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NSA RESTRUCTURING
Nuclear expert on military wish-list
Rajat Pandit | TNN
New Delhi: With the role of the national security adviser up for some tinkering after M K Narayanans exit, the armed forces are keen that a specialist take charge of all matters connected to nuclear weapons.
A chief of defence staff (CDS), over the three Service chiefs, would, of course, have been ideal to act as a singlepoint military adviser to the government as well as manage the countrys nuclear arsenal.
But with the government apathetic towards creation of this crucial post, which would also help formulate concrete long-term strategic plans, the clamour is growing for a person well-versed in nuclear matters to play the lead role in the Nuclear Command Authoritys (NCA) executive council.
As we saw with first Brajesh Mishra and now Narayanan, the NSA has too many things on his plate...external affairs, internal security, intelligence, Nuclear Command Authority etc, said a senior officer. Nuclear command and control matters, which involve armed forces, DRDO, DAE and the like, are too important and complex to be left to generalists, he said.
This seems all the more significant since the new NSA is likely to be more of a diplomatic adviser, with former foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon being the frontrunner, and home minister P Chidambaram becoming the internal security and intelligence czar.
There are some, including Narayanan, who feel it would be foolhardy to bifurcate the external and internal matters since their threats and challenges are so intertwined with each other.
The armed forces, on their part, have for long cribbed about being kept out of the nuclear loop. Both Mishra and Narayanan, apart from other roles, had also acted as super-CDSes, chairing as they also did the executive council of the Nuclear Command Authority. They did have deputy NSAs to focus on military matters but they were not specialists.
The Nuclear Command Authority and the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command (SFC) were created to manage the nuclear arsenal in January 2003, after the 10-month troop mobilisation along the Indo-Pak border under Operation Parakram in wake of the December 2001 Parliament attack.
Nuclear expert on military wish-list
Rajat Pandit | TNN
New Delhi: With the role of the national security adviser up for some tinkering after M K Narayanans exit, the armed forces are keen that a specialist take charge of all matters connected to nuclear weapons.
A chief of defence staff (CDS), over the three Service chiefs, would, of course, have been ideal to act as a singlepoint military adviser to the government as well as manage the countrys nuclear arsenal.
But with the government apathetic towards creation of this crucial post, which would also help formulate concrete long-term strategic plans, the clamour is growing for a person well-versed in nuclear matters to play the lead role in the Nuclear Command Authoritys (NCA) executive council.
As we saw with first Brajesh Mishra and now Narayanan, the NSA has too many things on his plate...external affairs, internal security, intelligence, Nuclear Command Authority etc, said a senior officer. Nuclear command and control matters, which involve armed forces, DRDO, DAE and the like, are too important and complex to be left to generalists, he said.
This seems all the more significant since the new NSA is likely to be more of a diplomatic adviser, with former foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon being the frontrunner, and home minister P Chidambaram becoming the internal security and intelligence czar.
There are some, including Narayanan, who feel it would be foolhardy to bifurcate the external and internal matters since their threats and challenges are so intertwined with each other.
The armed forces, on their part, have for long cribbed about being kept out of the nuclear loop. Both Mishra and Narayanan, apart from other roles, had also acted as super-CDSes, chairing as they also did the executive council of the Nuclear Command Authority. They did have deputy NSAs to focus on military matters but they were not specialists.
The Nuclear Command Authority and the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command (SFC) were created to manage the nuclear arsenal in January 2003, after the 10-month troop mobilisation along the Indo-Pak border under Operation Parakram in wake of the December 2001 Parliament attack.
