The Superheroes deserve to decide!!!

They keep us safe. They fight our enemies. They die for the country. 

They struggle to sustain in extreme conditions, taking on the bullets as they come. They go through rigorous training and develop near impossible skill sets to function the way they do. They sacrifice a normal life to ensure we can live in peace. That's just the summary of an army man's resume.

Every time we lose a brave soul, we shower him with praises on his act of heroism. Not just the praising and respect, they deserve even more, like Akshay Kumar cam out saying it is in our best interest to ensure a sustainable future for their families after martyrdom. Government don't seem to be doing enough to assist them in monetary terms. May be its time they did.

And even before that, the foremost thing that the defense ministry need to curb is the delay in procurement of weapons and safety vests which is being criticized time and again. Least do we know what's happening in that front so cant be blaming. Let's hope it is all being done well. If not, let it come out well soon. And the second most thing being the accountability of Defense force in decision making which is lacking in nearness. 

Away from the increasing politicization of the recent surgical strikes that the Indian armed forces conducted across the Line of Control (LoC), one aspect that is not properly highlighted in our discourse on the subject is the fact that it was a “strategic decision” — a decision taken at the highest level of the political leadership of the country (involving the Prime Minister of India). Such strikes, as the Congress rightly points out, were carried out in the past (it claims that there were three such strikes in between 2011 and 2014). But the difference between those and that conducted last fortnight is that unlike the recent ones, the past strikes were “tactical” in nature. 

This said, the Modi government has not undertaken any major reforms in the arena of national security in the last two-and-a-half years of its tenure as promised. The military leadership of the country is highly disgruntled that its voice is not being heard in the civilian-controlled Ministry of Defense. A long standing demand for having a Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) or any other equivalent post to be a single-source of interactions between the military and the political leadership has not been met. The country’s intelligence-gathering system is said to be highly fragmented.

All these things are really surprising since many expected that if any government could vitalize India’s national security structure, it was the Modi government. In fact, the BJP’s elections manifesto in 2014 had promised that the Modi government will “reform the National Security Council to make it the hub of all sector-related assessments”, “completely revamp the intelligence gathering system by modernizing the intelligence department”, and “ensure greater participation of Armed Forces in the decision-making process of the Ministry of Defence”. Regrettably, there have been no signs of implementation of such promises, although the present government has competed half of its term.

And that means that behind all the bravado surrounding the latest surgical strikes, India’s national security decisions continue to be ad hoc in nature, a sad scenario for a rising global power.

Hope reform is on its way and for the betterment of the people and the army men alike. 

- DC

P.S. http://www.lifestalker.com/indian-defence-blogs/