NEW DELHI - In South Asia's volatile geopolitical scenario - with political
unrest seething in two of India's immediate neighboring countries (Bangladesh
and Pakistan) - it is not enough for the country to safeguard its borders from
hostile armies. India also needs to cobble together an urgent plan to grapple
with a new villain - the non-state actor - which has emerged as an indisputable
threat to security.
When Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told the global media last year that
"Pakistan is not threatened by nations, but by non-state actors”, he could well
have been talking about India. India has also faced persistent threats from
non-state elements, such as Afghanistan's Taliban, the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam in
Sri Lanka or those burrowed in Pakistan like Lashkar-e-Taiba - over the past
few years.
These disruptive groups have succeeded in unleashing terror across India,
killing and maiming thousands, apart from causing grievous harm to the economy
and tourism. The biggest of such recent attacks made global headlines last
November when jihadi terrorists, armed with sophisticated weapons, laid siege
to Mumbai for four days, killing nearly 200 people and destroying property
worth millions of dollars.
In this context, Lieutenant General Aditya Singh, commander-in-chief of the
army's Southern Command, stated that the Indian military was always fit to meet
"conventional challenges" on the border, however, the real causes of worry were
"the lurking sub-conventional threats that come from divisive forces and
non-state personnel".
Not that Singh's is a lone voice of concern on the issue. The persistent and
underlying fear posed by non-state actors to India's security resulted last
year in the constitution of the high-powered Transformation Committee by
India's Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor. This is an unprecedented
development as the Indian army has formed such a panel for the first time to
examine multifarious issues, including ways to tackle conflicts with non-state
elements.
The committee - which is also comprised of the general officer commanding
Eastern Command Lieutenant General V K Singh - is currently analyzing, among
other things, the requirements to fight fourth-generation wars, conflicts with
non-state actors and the logistics of training the Indian army in that
environment. If need be, the committee's recommendations - to be submitted this
year - may even initiate a major revamp in the Indian army's profile.
"Unlike traditional warfare where a country has to grapple with a tangible
enemy, India's new security environment warrants a radically different
approach," said a member of the Transformation Committee. "It requires the
country to prepare itself to fight an invisible force. So the pressure is as
much psychological as physical."
The committee will thus make recommendations about a new modus operandi the
army will need to adopt to tackle such types of terrorism. It will also probe
the urgent need for the army's various wings to work cohesively in the future.
Another suggestion being considered by the committee is further delegations of
power and the empowerment of the junior ranks of the army. This is aimed
primarily at setting in motion a much-needed decentralization process. The
panel is also studying operations in India's neighboring countries, besides
United Nations' peacekeeping and stabilization operations.
Indian defense experts feel that preparing troops in the contemporary
geopolitical environment is akin to fighting a "proxy war" with an enemy that
exists but isn't all that visible, unlike the full-fledged army of a hostile
country. The newly constituted committee will thus also examine the need to
strengthen the junior ranks of the army - right down to the platoon level - so
that they too can be a part of the overall strategy to fight this new fear
factor.
The role of the committee - and the changes that will likely get ushered in
through its findings - will be all the more significant considering that
India's political environment has deteriorated significantly over the years.
Communalism, sectarianism and regional parochialism are rearing their ugly
heads like never before. There is also a growing criminalization of politics
and politicization of the bureaucracy.
Infrastructure development by China along India's border and Beijing's
burgeoning military ties with all of India's South Asian neighbors -
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and even the Maldives - has
also exacerbated New Delhi's insecurity. So unless these evils are overcome,
India's internal security environment may well turn out to be extremely
unhealthy.
In such a sensitive scenario, defense experts feel the Indian army and defense
forces need to develop synergy and work in concert rather than function as
independent, disconnected entities. According to a senior defense official, the
army has traditionally been manpower intensive, which is an anachronism. "It
needs to shed manpower and replace it with high-end technologies. This hasn't
happened due to inadequate resource allotment," said the official.
In his report "Indian Army: 2020" - a blueprint for the army of the future -
General S Padmanabhan wrote that it is threats from non-state groups armed with
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that India needs to watch out for. "These
elements could be acting on their own initiative or, at the behest of a sponsor
nation," he said. "This dimension of WMD would warrant a war-like response from
us."
In any case, at present there's an intense debate within the Indian military
and the rest of the strategic community concerning the shape of future warfare,
and the type of army required by India to meet the threats. The abiding query
is: will a traditional conventional army be adequate to handle all kinds of
threats when they occur?
"The biggest challenge for the Indian army," opined retired colonel S K Veer,
"is how to retain the basic configuration of a conventional battle force yet
not lose its essence through radical reformation." In this context, Veer
recommended that funds allotted to the armed forces should be sustained at a
level of 3% of India's gross domestic product for at least a decade to ensure
the requisite modernization and to plug existing shortfalls.
In other words, India needs to create an integrated force that works with
seamless communication, possesses integral multi-tasking capabilities across
the entire spectrum of conflict, whether nuclear or conventional. This is a
vital requirement for India's safety and security in today's heightened
environment of terror.
Neeta Lal is a widely published writer/commentator who contributes to
many reputed national and international print and Internet publications.
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