General Rawat’s impromptu strategic guidance on the diminished role for the armed forces has factored the impact of the pandemic on public spending. India’s plans to fight a two-and-half front war will need to be re-evaluated and its self-assigned role as a net regional security provider will also need a fresh look.

Maj-Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

Military commentator

To be self-reliant, the government’s announcement on May 16 virtually banning defence imports — a boost for Make in India — and allowing 74 per cent FDI in JV through the automatic route, are near revolutionary steps, but requiring the defence procurement procedure (DPP) to be revised for the nth time. These radical policy changes will not be easy to implement and will undermine defence capabilities in the short and medium term.

Therefore, CDS General Bipin Rawat’s extraordinary statement earlier this month, charging the armed forces with “misrepresenting their operational requirements to indulge in large weapon import” was embarrassing for the armed fraternity, though pointedly in sync with the government which has been advocating Make in India, a grandiose project for indigenising weapons production that is bereft of any home-grown technology and adequate production base.

General Rawat said the armed forces should accept weapons from the domestic industry even if they meet just 70 per cent of the desired technology. The admission includes curtailing operational missions and objectives: “We are not expeditionary forces that have to deploy around the globe. We have to guard and fight only along our borders and, of course, dominate the Indian Ocean.” He added: “Covid-19 has affected everybody. We need to be realistic, start adjusting and have a major relook at our operational priorities and what we actually need.” This was a painful overview of the existing defence planning, weapon acquisition and their prioritisation procedures for which he too, as former Army Chief, is accountable.

It is understood that veterans and serving officers were perturbed with General Rawat’s accusation that the services have been exaggerating

military threats and that they should fight with weapons with less than the stipulated General Staff Qualitative Requirement.

General Rawat’s self-flagellation was also prompted by a defence

official disclosing that the defence budget was likely to be slashed between 20 and 40 per cent. As salaries and pensions cannot be cut, defence modernisation will take the hit. This will put a freeze on any new deals and even funds earmarked for paying instalments in the existing contracts could be deferred.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) could also be partly to blame for the ‘noise’ as it has been rating India for the last five years as the world’s second biggest arms importer after Saudi Arabia, accounting for 9.2 per cent of total global arms imports. Even so, India spends on an average on defence, just 1.6% of GDP, minus pensions and salaries, which is one of the lowest among the developing countries, given its two unsettled borders and attendant challenges.

What General Rawat said amounts to a critique of how the country arrives at its defence and security threats, challenges and opportunities. No overarching review coupling defence, diplomacy, technology and economics in the shape of a comprehensive strategic defence and security review has ever been carried out. Nor has any white paper been produced. The Defence Minister’s operational directive which is originally drafted by the tri-services gets updated and issued after every five to ten years.

The last time one was refined was during the late Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s term, but one is not sure whether he finally signed the directive.

The strategic sweep of each service of the armed forces is varied. For the Navy, it is from the east coast of Africa to the Malacca Straits. For the IAF, airspace over territorial India and the Indian Ocean region; and for the continental Army, it is land borders with China, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, along with out-of-area contingency plans for the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The Indian Army has a manpower ceiling of one million. For the Navy, the ceiling is 60,000 and a target of 200 warships by 2027. The IAF has sought 42 combat squadrons, a figure born in the 1960s, not revised since and never achieved.

General Rawat’s impromptu strategic guidance on the diminished role for the armed forces has factored the impact of the pandemic on public spending. India’s ambitious plans to fight a two-and-half front war will need to be re-evaluated and its self-assigned role as a net regional security provider will also need a re-examination. The Indian Navy’s proposed role in the Indo-Pacific and any militarisation of the Quad will need to be shelved, with focus on the domination of the Indian Ocean region.

Further, General Rawat’s remarks, budgetary cuts and import ban will disrupt the 15-year long term integrated perspective plan and require a drastic resetting. The ground reality is this — the LoC has hotted up and infiltration in Kashmir is on the rise. Insurgency will increase exponentially as passes open. Similarly, the LAC has been activated in Ladakh and Sikkim and tension is escalating. Sikkim has a settled border and China accepted it as part of India in 2005. Although the Army Chief, General MM Naravane, has downplayed the two face-offs and rejected any linkage between them, the armed forces must be prepared for a pincer movement by all-weather friends Pakistan and China as well as another Doklam.

Hard power is needed to assert national interest by use of force. Evidently, in view of General Rawat’s pronouncements and the government’s new defence acquisition policy, full spectrum of capabilities and defence modernisation will be constrained by affordability of programmes in a post-Covid normal.

Instead of considering and announcing piecemeal reforms, like extension of colour service for soldiers, national voluntary service, integrated battle groups and so on, an integrated defence and security review is urgently required on achieving specific joint and individual force capabilities — something that the Defence Planning Staff, of which I was a member, modestly attempted in the mid-80s.

General Rawat’s challenge in a post-pandemic environment is daunting, but as the first CDS, he enjoys confidence of the government and knows his stuff.

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 29

India has been constructing strategically crucial roads and repairing the airstrips close to Aksai Chin since 2008 and the aggressive objection to these constructions now is to redefine the boundaries as per its own misplaced perceptions.

For easy access to troops

Two roads leading to Fukche and Daulat Beg Olde — the two airfields which were activated in April 2008, then after a gap of 41 years in the eastern and western parts of Ladakh.

The construction of the roads cutting the mountains and negotiating the sand dunes was to enable the troops to have an easy access to the front lines. It was also to deny China to take advantage of Indian troops’ absence in the strategically important areas in Ladakh.

“These are strategically important areas for the Indian Army for defence purposes,” sources in the Army told The Tribune.

“There can be no compromises on strategic assets,” the sources said.

The roads were being constructed from the eastern and western flanks of the Aksai Chin area.

India had lost Aksai Chin because of its almost negligible presence in the area. The presence is required to strengthen the Indian defences strategically and enhance the visibility there.

The roads are important for there cannot be an all-time dependence on air presence because of vagaries of weather. In 2008, AN-32 and medium-sized IL-76 aircraft had landed and later these were upgraded for landing of bigger planes as well.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) fixed-wing aircraft (AN-32) landed at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) in the Ladakh region close to the Chinese border on May 31, 2008, and Fukche was activated in October 2007.

The Advanced Landing Ground, where the aircraft landed at DBO, is located at the height of 16,200 feet (4,960) metres near the strategic Karakoram pass and close to the Line of Actual Control with China in the Aksai Chin area.

Daulat Beg Oldie is an important Army forward area post which links the ancient silk route to China. This base was built during the Indo-China conflict in 1962. Packet aircraft of the IAF operated from DBO between 1962 and 1965. In 1996, an earthquake caused some loosening of the surface soil making the base unfit for further fixed-wing aircraft operations. But since 2008, things started changing and that’s what has made China to go in for area denial strategy by its aggressive and weaponised strategy.

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 30

A core group meeting of top security officials in Kashmir on Saturday pointed out that Pakistan had intensified its efforts at increasing infiltration and ceasefire violations and there was also an effort to calibrate increase in terrorist actions in the hinterland.

The General Officer Commanding, Chinar Corps, Lt-Gen BS Raju, and Director-General of Police, Jammu & Kashmir, Dilbag Singh, co-chaired a meeting of the core group consisting of top officials of the civil administration, intelligence agencies and security forces in Srinagar.

The meeting was to review the security situation and ensure readiness to meet the anticipated security challenges, an Army statement said. “The core group focused on the need for high level of synergy amongst all agencies in addressing the security concerns of Kashmir. Intelligence inputs indicated that Pakistan had intensified its efforts at increasing infiltration and ceasefire violations across the Line of Control (LoC). There is also an effort to calibrate increase in terrorist actions in the hinterland. Pakistan and its proxies are also active on social media to launch disinformation campaign in J&K,” the statement said.

The group discussed plans to ensure a robust counter infiltration grid along the LoC, counter-terrorist grid in the hinterland and recent successes in anti-terror operations.

“The intelligence inputs indicate efforts by anti-nationals and Pakistan proxies to calibrate increase in violence in J&K,” the statement read. The group discussed the need for continued intelligence-based anti-terror operations with a humane touch.

“In order to address the complete eco-system of terror organisations in J&K, the anti-terror operations are being supported by efforts to identify and arrest over ground workers who sustain the terror organisations,” it added.

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, May 29

The Naval Dockyard at Mumbai has developed an ultraviolet (UV) sanitisation bay for decontaminating tools, clothes and other items as part of the war against Covid-19, according to a press release.

According to the statement, the UV sanitisation bay has been set up at the entry and exit points of the naval dockyard at Mumbai.

“The challenging task required ingenuity to convert a large common room into a UV bay by fabrication of aluminium sheets with electrical arrangements for UV lighting,” the statement said.

The sanitisation bay employs an ultraviolet light source for germicidal irradiation after research showed that such a system helps neutralize respiratory pathogens like SARS and influenza.

Apart from the naval dockyard at Mumbai, a similar facility has been set up at the naval station in Karanja.

An industrial oven which is also part of the set up here helps heat smaller sized items up to 60 degree celsius.

New Delhi, May 30

The Central Reserve Police Force has constituted a committee of its senior officers to find better ways of ensuring social distancing in barracks and toilets used by jawans to check the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in its camps, officials said on Saturday.

They said the recent spread of the infection to about 140 personnel living in the 31st battalion of the country’s largest paramilitary in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar and a few other such instances had led to the decision of finding innovative ways to combat the new challenge of keeping the force “combat-ready amid the enhanced level of physical distance between troops.”

Almost all personnel living in the 31st battalion have recovered now and as per the latest data, only about 170 personnel, out of over 400, are under treatment for COVID-19 in the CRPF.

Officials said the committee was headed by an Additional Director-General posted in the CRPF headquarters and all zonal commanders had been asked to send in their ideas and inputs on better management of barracks and common toilets space after talking to the actual users — jawans and junior-rank officials — and sanitary experts.

“The committee has been created on the directions of CRPF Director General A P Maheshwari and he has sought a time-bound report so that better ways can be found to ensure social distancing and personal hygiene in barracks and toilets used by jawans,” a senior officer said.

He said the committee would also find ways to better sanitise these two areas in the camp so that jawans, who have to live in shared spaces, do not contract COVID-19 infection.

These measures would go a long way in ensuring the overall health of our troops and their personal hygiene even when coronavirus goes away from our lives, another officer said.

The second officer said living, sleeping and performing daily ablutions in small and shared spaces was a concern in certain camps, including temporary ones, where there was no land space to expand.

“New locations where a battalion or company camp is made have better space when it comes to barracks and toilets for jawans and sub-officers. The coronavirus pandemic has magnified this issue and hence solutions are being looked into,” he said.

As part of measures to combat the disease, the CRPF has also decided that all those personnel who have an exposure to COVID-19 patients or surroundings, those who are joining back after leave or those who are returning to camp after lockdown will now be put in 17 days quarantine.

Officials said the measure had been declared by the CRPF chief in order to cut the coronavirus infection chain in the camps and units of the force where troops and their families ranging from a varied strength of 1,000 to 3,000 people reside.

When the issue of infection to so many troops living in the 31st battalion came to light it was found that the medical wing of the force had issued “dichotomous” order of quarantining a returning medical staff for five days rather than the stipulated 14-day time period and that possibly led to the spike in the number and the camp virtually becoming a hotspot, they said.

Officials suspect that as jawans lived in closed spaces like barracks, mess and toilets, the infection quickly spread from one person to the other in this camp and few others from where COVID-19 cases were reported. Hence, it had been directed by the DG that the quarantine period would now be 17 days in the CRPF, they said.

The 3.25-lakh-personnel-strong force, the mainstay for anti-Naxal operations and counter-terrorist combat in the Kashmir valley, had also ordered that officials above 50 years of age would not be deployed for “hotspot or active duty”, they said.

“Also, men and women troops suffering from medical conditions like hypertension, diabetes among others will not be sent to hard duties as the health ministry guidelines for COVID-19 state such people fall in the high-risk category when it comes to contracting coronavirus infection,” a senior official said.

The DG, during a recent address to troops, has also asked the personnel to increase intake of immunity-boosting food items, shun junk food, be stress-free and adopt a healthy and positive-thinking lifestyle.

He said it had been decided that the troops who could not join duty due to restrictions of travel during the nationwide lockdown would be “considered on duty” and their personal leaves would be intact. PTI

New Delhi, May 30

As Indian and Chinese troops remain engaged in a tense border standoff, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that the government would not allow India’s pride to be hurt under any circumstances even as he said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the row.

Singh also said he conveyed to US Defence Secretary Mark T Esper during a telephonic conversation on Friday that India and China had an existing mechanisms to resolve “problems” through talks at diplomatic and military levels.

In the midst of the flare-ups between Indian and Chinese armies, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was “ready, willing and able to mediate” between the two countries. He reiterated the offer on Thursday as well.

The Ministry of External Affairs indirectly rejected the offer two days ago, but Singh became the first Central minister to speak on India’s position on the issue with clarity.

“I spoke to the US Defence Secretary yesterday. I told him that we have developed a mechanism already under which any problem between India and China are resolved through military and diplomatic dialogue,” said Singh.

He was replying to a question on whether India ruled out any third-party mediation in resolving the border row with China.

The Defence Minister said efforts were on to resolve the border row in eastern Ladakh.

“I want to assure the country that we will not allow India’s pride to be hurt under any circumstances. India has been following a clear policy of maintaining good relationship with neighbouring countries and it is not a new approach. We have been following it for long. At times, situation arises with China. It has happened before,” he said.

Singh noted that China had also said that it wanted to resolve the border issue through diplomatic dialogue.

“It has been India’s effort to ensure that the tension does not escalate. It should be resolved through talks at military and diplomatic levels. Negotiations are ongoing between the two countries at the military and diplomatic levels,” he said.

Troops of India and China were engaged in the standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh.

The trigger for the face-off was China’s stiff opposition to India laying a key road in the Finger area around the Pangong Tso Lake besides construction of another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.

Military sources said China was also laying a road in the Finger area which was not acceptable to India.

The sources said military reinforcements, including troops, vehicles and artillery guns were sent to eastern Ladakh by the Indian Army to shore up its presence in the areas where Chinese soldiers were resorting to aggressive posturing.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to “disengage”.

However, the standoff continued.

The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9.

The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.

Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. PTI

Brig Sandeep Thapar (Retd)

Everyone who attends an Army function does not fail to praise the clockwork precision and meticulous execution of the event. I have often been asked, “How do you guys do it?” To most, I reply, “It’s the armed forces’ ethos and management style.” Eyebrows are often raised at the last part, but it is the truth.

At the Armed Forces ‘College of Defence Management’, the opening lecture invariably starts with a tall claim: “Gentlemen, management concepts first emanated in the armed forces, the civil setup discovered these much later. It’s a different matter that they then took it to a different level altogether!” To the cynical, I add that this is entirely due to the unique armed forces’ approach to any task and our grooming — a process of sustained, gradual learning.

Let me share some of our management mantras:

Detailed briefing: The moment any task is allocated, the leader conceptualises, breaks it down to manageable proportions and briefs the subordinates. Details are discussed threadbare, doubts clarified. This is followed by a note delineating the responsibilities. This removes any ambiguity. Subordinates are also expected to evolve their allotted tasks to cover any related eventuality. This totally removes the ‘I didn’t know, did not visualise’ attitude.

Delegation: Each task is allotted to an individual based on his capability, experience and competence. He is then given a fair amount of leeway. And is thereafter held responsible for it. There are times early in your career when you ruin the simplest of jobs allotted. After a mouthful, you learn and move on. As a youngster, I was tasked to manage switching the lights in a presentation. I messed up since the room was dark. As I apologised to my CO, he said, “Don’t worry, we will give you a torch next time.”

Monitoring: There’s an old saying in the armed forces — one look on the ground is better than 10 reports. A monitoring tour is extremely essential. A word of caution — do not breathe down the neck of a subordinate. It kills initiative and inhibits learning. My commander, when asked “sir, when would you like to see our training?”, said, “I will see you in war!”

Rehearsal: Nothing reveals flaws better than a rehearsal. All major events in the Army essentially have a dry run. We rehearse briefings, inspections, tests, training, presentations and events. We also rehearse dining-out dinners. In one such instance, we discovered that the sturdy-looking chair in which the posted-out VIP was to be finally carried out from the mess to the chants of ‘he’s a jolly good fellow’ (a services tradition) was brittle and broke. Fortunately, only the Major being carried that day was bruised and not the Major General (or his ego) on the final day!

Plan B: No planning, however immaculate, will survive nature’s fury or God’s wrath. So we always devise an alternate plan — Plan B. Whether the chances of it coming into play are less than zero, a fallback scheme is always ready. So, an outdoor event will have an indoor ready, back-up vehicles, escorts and routes are earmarked. Quick thinking and early decision are other key ingredients linked to this mantra.

In the end, it is not only the mantras but the desire to excel that is the key to success. Each task is approached with the thought that in a battle, there is no room for error or being bested.

Gunfight under way in Poshkreeri area of Anantnag district