Every year we celebrate Independence Day with the usual gusto but the fact is that nationalism – Nation First (the slogan of Prime Minister Modi) is yet to catch up in the nation. The picture in the defence sector including the defence-industrial complex is dismal, as well known. To this end, the Independence Day this year is actually special because after years on end, India has a majority government and a dynamic Prime Minister. Getting the derailed train of the country from misadministration and deep corruption is obviously the first priority and there are numerous hurdles as witnessed by the chaos in Parliament, the judiciary stonewalling the dire need to expedite cases of corruption against Members of Parliament (MPs), serious outstanding cases of corruption against former ministers and media involving thousands of crores of rupees, communal clashes being perpetuated routinely for political gains, support in Rajya Sabha apparently being traded for protection against initiation of criminal and corruption cases, the powerful arms mafia with its brains abroad dictating terms for status quo or change that benefits them most, and what have you. National progress will remain stunted without speedily proceeding against corrupt politicians, ministers and MPs. More significantly, any delays in overhauling our defence sector will seriously endanger India’s security even further.

Yes, the defence budget of Rs. 2.29 lakh crore has been announced, as has been the hike in foreign direct investment (FDI) from 26 per cent to 49 per cent and expediting of border infrastructure has been ordered. Of the Rs. 98,000 crore plus capital expenditure catered in the defence budget, projects for Rs. 32,000 crore plus have been cleared. Of course these are important steps but will require thorough follow up. For example, raising FDI by itself is not enough, procedures and policies need to be streamlined and defence sector made attractive to investors. The medium lift military aircraft will take years with no indigenous expertise in the field save the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which is not to participate. The border roads don’t have the wherewithal to expedite border infrastructure unless augmented by private resources. We don’t yet have a National Security Strategy (NSS) and never undertook a Comprehensive Defence Review (CDR), both being criminal voids that need to be immediately addressed. The Defence Minister’s directive by no means can substitute these two documents and without these planning for defence procurement actually is like building castles in thin air. Not many would know that our Defence Minister is not charged with the defence of India. Government of India rules of business are a British legacy saying Defence Secretary is responsible for “defence of the country” and that Services Headquarters are “attached offices”. It suited the British because their Defence Secretary indeed was also the Defence Minister. The Services Headquarters were kept as “attached headquarters” because of distrust of majority Indians in the army of British India. Now if we are to have the Defence Secretary responsible for defence of India then what pray is the Defence Minister supposed to do – check cleanliness of toilets of South Block? The Defence Secretary in any case is imported from sundry ministries and has to learn from scratch what military and security is all about. By their own admission, bureaucrats of Ministry of Defence (MoD) admit that it is only in their second or third tenure in MoD that they come to grasp of matters military. Then our armed forces are all Indian and patriotic to the core, so there is no reason for Services Headquarters to continue as “attached offices” just because the bureaucracy wants to keep control and the arms mafia wants status quo.

Defence of the country has suffered because MoD continues to be manned by generalist bureaucrats sans professional military knowledge, who remain cocooned in their offices without accountability. The state in which the country has come up to needs a major overhaul and patchwork is hardly the answer. Serving military professionals need to be injected into the MoD at all levels including decision-making. Indian Railways is almost as large as our Army and the former is managed by the Railway Board, which is manned exclusively by railway officials. This needs to be followed in reorganizing the MoD. The MoD should be exclusively manned by military officials with advisory civilian cells in defence production and defence finance only. Headquarters Integrated defence staff should be completely merged into MoD, providing wherewithal for institutionalised strategic planning, operations, etc. A CDS with full operational powers should be appointed without further delay. Military must be fully integrated into strategic policy planning and decisions related to all matters military. Organisations of DRDO-DPSUs-OF too must have fair share of users (military officers) at all levels including decisionmaking. Border defence must be solely the responsibility of the Defence Minister. It is criminal to have sensitive areas like Depsang and Chumar not directly under command the Army.

It would be appropriate for the Prime Minister to do the honour of initiating and steering the much needed RMA, akin to what Jiang Zemin did in China, and have this promulgated through an Act of Parliament. RMA should encompass all facets of modernisation including, restructuring, equipping, modernisation, synergising, R&D, leapfrogging technology etc. Finally, India has a strategic asymmetry in the sub-conventional; both China and Pakistan have advanced sub-conventional capabilities but India is lagging behind woefully. This needs to be corrected expeditiously. Asymmetric war is waged against a nation, not against the military alone. Therefore, the response too has to be at national level. Such threats are the order of the day with even powerful countries like the US and China are using proxy forces. What is happening in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Middle East is the use of proxy and irregular forces to further own strategic interests. We have been subjected to proxy war over the past two decades, which may well be intensified going by indications. The response matrix therefore needs to be synergized together by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), MoD and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in concert with the National Security Adviser (NSA), military and national intelligence agencies. Our existing policy of conventional response has been utterly ineffective. Basing it on idealism as a standalone factor implies an inward looking policy that is not only more expensive in the long run but damaging to national security interests and in turn adverse to our economic prosperity. On the other hand, taking hard realism as standalone factor can land us into a situation like Pakistan; implosion. Special Forces should be central to asymmetric response but that does not imply physical action alone, physical action being the last resort. There is urgent need to evolve a national policy for responding to asymmetric threats and creating a credible deterrence against proxy war. Our considerable Special Forces capability must be optimized in creating such deterrent.

The NSA has rightfully given an unambiguous message of resolute action to the Maoists. We also have to fight out terrorism and insurgencies that have turned into industries and their use by politicians for political power.

The NIA reported last year that some Rs. 600 crore have been pumped into Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for terror by diverting collections and donations meant for other purposes over the last 10 years and that Rs. 95 crore were diverted from the J&K Affectees Fund in one single year. JKART has helped infiltrate over 1,000 terrorists into J&K over the years. Goods sent by trucks from J&K to Pakistan are overpriced three times and the incoming money is diverted to terrorist organisations. Then is the issue of criminalisation of politics and the creation of armed groups under political direction through intelligence agencies; Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Bhindranwale group, United Liberation Front of Assam, Bodos, etc. Incidentally, M.K. Dhar former Joint Director Intelligence Bureau (IB) writes that Zail Singh as Home Minister was entertaining and arming terrorists from Punjab in his residence, so the government promoted him President and kept his telephones tapped in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Assam has become Bangladeshi Muslim predominant because of the mischievous IMDT Act instituted in 1995 which the honourable Supreme Court scrapped 10 years later in 2005. There appears to be a conspiracy to subject more of our states to similar fate by facilitating rapid illegal Bangladeshi immigration. Significantly, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman authored a book prior to formation of Bangladesh, in which he wrote, “Because Eastern Pakistan must have sufficient land for expansion, Eastern Pakistan must include Assam to be financially and economically strong.” The perpetrators of the IMDT Act appear to have worked to realise the dream of Mujibur Rehman. Presently, the Kerala headqurtered Popular Front of India (PFI) apparently has the blessings of the mafia because they are not banned despite having armed, uniformed, running terrorist camps, media citing Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and IB the organisation has links with Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Four of their cadres killed in Kupwara (north Kashmir) four years back exfiltrating into Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The recent expose of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hub in Pakistani Embassy in Sri Lanka with plans to undertake terror attacks against the US Consulate in Chennai and Israeli Consulate in Bangalore are pointers South India is on the terror radar, what with Maldivians too having Al Qaeda and LeT links. What India should also be ready to face is the next level of terrorism in the near-term; a weapon of mass disturbance like a radiological device, the recovery of a 1.5 kg Uranium mine by Army in Assam during 2013 and theft of 15 Uranium isotopes from Steel Authority of India in 2011 being pointers. Presently, we have little response mechanism. The NDRF is sans any specialisation in this context with police personnel providing manpower on three-year deputation basis. The Prime Minister needs to give all the focus he can to defence.