Former Army Chief S. Padmanabhan today criticised the government for not appointing a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a key recommendation to the government during the post-Kargil “soul-searching” days.In his book, The General Speaks, to be released this week, Padmanabhan says the government was “ill-informed” if it was under the impression that the military posed a threat to democracy.General Padmanabhan, Army chief between 2000-2002 writes, “Have they not learnt during the 58 years since India attained freedom that the armed forces have been, are, and will be apolitical and thus have no praetorian ambitions?”In a strong refutation of generally-held view that a CDS would become a super joint chief of staff, Padmanabhan says the Arun Singh Task Force, set up after the Kargil conflict, never envisaged a five-star rank officer occupying the position.“In fact, the CDS, as per the Kargil Committee Report, is visualised as first among equals,” which Padamanabhan says is not warranted. “The Arun Singh Task Force had conceived CDS as a major managerial functionary as opposed to command functions,” the former Army chief writes, suggesting that even a newly-promoted four star officer from either of the three services could be appointed to the post.“The entire effort in creating an Integrated Defence staff is, as of now, an exercise in futility as the organisation for which the staff has been created, is headless. In fact, without the CDS and Vice-CDS, Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) is yet another example of redundancy in military bureaucracy,” he writes. “We have a situation where the Chief of Staff, IDS, reports to the chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committees (COSC).”“We have created a ‘headless wonder’ in the IDS. Will the government now display the wisdom needed to provide the ‘head’ so that the organisation may realise the objectives for which it was created?” he asks.
