End system of confrontation

PUNE, Jan 5: The sacking of Navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat has opened a Pandora's box, exposing the malaise affecting the defence forc...

PUNE, Jan 5: The sacking of Navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat has opened a Pandora8217;s box, exposing the malaise affecting the defence forces. The open defiance8217; by a service chief for the first time has thrown up a lot of questions on civilian control over the military and the possible misuse of powers in managing the nation8217;s defence forces.

Lt Gen retired Eric Vas, a former army commander, refuses to be drawn into a controversy over the sacking of the navy chief. But he clearly feels that the matter could have been handled better. The present system, according to him, was to blame for the sorry state of affairs.

8220;It is no good blaming either Bhagwat or Defence minister George Fernandes for this. There have been so many views on this issue. Analysing it from here will only end up presenting distorted views,8221; he said.

Gen Vas, who has this impression that neither Bhagwat nor the Defence Minister spoke face-to-face on this issue, is of the firm opinion that the present system encouraged confrontation.

8220;For 36 long years, none of the three chiefs have had a voice in the country8217;s important military decisions. Mountbatten may have established the Defence Committee of the Cabinet DCC, which had all the chiefs in attendance, and also the Defence Minister8217;s Committee DMC where they were members, but these were discontinued after the war with China. Mountbatten would have definitely liked to have an integrated defence council system but he never implemented it because the system then was weak8221;.

Gen Vas was highly critical of the fact that service chiefs were never consulted on important issues, whether it was the Tashkent agreement or the Simla Accord. 8220;The question is who makes all these decisions and how can these be taken in an ad-hoc manner. This is very frightening.8221; He, however, sees some hope in the proposal for the National Security Council by the present government.

8220;Fernandes is a sensitive man and has understood the need to revive the DMC since he has realised the army resented not being taken into confidence,8221; Gen Vas observed, hoping that this would enable the chiefs to discuss issues face-to-face.

Story continues below this ad

Asked to comment whether civilian authority should have control over military affairs, Gen Vas categorically stated that the elected government must have the authority over the military. However, there is a difference between the elected authority and the bureaucratic authority, he quickly pointed out, citing the example of Gen Thimayya who was a broken man because of the insistence of the bureaucrats to whet and supervise all decisions of the army thus giving them a false sense of power. 8220;For the first time in 50 years a Defence Minister is actually meeting people. Fernandes has revived the DMC and I think he is determined to integrate the three councils of the forces. Should this happen, a consolidated decision will be presented to the Defence Minister which need not go through elaborate bureaucratic procedures,8221; he maintained.