By IANS
New Delhi : The time is not ripe for creating the post of chief of defence staff (CDS) for the armed forces, though this should be thought of in the middle and long terms, Indian Army Chief Gen. J.J. Singh said Monday.
“The time is not ripe as yet for a CDS,” Singh said on the sidelines of a function here to inaugurate the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOS) think tank.
“The borders with Pakistan and China are yet to be settled. Also, the internal security situation in Jammu and Kashmir being service specific, the present system (of a chiefs of staff committee) is functioning well,” Singh maintained.
“However, in the middle and long term, just as in other democracies, the CDS system would function well… with elements of all three services as also the ministries of defence and external affairs,” the army chief added.
Currently, the army, navy and air force chiefs report directly to the defence minister. A chiefs of staff committee (COSC) headed by the senior most of the three chiefs deals with issues relating to inter-services coordination.
A panel set up after the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan felt that the system needed to be fine-tuned and recommended that the post of CDS be created.
It felt that delays in executing requests made by one service on another – as had happened during the Kargil conflict – could be avoided if a CDS was in place.
The cabinet accepted the recommendation in 2000 but the matter has been hanging fire ever since. In the interregnum, however, the government has created the position of chief of integrated defence staff (CIDS) as a first step to improving coordination.
The jury, however, is still out on the effectiveness of such a position as the CIDS reports to the defence secretary and has little to do with the three service chiefs on day-to-day matters.
If and when the CDS is created, he will be the single point of reference for the defence minister, to whom the three service chiefs will not have any direct access.
There are many in the bureaucracy, as also in the forces, who would not like this to happen since they fear it would mean putting too much power in the hands of one man.