A force to reckon with

Through the position of CDS, the military gets a say in governance. Should we worry about it?

India has given its military a formal say in how government is to be run. The long-term consequences of this are unclear, but what is clear is that we will not be able to avoid them. They will come. The record of military in government in our part of the world is not encouraging, and keeping soldiers at arm’s length has always been wise. 

It is not particularly understood that the military capture of Pakistan happened because of a civilian initiative to introduce soldiers into government. Gen Ayub Khan, the army chief, was made a minister in the cabinet while he was still a serving officer. When things became sticky (in the language of our times, when the anti-nationals were up to no good), it was easy for the general to push his fellow ministers aside and take over because he had control over more force. That is the simplest and most direct explanation for why Pakistan remains, even today in 2020, totally beholden to its warriors in matters concerning internal and external affairs as well as the economy.

India has created a new position in its military, the chief of defence staff (CDS). In doing so, the government has also brought the position inside the administration by additionally making the CDS a secretary— in fact, the most powerful secretary in the defence ministry. Why they did this is unclear. The CDS (and I assure you it will always be a man) will be in charge of military affairs and advise the defence minister. He will not hold formal military command and the three service chiefs will not report to him but as the person in control of promotions and postings, he will, in fact, influence military command and they will, in fact, report to him. And in his role as the defence ministry’s most powerful secretary, he will have the civilian side of the ministry subordinate to him. Because we have unified all this, the CDS will have more control over the military than the defence minister.

Has any of this been thought through? Of course, it hasn’t. When leadership radiates genius and certitude, why should it bother with details and the opinions of others? I asked the two most well-informed reporters on defence matters (this organ’s correspondent and that of The Indian Express, both soldiers themselves) whether it had been debated in public before being announced and they didn’t think it was done.

Illustration by Binay Sinha

What must we now worry about? The first thing is that Indians have never had a say in how their Army is to be run. One of the problems with the 1935 Government of India Act was that the largest head of the budget, the Army, was outside the purview of Indians. This is no different from how it remains today. It is scandalous and outright treason to suggest that the Rs4 trillion or more that we spend on military and paramilitary might be too much. It does not even occur as a question in politics: All parties outdo each other in promising more money for defence. 

The second thing is that the creation of positions for specific individuals, as has likely happened in this instance, is not without danger. The CDS has already offered his opinion on politics and said that what the opposition is doing regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act is not leadership. 

The third thing is that we must not assume that a force inside government will not assert itself. It will. Of course it will believe that it is doing something good and for the right reason: All forces think that. The question is whether you want the most powerful one to have a say in government. India’s military has always been a colonialist institution. I trust one can be blunt here without causing offence. The fact is that the same regiments, which for 250 years had been bayonetting and bombing Indians before August 14, 1947, were charged with protecting Indians the following day. Our response cannot be that our soldiers are all loyal and love the country and would never do anything to harm it. That is not how adults debate. 

The fourth thing is that we are too afraid to even discuss such things. The Indian Express reported a few years ago about the unusual troop movement ordered by the then army chief (who is today a minister). The government freaked out because it didn’t know if this movement was being directed against it. The newspaper report was accurate and factual but it was derided because the army chief cannot do any such thing. 

Less noticed was a report on these pages published a few days before The Indian Express report. I physically sat up when I came across this paragraph: “Consider the appointments made by the current army chief, General Singh, from his Rajput Regiment. While Singh has been a relatively fair chief, he has posted officers from the regiment to practically every crucial appointment: The deputy chief of army staff, the director general of military operations, the adjutant general (responsible for discipline and manpower planning), the military secretary who posts and promotes officers, and the additional director general of administration & coordination. In addition, Rajput officers were placed at the head of key formations around Delhi: The Delhi Area which controls military installations around the capital, and the Meerut-based 22 Infantry Division.”

On September 23, 2015, The Hindu published an editorial, which said: “The Technical Support Division, a covert intelligence unit of the Army raised during the tenure of General V K  Singh as Army chief, is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The revelation that sensitive documents relating to it were destroyed illegally in 2012, in the final days of General Singh’s tenure — he is a Union Minister today — deserves a thorough and serious inquiry. The TSD has faced allegations that it misused funds earmarked for secret service operations, indulged in unauthorised surveillance and made attempts to destabilise the Jammu and Kashmir government. Some of these charges are attributed to the findings of an inquiry report by a Board of Officers. The latest exposé by this newspaper, with documentary evidence, shows that between May 22 and May 25, 2012, the Pune-based Southern Army Command assembled two different boards of officers to destroy all TSD-related documents in its possession.”

If you haven’t heard much about this, the reason is that the media thinks it is out of bounds even to discuss such things. And it is in this environment that this prime minister has given the military an even larger role and a say in the doings inside government.