The government has made a cautious start towards the possible creation of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) by inviting opinion from political parties across the board on the issue. Inherently controversial, creating the CDS was a principle recommendation of the Arun Singh Committee, which was mandated with identifying steps to streamline the defence establishment’s structure based on lessons from the 1999 Kargil conflict.Ministry sources confirmed that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has written to political parties and asked them to respond with their thoughts and views on the creation of a CDS. Sources also confirmed that while some parties—such as the CPI(M)—have responded with queries, others have been sent reminders to get their thoughts in before the next session of Parliament so that the issue can be debated.CPI(M) sources confirmed that the party had responded to Mukherjee’s letter, but had asked for a series of clarifications. The sources said that the letter did not provide critical details such as whether the CDS would be a bureaucratic slot or a command formation slot and professed that a civilian setup at the top would be more ‘‘in tune with a functional democracy’’.South Block said that it was yet to receive responses from most of the parties invited to give their views. Pranab Mukherjee has persisted in his stand that no decision on the creation of a CDS post is possible without political consensus, though it is only recently that the government has mounted an exercise to gather this very consensus.The CDS, as envisioned by the Committee, would be a first among equals at the four-star general level—on a par with the individual service chiefs—but vested with powers over strategic nuclear decisions and overall command over the three forces in times of war.
