An IDC Analysis

We congratulate Shri A K Antony who took over the reins of the powerful and $20 billion rich Defence Ministry of India. The MOD is over burdened with pending tasks which Mr Pranab Mukherjee had kept on hold.

The arms dealers matter was known to all, but the CBI Director an ex Army man like the Defence Secretary, decided to take them on. Arms dealers may leave a few napkins or lipstick marks behind but the CBI needs all the luck to cleanse the system. The Army did well to Court Martial the beneficiaries of the Tehelka sting operation, now some others need to be booked. The arms dealers (Indian Express had boldly named the top four) need to be cleansed just like the management of Enron of USA. There must be pressure by Mr Antony.

The new RM has a stupendous task if he wishes to attend to the ills and disparities that have crept into MOD and the fine Indian Armed Forces. Even retired officers morale is affected by poor medical facilities of the ECHS scheme, court cases and the reasonable demand of "one rank one pension." We continue to have court cases even by senior officers despite the PM and FM keep crowing away that there should be an Armed Forces Tribunal. There is no tribunal to redress genuine issues despite promises made by Pranab Mukherjee. Antony a Keralite who believes in justice must act and to do so he would need to spend a lot of time in office ––  not go around the country and Saichen umpteen times in VIP planes and attend to politics more than the MOD. In such a case perforce the Defence Secretary who has a two years extension, will continue to act as a CDS. That is certainly not good.

Antony is known to be an honest man but he is already off to Kerala his home state for an Air India function. Unfortunately Pranab Mukherjee also travelled a lot to Bengal, as the Aviation Minister does to Mumbai and Mukherjee did more politiking as a de facto Dy PM than Defence work, but most of all he shied away from appointing a CDS. He did not accept a Chief's resignation and used Art 311 to dismiss the IAF and Navy officers involved in the War Room leak case. This caused heavy damage to the armed forces discipline and morale and Outlook magazine took full advantage of it and set off unnecessary inquires by CBI on the fine Indian Navy.

It may be true by any standards that India paid much more for the Baraks, Gorshkov and the 6 Scorpnene submarines but that is up to Defence Secretaries and Ministers to regulate, not the Service Chiefs. A Service Chief wants his weapon system at any cost and in a hurry –– that is what he is paid for and charged with. We hope that like the cancellation of the HDW deal, which denied the Navy an excellent submarine, the six Scorpene deal does not suffer the same fate. The Indian Navy needs submarines to be delivered Yesterday.

In the corporate world at least the dictum is that if a senior post appointee publicly resigns, it needs to be accepted as there will always be a new broom to sweep clean. Unfortunately a CNS resigned and if the resignation was not accepted it may mean that the man was indispensable or needed protection, and in the Military that is unacceptable. In the Army the next is promoted in Battalions, and in the Navy the Chief has authority to promote anyone one rank higher with no financial burden on the Government. In war the next is trained to take over. This is the Services ethos.

Service Chiefs should not be treated like politicians by AK Antony. The PM had accepted the resignation of the Secretaries in the IFS who resigned recently, but the machine carries on. He should ensure the same ethos in service for seniors and also go deep to appoint talent –– otherwise date of birth and not ability will decide who will be the future service Chiefs and Chairmen Chiefs of Staff Committee. The time for a CDS is ripe and even the outgoing CNS who had not consented to it during 20 months in office, did so just before he retired –– unfortunately to Indian Express –– he could have recommended it to the MOD. We hope he tabled a note for Mr A K Antony to take cognisance.

Antony should look at the macro problems. There are 101 things to be attended to for jointmanship, morale problems, shortage of Junior officers in the Army and too many Colonels, the Navy has frivolous charges by the CBI against a former CNS, which needs to be sorted out quickly and the War Room leak case is being postponed by the High Court to save the Navy Chiefs face. The Judges in India must not delay justice and the new Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta deserves a clean slate.

Some arms dealers and their political friends need to be brought to book. The one rank one pension and medical treatment of retirees case needs to be looked into as the country's economy can afford it. Inflation is high though the RBI is saving face by sticking to the ancient whole sale index of grains and food stuffs and calls it running at 5.5%. The market price is what matters to the common man.

Finally a paragraph from a journalist from Kerala –– it poses the question that now that the Defence Secretary has been given two years extension can Antony change him? A very interesting Catch 22 question –– for the RAW, IB and CBI Directors and the Defence and Foreign Secretaries. Even if they do not perform they are assured their term or if they change will they retire?

Antony lacks experience in the Ministry that has been thrust on him. What he needs is back-up in people he can trust, people who share his idealism and yet know how to work the system in the defence ministry, which has turned out to be a snake pit for much more astute politicians. For most of his career, he has relied on a core of civil servants, who have given him objective advice, be it in New Delhi or in Thiruvananthapuram. Antony must bring those civil servants into the defence ministry so that he is not manipulated by those who are trying to change the contours of India's defence procurement policy. Unless he does so, Antony may find that there will be ample excuses for him to resign, as he had done in the past, as the cliche goes, at the drop of a hat.