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J.J. Singh: time not ripe for single Chief

NEW DELHI: The Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. J.J. Singh, on Monday said time was not ripe for all the three services to be headed by a single Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

“The security challenges facing the country at present revolve around the boundary dispute and internal situation, which are single service [Army] specific.

The CDS would be a mid-term and long-term future requirement once we have resolved our internal and boundary problems,” said Gen. Singh, who is also the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC).

“We have commitments in Jammu and Kashmir and in the northeast and an unresolved boundary issue on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and on the Line of Actual Control with China,” he said after inaugurating the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies, part of the Integrated Defence Staff. Once these problems were overcome, the CDS could be appointed.

The government and the armed forces have been cautious in implementing the Kargil Review Committee’s recommendations for a single point military adviser to the government.

But, strategic experts, mainly former service officers, are enthusiastic about appointing a CDS.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) on reforming national security, which reviewed the Kargil panel report, also endorsed the recommendation for appointing a CDS as is the case in the U.nited States and the United Kingdom. The GoM noted that the CoSC had not been effective in fulfilling its mandate.

Under the existing system, each service chief renders military advice to the civil political executive independent of each other.

The CDS will facilitate single point military advice to the government but before that he will have to consult the service chiefs and inform the government of the range of military options at hand.

The CDS was also recommended to exercise administrative control over the country strategic forces and promote “jointness” among the three services.

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