohan Singh has not given any attention to his proposed changes.

This and further the appreciation given by Subramanyam quoted as below only confirms the fact that Vajpayee took some bold decisions to change the age old norms of the Indian Defence.

"* The Government broke the taboo of 53 years on review of national security matters. This precedent will enable periodic reviews in the future.

* The reform process of national security requirements was preceded by intense debate at political level. This has helped in "cutting through the Gordian knot of sequential bureaucratic nitpicking and consequent delays."

* Recommendations and supporting arguments of the review are being published. This will add to transparency in discussion of India’s national security matters."

We should remember that the first time when new changes are done, it takes a while that it gets accepted in totality and its effectiveness proved. However, certain aspects of the brought in changes required immediate rectification and this is where Vajpayee's Govt failed.

Vajpayee- one of the 60 greatest Indians (as per survey of India Today)

http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/renaissance-man-3.html

The matter is presented here as is.
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A.B. VAJPAYEE — FORMER PRIME MINISTER, 1924

Even in his autumnal stillness, Atal Bihari Vajpayee defies definition. With a mischievous glint in his eyes, the man—who is now beyond the grasp of predatory headlines—doesn’t fit into the neat categorisations of leadership and greatness.

There has always been a bit of mystery, a teasing element of the unknown, about India’s first right-wing prime minister who has taken permanent residency in popular conscience.

Come to think of it, and be intrigued by the enduring enigma of Vajpayee. His party may not have a pan-Indian presence—or won an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

But Vajpayee, defying gravity, soars above his party, larger than its collective leadership, unblemished by its sins and transgressions.

In a party whose defining image of assertion is demolition, his name alone rhymes with moderation and consolidation. There may not be a Vajpayee cult, but Vision Vajpayee is an inspiration for true believers on the right.

In a polity characterised by the culture of personal vendetta and pettiness, he is the last custodian of dignity and decency.

And his instincts have redeemed the ideology of his political parivar.

Oh yes, his patented pause. Does it reflect an innate passivity? No, it brings out the power of silence in a country where the sloganeer’s stentorian showmanship is celebrated as politics of social justice.

His updated version of passive resistance has been a cultivated strategy, and it has worked at a time when his hyperactive colleagues could only divide.

The first genuine non-Congress prime minister to complete his full term in office, he is the original reconciler. I still remember one of my many enlightening encounters with him during his six years in office.

Once I provoked him by saying that many of his colleagues felt he was soft and not pushing his investigative agencies to go after the Gandhi dynasty.

“If I do to them what they did to their political enemies, tell me, how are we going to be different from the Congress?” he asked, looking straight into my eyes. I didn’t have anything more to say. I was sitting across from the trueconviction politician.

He has always strived to connect with even the seemingly incompatible. Connectivity for him has been an article of faith. It has been political, philosophical and, of course,geographical. It has gone beyond the realms of telecommunications and civil aviation.

Quick take Q: How many states has he been elected from? A: Four: Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat,Madhya Pradesh and Delhi Q: How many times has he been elected to the Lok Sabha? A: Ten, the latest to the 14th Lok Sabha Q: Which publications did he edit? A: The magazines Rashtradharma and Panchjanya and the dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun Q: When was he jailed? A: In 1942 and during the Emergency from 1975-77

The first real internationalist after Nehru, he has brought India to the global high table. He has liberated India from the entrapment of Third Worldism—and the Cold War mindset. He has made anti-imperialism, a legacy of the Left liberal Congressism, redundant.

“We see that as India adjusts to globalisation, the globe is adjusting to a quiet Indianisation,” he said at the India Today Conclave in 2004. The eldest statesman of India would become the wisest of the East as well.

Today, four years after his exit from South Block, Vajpayee is not an active presence in politics. But for India, as successive opinion polls show, he is still the ideal prime minister— and the most beloved politician. Why? He doesn’t colonise media space.

He hasn’t written a bestseller. Why does he still concentrate the mind of India? The answer is his political dharma. He has singularly redefined power with a kind of sagely detachment. He withdraws to conquer; he confounds his adversaries with, well, a couplet; and he renounces only to return.

All the while, his moral universe remains intact, beyond the whirl of realpolitik, beyond the exigencies of his own party. There is a terrifying sense of calm about the man, an individual solidity that has only ensured political stability. He has changed the syntax of leadership.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee embodies the renaissance of the right, and as the only compassionate conservative India has produced, he continues to reaffirm the virtues of reconciliation in the age of confrontation.

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