BHOPAL : Immediate integration of the Armed Forces headquarters with that of the Defence Ministry and empowering service chiefs to procure indigenously available items to make up their operationally-required items on fast-track basis sans referring to the Ministry are among several suggestions made by a veteran — who served in the Indian Army for 32 years — to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “It is but natural for me to feel concerned regarding our national security. I assert it is not due to your fault but what you have inherited from a decade of non-governance. Whether misgovernance of politicians since 1990 or ineptitude of self-serving and greedy bureaucrats, we have let down our national security,” Brigadier (Retd) CS Vidyasagar said in a letter dispatched earlier this month. National security, in its simplest form, has two components — weapons and motivated personnel behind the weapons, the veteran pointed out, adding that when bureaucrats call the shots and wield power without any responsibility and accountability it was a sure recipe for disaster.
“Media scream every day that we have no replacement for our obsolete Bofors guns and our aging T-90 ‘Bheeshma’ battle tanks. We have an inadequate number of submarines to guard our sea lanes and we possess creaky air defence weapon systems. Please do not lull yourself into the complacency that a future war is going to be a repetition of 1971,” he added.
It takes a nation two to three years to conclude a defence contract, four to six years to procure equipment and two to three years to “familiarise” the men with the equipment.
“Fighter aircraft cannot be produced in dozens annually even by advanced countries like the United States or Russia. Even if Russians were to give us Sukhoi 30 Mk 1 aircraft to make up our depleting squadrons, they can only give us not more than 18 aircraft per year that is one squadron annually. You require 20 squadrons more to make the Indian Air Force airworthy. We need 45 squadrons but have only 25 and by 2025 we will have just 11,” Brig Vidyasagar wrote. The number of suicides — unheard of a few years back — is alarmingly on the rise, he said, adding that soldiers are bonded to each other by comradeship but that is broken by fratricide and finally “our men” are emboldened to assault their own officers.
“Stagnation is most acute in the Armed Forces where only 0.8 per cent attain the rank of Major General after putting 28 to 30 years of service,” the veteran wrote. His other suggestions to the Premier include: — Make service chiefs members of the Cabinet Committee on Security
— Make service chiefs, not the Defence Secretary, responsible for defence
— Staff the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare with ex-servicemen
— Implement one rank one pension with effect from February 2014
— All defence-related public sector undertakings be headed by Armed Forces’ senior officers and representation of personnel in all crucial departments of these PSUs — Serving soldiers — on completion of their terms of engagement with the Armed Forces — be absorbed in the Ministry of Defence, central armed police forces and central ministries/departments/PSUs
— Conclude contracts immediately for making up for deficiency in medium guns, tanks, air defence weapons, equipment for special forces, Cheetah and Chetak helicopters besides latest engineering equipment — Place the Border Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Sashastra Seema Bal under operational and administrative control of the Armed Forces for synergy — Integrate all intelligence agencies under the Joint Intelligence Council to be headed by the ministers of Defence, External Affairs and Home Affairs with the vice-chiefs of services, the Intelligence Bureau Director, the Research and Analysis Wing Director, state intelligence bureau directors etc as members.
(AGENCIES)
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