What Sitharaman needs to do to reform India’s defence sector
slew of reforms including the creation of theatre commands.
The new defence minister’s initial remarks suggest that she, like Manohar Parrikar, will be more focused on acquisitions and will seek to promote Indian manufacture of weapons systems.
This is all for the good, but it cannot be achieved overnight. Also it requires systematic and deep reform in the way defence planning, acquisitions, R&D and manufacturing are linked.
Fixing manufacturing and acquisitions alone will not work. She needs to urgently tackle the need to reorganise India’s sprawling military to make them an effective fighting unit for 21st century warfare, where challenges range from nuclear armed adversaries to proxy jihadis. This means shedding flab of the armed forces, integrating commands, getting them to work as a single unit with the civilians and so on. She will confront a wall of vested interests who do not want any reform because, like all bureaucratic organisations, they are afraid they will lose out on change. It’s the task of the political boss to knock their heads and change things.
Sitharaman needs to first understand the nature of the challenge, get the support of her boss and push the reforms throught irrespective of who is on board or not in her ministry. Thai border have been noted by intelligence agencies for getting cadres indoctrinated and trained in insurgent activities. In May 2016, Omar Faruk aka RSO Faruk of the LeTbacked Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) was arrested from Chittagong for attacking the Bangladesh ANSAR camp at Teknaf, looting weapons and killing the troop commander.
While India is in touch with both Bangladesh and Myanmar to ensure that the Arakan corridor does not emerge as a new jihadi flashpoint, the international community, particularly the west, is partly responsible for the current crisis as it kept quiet when the LeT organised the Difa-e-Musalman-e-Arakan conference in Pakistan in July 2012 to highlight the Rohingya cause. Subsequently, LeT senior operatives Shahid Mehmood and Nadeem Awan visited Bangladesh to recruit Rohingyas and train them on the border with Myanmar. In fact, several new front organisations such as the Jamaat ul Arakan and Difa-e-Arakan have been formed with the help of Pakistani jihadists to coordinate the militant network along the Myanmar border with Bangladesh and Thailand.
While attacks on Rohingyas and their subsequent displacement cannot be condoned as lives of innocents are involved, the role of jihadists, their Pakistani backers for furtherance of their strategic objectives also needs to be questioned. India must not let the situation go out of hand as radicalisation of the Arakan corridor and infiltration of vulnerable Rohingyas by Sunni fundamentalists have direct repercussions on its maritime security in the Bay of Bengal area and internal security in the North-East region. Escalation of militant activities in this region poses a direct threat to international shipping lanes of communication passing through the Malacca Straits. The displaced Rohingya community needs full international support lest it falls into the lap of radicals in the name of Ummah. Myanmar also needs to retrospect. It is negotiating to buy JF-17 Thunder fighters from Pakistan, the same country which is fuelling unrest in its backyard.