India has a new CDS, but is he the real boss?

New Delhi: The government has amended the charter of the defence secretary to specifically include making of “defence policy” alongside his primary responsibility of “defence of India”, while carving out a new Department of Military Affairs (DMA) to be headed by the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff.In a gazette order dated December 30, 2019, the government amended its relevant Rules of Business to remove four specific responsibilities from the Raksha Vibhag (Department of Defence), headed by the Defence Secretary, to bring them under the DMA but at the same time specified his primacy on policy matters and big ticket capital acquisition.“Defence of India and every part thereof including defence policy and all such acts as as may be conducive in times of war to its prosecution and after its termination to effective demobilization,” states Entry 1 of the amended charter for the Raksha Vibhaag.In effect, sources said, any files related to defence policy issues would still have to pass through the Defence Secretary, thus removing ambiguity in how the CDS would function with the Department of Defence.The other alteration is in the entry on defence purchases where the earlier formulation of “procurement exclusive to the defence services” has been replaced by “capital acquisition exclusive to the defence services”. Other procurement has come under the CDS-led DMA. This essentially means that new big ticket weaponry purchase will still be within the ambit of the Defence Secretary.Further, the National Defence College and the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis have been specifically brought under the Defence Secretary on grounds that their “remit is broader than military matters”. At the same time, the order also amends the Transaction as well as Allocation of Rules of Business to include the DMA or the Sainya Karya Vibhag as the fifth new department in the Defence Ministry along with the departments of Defence, Defence Production, Defence Research and Development as well as Ex-Servicemen Welfare.Each of these departments are headed by a Secretary-ranked officer, except the DMA where the CDS will be of cabinet secretary rank just like the three service chiefs. They all will report directly to the Defence Minister.The four elements removed from the direct ambit of the Defence Secretary are the three armed services, their respective headquarters, the territorial army and works relating to the Army, Navy and Airforce.These make up for four of the eight key responsibilities of the CDS-led DMA. The fifth is non-capital purchases while the other three relate to promoting jointness in procurement, training and operations besides encouraging use of indigenous equipment.

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