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.