Frankly, I have not understood the government for its abject neglect of issues which are vital for the security of our country. Many veterans have written what needs to be done, however, it doesn’t seem to make any inroads in the government establishment. The entire nation’s security is in the hands of the NSC, which has little knowledge of strategic affairs.
Let me put it straight, an impression has been created within the political circles that India will never fight conventional wars and the threats to the country would emanate internally and the police forces will be able to stem such threats. It is also obvious in the action of the CCS, which unfortunately listens to the one-point advice from the NSA. Even, when the CDS was in office before his unfortunate demise; he was not a member of the strategic CCS that takes decisions on the security of the country. For the past eight months the country is doing fine even without a CDS; then, why have one? Unbeatable argument! Similarly, when we have not used a nuclear weapon ever; then why have them? Similarly, if we have not used Agni Missiles in war then why have them? The same ingenious argument can be extended to the Armed Forces; conventional wars have not been fought since a limited war in Kargil; then why have them at all? If the Chinese have occupied a 1000 sq. Kms of our territory and built two bridges on the Pangong Tso which are within our borders; what is the hassle? Let them do it as we are watching them keenly. What about the Chinese who have bypassed the Indian confrontation point in Dolam and occupied the whole of Dolam Plateau and built a new village Pangda in the occupied areas of Bhutan? What is the problem? Chinese troops and artillery will be in striking distance of our strategic Siliguri Corridor: So, what? We will still not fight a war with them. We can always yield our territory and will not give China an opportunity to fight with us? A great strategy! China; please take our territory and we will ensure that we will not fight with you because we believe our internal enemies pose a greater threat than you. We will concentrate on them meanwhile our Armed Forces get tied down with the Military Commanders’ Conference which ends in usual bromides by declaring peace and tranquillity on the hostile LAC. By the way; who wants peace and tranquillity on LAC if the Chinese have occupied over 43000 sq Km of our territory since independence? With no progress even to getting the Chinese vacate to April 2020 positions; we have no option but to go for war or the limited war to get back our latest loss of territory. We should be able to bite the bullet if China is not returning to their earlier positions. Our wizards in MEA and NSC have vacated the strategically important Kailash Range (Chushul Heights) and let China breathe a sigh of relief. If one can’t do anything else; the least is that we can reoccupy Kailash Range again as it is on our own side of the LAC.
Just to recapitulate; our troops used to patrol till Finger 8 and we held the Dhan Singh Thapa Post ahead of Finger 3. In April 2020 the Chinese who were in Sirjap that was further North of Finger 8 came and occupied up to Finger 4. In a strategic move, we occupied the Kailash Range. The Chinese were so unnerved that they withdrew to Sirjap in return for our vacation of Kailash Range. They also took assurance from the Indian naivetes that the area from Finger 4 to Finger 8 would be treated as a No Patrol Zone. Hence, in spite of surrendering our strategic advantage that had accrued with our occupation of Kailash Range; we even lost our patrolling rights up to Finger 8 which we were exercising pre-April 2020. The Indian Army vacated the Kailash Range; mind you, on our own side of LAC that was providing electronic observation right up to Rudok through which his strategic highway G-219, connecting Tibet to Xinjiang passed. With no tactical advantage in our hands, we are left to beg the Chinese for the Military Commanders’ Meeting. China keeps us on tenterhooks and agrees to a meeting once in three months just to humour us with no intention to withdraw to April 2020 positions. I had written about it two years before that the Chinese would tie us down in meetings and lend permanency to their occupied positions.
Next, why should we live up to the trust of Bhutan? Soon, they will join the Chinese camp; so, what? Bhutan is a free country and it has all the rights to negotiate with China; in the bargain if it will dominate the Siliguri Corridor and has the potential to cut off the Northeast from the rest of the country. Doesn’t matter as the people of Bhutan and our people have hundreds of years of traditional friendship. Even if China takes over Bhutan; the people of Bhutan would always be friendly to the people of India.
Such unprofessional and dumb arguments may have gripped the atrophied mindset of our policymakers. I fear it is the IPS lobby whose vision rightly scans for internal contradictions within the country but fails to see the deeper and farsighted strategic games of China and Pakistan. The entire conventional threat is summarily disposed of and brushed aside.
Please for heaven’s sake just open your eyes and look at Afghanistan which has been taken over by terrorists. Look at Ukraine those who believe that there is no place for conventional war. However, the government is right; till the time we keep ceding our territory to China, it will not wage a war. Chinese perhaps are gloating over large-hearted Indians who not only surrender their territory but also enrich them by giving them a bounty in a favourable trade balance of 70 billion dollars to modernise their armies, construct infrastructures, and take over our territory steadily but surely. Which enemy will be so helpful and understanding? A brilliant strategy by NSC where we don’t have to fight a war as we have ample territory to yield?
The lack of strategy is not only in losing territory but encompasses the entire gamut of security apparatus. Let us take the hare-brained scheme of Agnipath. The government lauding over its success by citing the number of applications received; IAF is 7.5 lakhs, the Indian Navy 3 lakhs, and the Indian Army has been silent on it: Let me assure you it will also run into several lakhs. Enough articles have been written by Veterans and they have proved that the entire scheme is balmy to the core. A soldier between 17 to 21/23 years is a greenhorn as his maturity and battle experience to contribute to the combat shapes only between 25 to 35 years. The government is exploiting the poverty, helplessness and unemployment of youths of our country. Their desperate pleas and silent and restrained tears are not being seen by the government. Leave alone the emotional aspect of the scheme, it is destroying the combat potential of the Armed Forces which we are desperately short of. Today’s policymakers alone would bear the sin of exploiting the gullibility of these young men just to prove the point that they are reducing the pension bills of the Armed Forces. Just to remind the readers that no politician, bureaucrats, or anyone in the bloated government service takes pensions. They render free service and do not even take their pay: Just look at the armed forces; they not only take their pay but also their pensions. Not acceptable; we will soon reduce their pension. As it is, we have delayed the revision of OROP for the past four years in spite of parliamentary approvals and the apex court’s judgement. It all boils down to one thing; this country will never fight a conventional war as we have a territory of 3.2 million square KMs to yield before we fight a war.
Let me highlight the quality of the advice given to the CCS: In the interview with the Print the NSA talks of the future war being a ‘Non-Contact War’. Obviously; for him, the Taliban versus the US in Afghanistan, the Russo-Ukraine war and even the Galwan clash in 2020 are non-contact warfare. Non-contact war actually is a Grey Zone Warfare; it encompasses all actions that the adversaries take prior to the actual war or even during the war to cut into each other’s strategic strength and weaken its Centre of Gravity. Once the war breaks out it does not remain contactless though the ‘non-Contact’ aspects of the war such as psychological, cyber, information, and trade warfare against the adversary would continue to be waged. When the war breaks out it is Unadulterated Contact Warfare: Are the Russians capturing the Donbas Region by magician’s wand? Armies are fighting inch by inch to capture and defend territory. Alas! Will someone listen?
The next aspect he dwells, technological warfare; no doubt it is the technology that plays a major part in warfare: However, to say technology will win wars is outright fallacious; it appears that the Taliban won over the US in Afghanistan due to their technological prowess? Such statements sound nice to naïve but not for professional soldiers. If one has to occupy Kailash Range it has to be done physically by troops; technology surely; could make it slightly easier but cannot offset it.
The age-old cliché that the Generals fight the previous wars and it requires armchair strategists to think of new concepts of war, resonates well. It gives some power to the civilians to convince the politicians who are charry to interact with the uniformed people. Why has Russia not won the physical war with Ukraine till now? Why did the Chinese occupy the ‘No Man’s Land’ and the so-called 1959 LAC? Was it done by technology or ‘Non-Contact Warfare’? If it was a ‘Non-Contact Warfare’ why are we not throwing the Chinese back to their April 2020 positions with the so-called ‘Non-Contact Warfare’? Just reading some articles written by a few think tanks in the US; it surely; cannot be applied ad nauseum to all countries, all terrains and all political and combat situations.
Next, the interviewer asked him about disrupting the regimental edifice in the Armed Forces while implementing Agnipath. The response was that the regimentation will remain; such as the Artillery Regiments and Electrical & Mechanical Engineer (EME) Regiments will continue and they will not be tinkered with. The answer let the cat out of the bag! Unfortunately; the basic meaning of regimentation was not understood. It is generally applicable to Infantry, a few regiments of Armoured Corps and the grouping of Engineers; which are based on region, caste and class, as all other Corps such as Artillery, EME, Signals and services are mostly based on all India category with mixed troops.
Then he labours on the colonial legacy that did not have the Pan India Composition and extols INA that had troops based on all-India composition. The INA was formed out of captured PoWs by the Japanese Imperial Army. It also encompassed volunteers of Indian origin who settled in Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and Singapore. Obviously, the INA could only constitute from what was available. Then he laments that the present Army does not have Pan India composition. The Indian Army already has a Pan India composition. The vacancies are allotted to the states by the Recruitment Directorate based on the Male Recruitable Population of the states thus ensuring all Pan-India composition. Then he says that the caste-based regiments in the Army are two or three. It is not so; the statement is misleading.
The actual meaning of Regimentation is applicable to the Corps of Infantry and some regiments in the Armoured Corps: Just to give an example; ‘The Madras Regiment’ has a tradition of valour and sacrifice which runs for over three centuries. It comprises troops from all the Southern States. The plea was; not to post it with Agniveers hailing from the Northern states that break the pristine regimental ethos that has been sustained for centuries. Similarly, the regimental spirit and ethos of Regiments in Infantry like Sikh Regiment, Sikh LI Regiment, Rajput Regiment, Rajputana Rifles, Mahar Regiment, Jammu and Kashmir Regiment, Mahratta Light Infantry Regiment, Grenadiers Regiment, Garhwal Regiment, Kumaon Regiment, Assam Regiment, Gorkha Regiment and several others should continue to nurse their regimental culture and composition, and not break the traditional structure by posting Agniveers at random without considering the Fixed Class, Caste, and regional compositions and affiliations.
Further, lamenting the colonial system that was in vogue and further quoting INA; he sums up that the regimental traditions like Grenadiers and others will continue. It can only continue if the fixed, pure and regional composition of the units is retained even while posting Agniveers. So, the listeners are left confused as to what would be the next step. Will you post in the Madras Regiment, Sikh Agniveers hailing from Punjab, and Grenadiers Regiments with Agniveers from the state of Assam? Then what about the Assam Regiment which has regional composition from the North-eastern states? What is the possibility of posting a Mahratta Agniveer to the Naga Regiment? Which are the two to three regiments which he was referring to as the caste-based regiments; which he implied would be made Pan-India? If no such things are happening what is the point in decrying the regimental system that we are continuing?
Then he says that India in spite of having the youngest population sports one of the oldest armies. Again, it is not clear as each battalion has 40 young soldiers who join their battalion each year to replace the retirees and they are of ages between 17 to 19 years. Hence even hither-to-fore also new blood was coming into the Armed Forces to replace the retirees.
Probably the public at large needs to know the difference between a Corps which is a fighting formation and a Corps which encompasses each arm and service; such as The Corps of Artillery, The Corps of Infantry and the Corps of Engineers and others. Did he mean that the agitation has been caused by people at large believing that the Arty Regiments will be broken up and their guns will be redistributed to others? No one in their wildest dreams agitated over the disintegration of the Artillery Regiments? They have to remain as such as they provide the artillery support to Infantry and Armour. Similar is the case with the regiments of Engineers, Signals, EME, and other services.
Now, please realise what quality of advice the CCS gets when it took the decision on Agnipath. As also, what advice did the CCS get while discussing the ‘Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan’? I will leave it to the readers to comprehend. I do not want to rewrite the contents that I have written in my earlier two articles: “Sawing Off the Branch Which You are On” and “Agnipath: A Path Towards Self-Immolation?” They both provide the rationale as to why regimental affiliation is vital to the combat effectiveness of the Indian Army. They can be googled by those who want to know more on the subject.
Next, there are rumblings in the corridors of South Block that there are plans to reorganise the officer corps with the possible aim of retiring 75 percent of officers with 20 years of service. The sole aim of the exercise is to reduce the pay and pension bills of the Armed Forces. I only hope that they are only rumours; if true, who would join the Armed Forces? May be sons of politicians, judges and bureaucrats will then join the Armed Forces and take care of the security of the nation?
Is someone listening? Please take professional advice in this matter. Agniveers can in no way improve the Combat potential of the Armed Forces. The 75 per cent of Agniveers who are rejected will bear the cross of ‘Rejected Lot’ for the rest of their lives. These disgruntled elements in society will make the internal strife more incendiary. There is a need for immediate course correction to the scheme that would be self-defeating and destroy the combat potential of the armed forces.
The Government would do well to formulate a ‘National Security Strategy’ before tinkering with the organisation of the Armed Forces. The NSC is unable to formulate one even after four years of the Honourable PM’s direction. We are putting the cart before the horse and asking the horse to push the cart.
