Essay Topic: Is there scope for integration of Defence and Civil services
by considering cross attachment of officers during the early and middle levels
of their careers?
I wrote an essay on this topic on 21st Oct 2013; it was read by me on 30th Nov 2013 in Indian Army Symposium held in RCVP Noronha Acedemy, Bhopal. Major General Sunil Chandra was our chief guest.
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“Let the noble ideas
and deeds come from all sides”
--- The Rig Veda (Word’s oldest
scripture)
India is a country of continental
proportion surrounded by most of the heavily populated and “hostile” or not so
friendly countries. Indian Defence Establishment i.e. Indian Military and
allied corps, has been playing a superb role in maintain the unity, territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the country. It enjoys a very healthy and
respectable relation with the people of the country. On other hand, Indian
Civil Services is considered as The Steel Frame of India and has been playing
equally important role in running day to day affairs of this vastly heterogeneous
country. Both the services are equally important and without any one of them
our country will cease to exist and stop to run. So our country can benefit a
lot by considering the cross attachment of officers during the course of their
careers. I will try to reason out this premise in subsequent paragraphs.
Evolution of Defence and Civil Services: A Historical Perspective
In ancient civilizations like
Sumeria, Egypt etc there was no difference between the Defence and Civil
Services; in war time the officers led the countries in capacity of Defence
Officers and in peace time the same officers administered the country like
Civil Service Officers.
In ancient Rome the Officers of the
Republic came from the Senate. Great
Conquerors like Julius Caesar, Pompey, Octavian Caesar etc started their
careers as Senators. They expanded the boundaries of Roman Empire by conquering
the Western and Eastern Europe respectively. After the wars they administered
the assigned territories as Civilian Administrators. The same was the case with
Hellenic Greece and central Asia.
Although there had been some cases
where the Civilian and Defence roles were played by different officials but
these cases were the luxuries of classical period or epitome of the great
Civilizations.
In India the case was bit different. The
Later Vedic period talks about two main categories of Officers – Senani and
Purohita. Senani was the military commander while Purohita was the chief
adviser of the King and later he became the head of administration and the
appellate of Mantri was bestowed on him. This system continued until the foundation of
Delhi Sultanate. The Turks brought the civilian and military structure of
Samanid Empire (10th Century AD) of Central Asia. In the early
period of Delhi Sultanate (1192 AD to 1325 AD) the role of Civilian Officers
were subordinate to military officers; the main reason was that the Delhi
Sultanate was continuously in war mode because of the minority rule over
non-Muslims in India as well as the continuous onslaught of Mongol invasions. The
each province under Delhi Sultanate was governed by a Military Governor and he
headed the very weak and unorganized Civilian administration. Aladdin Khilji
(1296-1316 AD) radically transformed the system by giving more teeth to the
civilian officers but these changes collapsed after his death.
The Civilian Officers and department
were organized first under Tughluqs and later under Mughals and by the time
British came to India, India had a well-organized system of Civil and Defence
Services. Civil services controlled the revenue, courts and general
administration of the country while Defence service had the responsibility of
defending the country from internal and external enemies.
British reorganized these services on
European lines and when they left India on 15th August 1947 India
had a modern Defence establishment and very effective Civil Services. India chose not to dismantle Civil Services
amidst great call for its dismantling by the large number of people and
leaders; the main credit for its salvage goes to the first Home Minister and
first deputy Prime Minister of India – Shri Vallabh Bhai Patel.
Indian Civil and Defence Services: An Introduction
Indian Defence Services mainly consists of Indian Army,
Indian Navy and Indian Air Force along with sprinkling of various intelligence
agencies and allied corps like BSF, CRPF etc. Indian Parliament has complete
control over Indian Defence Services thus Constitutionally Indian Defence
service is controlled by the Civilians. The recruitment into these services is
highly competitive. The total strength of Indian Defence Services exceeds more
than 1.5 million people; this includes allied corps as well.
Indian Civil Services consists of three types of services –
All India Services, Central Civil Services and State Civil Services. All India
Services include IAS (Indian Administrative Service), IPS (Indian Police
Service) and Indian Forest Service. These services administer state as well as
central laws.
Central Civil Services consists of about 21 organized Civil
Services including Indian Revenue Services (IRS), Indian Foreign Service, Indian
Railway Services, Indian Postal Services, Indian Trade Services, Indian Audit
and Account Services, Indian Civil Account Services, Indian Post and Telecom
Account and Finance Services, Indian Corporate Law Account Services, Indian
Information Services, Indian Defence Account Services, Indian Defence Estate
Services etc. Central Civil Services are concerned with the administration of
Central Government.
State Civil Services are organized on the lines of Central
Civil Services and they are concerned with the administration of State
Government.
There are
about 6.4 million Civil servants in India according to Administrative Reforms
and Public Grievances http://darpg.gov.in/darpgwebsite_cms/Document/file/Civil_Services_Survey_2010.pdf
Indian Civil Service recruitment examination is considered
one of the toughest recruitment examinations in the world.
Interaction between Indian Defence and Civil Services
National Security Council (established in 1998) looks into
all kinds of interests of India including the security concerns; it is headed
by National Security Council who reports directly to the Prime Minister of
India. The National Security Adviser of India generally comes from Indian
Administrative Service but this is not a rule. The Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air
Force are also members of three layered National Security Council. The
three-tiered structure of the NSC comprises the Strategic Policy Group, the
National Security Advisory Board and a Secretariat. This organization consists
of both Civilian Officers as well as Defence Officers. Thus we can see that at
the very top there is a close cohesion between Indian Defence Services and
Indian Civil Services.
The two main Central Civil Services namely – Indian Defence
Account Service and Indian Defence Estate Service work closely with Defence
Services of India. These two services
come under the Ministry of Defence. Indian Defence Account Service is
responsible for maintaining the financial integrity of the Defence Services
while Indian Defence Estate Service is responsible for administration of
Defence cantonment and other establishments.
Some Officers from Indian Police Service and Indian
Administrative Services also go on deputation to Indian Defence sector and also
to various Intelligence agencies of Indian Military. Thus we can say that even
today there exists some sort of co-operation between Indian Defence Services
and Indian Civil Services.
Challenges faced by India
Currently India is facing challenges of mammoth proportions.
There are ongoing insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and North East, Left Wing Extremism
in red corridor, riots in Northern India and religious extremism across India.
These serious problems are further accentuated by the support given to these
anti-India groups by our not so friendly neighbours. Apart from these
religious-social-economic problems India also faces natural disasters like
Earthquake, Cyclone, Drought, Floods and Tsunami. Apart from these major
challenges India also face challenges on her border from China and Pakistan.
Need for close integration of Defence and Civil Services
Indian Defence Services and India Civil Services work closely
to counter all these anti India forces but this relation is not very formal in
nature and it is mainly on need basis.
Considering a very generic scenario - Generally Indian Army
is called to control a riot or to foil the left wing extremism menace. Defence
Officers are trained to fight the enemies and not trained to fight the radicals
among our own people, the death of a large number of Kashmiri civilians in Army
firing is one such example, while Indian Police Service and Indian
Administrative Service are better trained for these acts as these services work
and interact with the common people of India. But Indian Civil Service Officers
often lack the discipline and efficiency of Indian Defence Officers. So there
is a need to learn from the best of each other and this can be done by cross
attachment of Officers in their early and middle phases of their careers. Similarly Indian Revenue Officers and Postal
Service Officers can enrich the Indian Defence Services and in return they can
also learn valuable values from Indian Defence Service Officers.
Indian Foreign Service Official can work in a better way if
he or she has an experience of Indian Defence Service. Consider a scenario
where Indian Foreign Service Officials have to strike a defence deal or to
start a military negotiation, the expertise and experience of Defence Service
will definitely help him or her in doing his or her job in a better way.
In United States of America and in Peoples Republic of China
(I am taking these two examples as these are considered India’s rivals in postmodern
world) the defence and military establishment work very closely to each other.
The hunt of Osama Bin Laden would not have been successful, had Postal, Telecom
and Revenue departments of USA not worked together. The case of China is no different;
their entire foreign policy is dominated by the Defence personnel.
In case of insurgency in Mizoram in 1960s, India had to bomb
the capital city of Aizwal by Indian Air Force because the Civilian
administration failed completely. This happened because of lack of integration
between Defence and Civil Services.
Most of the terrorist’s attacks on Indian had been successful
because of lack of integration between these two services. The hijacking of
Indian Airlines Airplane IC-814 was possible in 1999 because of the lack of
integration between these two services. The same was the case with 26/11 Mumbai
attacks. There are numerous such examples where Indians paid the heavy price.
India has established National Disaster Response Force; this
force mainly consists of personnel from BSF, CRPF, and ITBP etc with closely
associated Civil Service Officers as well. This is a great example where there
is a close integration between Defence Services and Civil Services.
Indian Defence Service enjoys a great prestige among the
masses of India while Indian Civil Services does not enjoy that prestige. Many
Indians allege that Indian Civil Service is highly corrupt and somewhat communal
while they applaud Indian Military for its Secular and corruption-less image.
There have been allegations of partisan and communal behavior on certain Indian
Civil Service Officers in various cases of riots and other tragedies. I agree it is wrong to paint the entire
bureaucracy in one colour because of few bad apples but I also agree that this
feeling among Indians is getting intense day by day.
India needs to formulate a policy to necessitate the close
integration between Civil Services and Defence Services. The necessary
attachments of Civil Service Officers in Defence Services and vice-versa can
really help in better execution of the roles and responsibilities of these
officers; this will also help in the national integration and will enhance the
secular credentials of Indian Civil Services and also help them in destroying
corruption. On other hand by this integration Indian Defence Service can know
India and Indians better, can understand the complex institutions of Indian government
and can become truly multi-dimensional like the Defence Services of USA,
Germany etc in this ever demanding modern age. Sharing of knowledge, expertise
and experience is the key to solve all the problems. So there is indeed a scope
for integration of Defence and Civil Services.
The cross Services experience during the initial and middle
phases of the career will help in making an officer a multidimensional expert
in the senior phase of his/her career. This will ease out the delay in decision
making at the top and help in the better co-ordination among the various
services of India. All the problems related to trust deficit and lack of
co-ordination will simply vaporize.
There is a scene in a major Bollywood film “Border” in which an Indian Air Force
Official had an altercation with Indian Army Official about which force is
better. Indian Army Official (Played by Sunny Deol) says “That it’s not worth if you are you and I am I am, the world becomes
better if we become we” (Chaman main har tarah ke rang-o-boo se bat banti hai, Hum hi hum hain to kya hum hai, tum hi tum ho to kya tum ho). There is another popular Bollywood film “Zameen” in which an Indian Police
Service Officials and an Indian Army Official work closely to foil the
intentions of terrorists. Perhaps we can learn the mantra of co-operation and cross attachment from
our movies if not from real life examples.
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