Pragmatic Euphony  

The next army chief says Indian Army is designed for defence of India within the sub-continental domain.

Here is an excerpt from an interview in Salute with Lieutenant General VK Singh, who — in all likelihood — will be the next army chief in a few months time.

Warfare today is no longer restricted to Armies fighting each other. The evolution of 4th and 5th generation warfare features groups and individuals who visualise and have access to resources for waging war against nation states, adding a new dimension to nature of warfare. Consequently, any future war would be spread across the spectrum of conflict from law and order graduating through low intensity conflict, limited conventional wars to nuclear conflagration. Thus Armies need to be prepared to fight a hybrid war and the Indian Army needs to transform from a conventional force to the capability of contesting multidirectional and multi-spectral threats.

The challenges enumerated are essentially applicable to armies which are designed for waging wars outside their territorial boundaries. The Indian Army is designed for the defence of our country within the sub-continental domain. Consequently, challenges of terrain are inherent in its structural capabilities. So far as addressing growing commitments to counter insurgency is concerned, as I said earlier, hybrid war is a reality today and Armed Forces need to be prepared to contest it. The Indian Army has a quantum advantage in this respect. We intend to harness technology to enhance our capabilities further so as to restructure the Armed Forces into a modular force to meet varying degree of challenges that may be posed in the sub-continental neighbourhood in future. As I look at it, what you call a “challenge” is in fact an opportunity to harness our latent capabilities for future.[Salute]

Forget the jargon, the point to be noted is the unequivocal declaration by the Eastern Army Commander that “Indian Army is designed for the defence of our country within the sub-continental domain”. Other than serving overseas in peacekeeping missions under the United Nations flag which, in any case, needs little hard military capacity, this rules out all other overseas deployment by the Indian Army outside its “territorial boundaries” even during the tenure of the next army chief. While it is easy to lament the lack of political will for overseas military deployment outside the UN umbrella, the military advise to the political executive is also not in favour of any such bold steps — steps that should be in keeping with India’s changing economic and diplomatic profile.

So Acorn and Retributions, your very persuasive exhortations to send Indian troops to Afghanistan count for little today. They will, unfortunately, remain a pipe-dream unless there is a radical shift in the strategic thought at the highest echelons of political-bureaucratic-military decision-makers in this country.