In major step towards theatre commands, Govt notifies tri-service Act
In major step towards theatre commands, Govt notifies tri-service Act
NEW DELHI: The government has finally notified the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act, which will also pave the way for creation of the long-pending unified theatre commands in the most radical military reorganization envisaged since Independence.
The enforcement with immediate effect of the ISO Act, which received presidential assent on August 15 last year after the bill was passed by Parliament during the monsoon session, comes soon after the BJP manifesto last month promised its government will “establish military theatre commands for more efficient operations” after creating the chief of defence staff (CDS) post in December 2019.
Parallelly, CDS General Anil Chauhan chaired a “Parivartan Chintan” here on Thursday-Friday, during which 12 sub-committees made presentations on different domains and aspects towards jointness and integration “in light of the imminent theaterization”, officials said.
The flurry of activity shows the stage is now being set for the creation of integrated theatre commands (ITCs), which stalled after the first CDS Gen Bipin Rawat’s death in a helicopter crash in December 2021, amid festering inter-service turf wars.
India certainly needs a cost-effective war-fighting machinery through ITCs instead of the existing 17 single-service commands (Army 7, IAF 7 and Navy 3), which have little synergy in planning, logistics and operations, and often pull in different directions.
The ISO Act empowers military commanders of existing tri-service organizations with full administrative and disciplinary powers over the Army, Navy and IAF personnel serving under them, “without disturbing the unique service conditions of each individual service”. Till now, military personnel were governed by their own service acts like the Air Force Act, 1950, the Army Act, 1950 and the Navy Act, 1957.
The ISO Act will also allow the requisite command and control of the proposed ITCs. As per the existing plan, there will be two “adversary-specific” ITCs — one for the northern borders with China at Lucknow and the other for the western front with Pakistan at Jaipur. The Maritime Theatre Command at Karwar in coastal Karnataka, in turn, will be for the Indian Ocean Region as well as the larger Indo-Pacific.
The MoD on Friday said, “The Act will empower the heads of ISOs and pave the way for expeditious disposal of cases, avoid multiple proceedings and will be a step towards greater integration and jointness among armed forces personnel.”
India currently has only two unified commands, the geographical Andaman and Nicobar Command and the functional Strategic Forces Command to handle the country’s nuclear arsenal, which were set up in 2001 and 2003 after the Kargil conflict with Pakistan.
China, incidentally, reorganised its 2-million People’s Liberation Army into five theatre commands in early-2016 to boost offensive capabilities and establish better command-and-control structures. Its Western Theatre Command, for instance, handles the entire 3,488-km Line of Actual Control from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. India, in contrast, has four Army and three IAF commands for the northern borders with China.
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