With LAC, LoC on boil, post can’t be left vacant for long, sources
As the security establishment is coming to terms with the implications of the air mishap involving Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)General Bipin Rawat, the top brass has to now prepare to hand over the CDS baton to a new person.
As the first CDS of the country, Rawat took charge in January last year. The Government selected him on the principle of first among equals as regards the three Services chiefs. He assumed charge as the Army Chief in 2017. He was to retire at the end of in 2019 when the Government appointed him as the CDS.
Present Army chief General MM Naravane is the senior most among the three chiefs as of now and the Government may appoint him as the CDS, sources said here on Wednesday.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by the Prime Minister will take a call on the impact of this unprecedented event on the strategic and defence architecture, they said.
Elaborating upon the urgency to have a CDS in place, they said the Line of Actual Control (LAC) remains tense in Ladakh for the last two years and Pakistan might try to take advantage of the situation in Afghanistan by pushing battle-hardened Afghan militants into Jammu & Kashmir from across the LoC.
Moreover, China is making forays into the strategically important Indian Ocean region and flexing its maritime muscle in the Indo-Pacific region, posing a challenge to India’s security interests, they said.
Given this scenario, the Government cannot afford to leave the CDS post vacant for long, they said. Till the Government takes the final decision, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff will look after the affairs of the institution of the CDS.
The CDS is the single point advisor on military affairs to the political leadership. The idea to have such a post was first mooted by a committee headed by then Home Minister L K Advani in the aftermath of the Kargil war in 1999.
Difference in perception amongst the armed forces and lack of political consensus saw the CDS proposal put on the backburner for nearly 20 years. The NDA regime in its new tenure starting 2019 gave a push to the proposed institution.
Soon after taking over Rawat went about working on having theatre commands to pool resources of the three armed forces besides streamlining critical procurements to maintain operational readiness.