On Thursday, Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat organized a meeting to mitigate concerns related to the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force over the forthcoming military theatre commands. He further addressed all misgivings of the tri-services.
On the Independence Day this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to put forward key changes and reforms in military architecture through his speech.
On July 22, General Rawat along with three service chiefs, vice chiefs and integrated defense staff officer above the rank of major general held a four to five hours meeting to explain them the proposed military theatre commands with an aim to synergize military operation for military operations for rapid response in the future conflicts.
China, which is the India’s main military threat has already introduced its military into theatre command. At present it is also helping its client Pakistan to dismiss its imperial legacy and thereby bring reforms in its military. While India faces Chengdu based Western theatre command on its northern border along the LAC, Pakistan employed its entire military to face India except its Peshawar based XI Corps and Quetta based XII Corps.
Sources in the South Block confirmed that Gen Rawat held meeting with the military chief on the advice of defense minister Rajnath Singh who demanded all the legitimate concerns of the tri-services to be noted and addressed prior to the announcements of the military theatre commands.
Reportedly, Narendra Modi government is set to declare the maritime theatre command and the air defense command. In the coming year, three land commands are also to be announced with the western theatre command controlling the Pakistan border while the eastern theatre command handling the Tibet China border. The northern command separately controls both the borders on the grounds of illegal land land claims from Pakistan and China over Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
As per the South Block officials, the discussions on the military theatre command is progressing smoothly. Gen Rawat is responding to every questions raised by the three service chiefs. The future lies in the joint manship and synergy among the three services. However, at present the three services are worried about their respective turfs and fiefdom along with the power of chiefs getting minimized to the procurement and training as is the case with the theatre command.
The Theatre command will be responsible for the operations carried out by all the three services to counter the enemy. In accordance to this military theatre command, the commanders will report directly to the chairman, COSC. Further, the chairman and COSC will be responsible to entrust them with tasks on the advice of the military chiefs or member of the committee.
Though the Narendra Modi government is set to step forward with the theatre command, the three services are yet worried about the division of military assets and the principal role of the permanent chairman of the chief of Staffs committee (COSC) in the wartime conditions.
