'Lack of civilian-military dialogue a cause of worry for Indian Army'

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Anit Mukherjee was a junior officer posted in the Valley when Kargil happened. The communication system available to the Army then was poor. The insurgents had better equipment. He remembers his fellow officers saying that the Army had substandard systems became there were “problems in Delhi.”

Nineteen years later, Mukherjee, now a civilian, believes that the reason was slightly more “complicated.” And he explores the same in a book 'The Absent Dialogue: Civil Military Relations in India'. Still a work in progress, the book—which looks at this as an institutional problem—became the topic for a heated debate at South Asia Conclave 2018, organised by Oxford University Press.

“We have an absent dialogue,'' said Mukherjee. “There is not enough conversation.'' Mukherjee has attempted to trace the genesis of this issue looking at archival papers and conducting 200 interviews. “How do you create an Army that is strong enough to deal with an external threat, yet is not threatening enough for the civilian situation? The structure we have created has compromised the effectiveness of the Army,'' he argued.

There is a need for informed civilian involvement he said. “There will be consequences,'' he added. “There was a lack of trust between the ministry of defence and the civil service headquarters. The problem that came to the fore with General V.K. Singh will not go away. This will be a recurring problem,'' he said.

Former chief of Army staff General V.P. Malik said the dialogue was absent. “Except in crisis when it resumes. What worries me is that the nature of the threat we face will make it worse....Civil military relations are dynamic. Social changes, new technology, new patterns of recruitment, etc, impact the civil military relations.''

During Kargil there were regular meetings—twice or thrice a day—because there was a crisis, but the dialogue was absent during the period of peace. “Very few politicians have an idea about military defence planning,'' he said.

Historian Srinath Raghavan, however, offered a contrary view. “Military officers have little understanding of the political system. You just need to compare the staff colleges abroad. In India the emphasis is how do you plan, logistics,'' he said. "The system of military education leaves our officers unprepared."

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