New Delhi: In a grand ceremony on the lawns of South Block on September 30, Gen Anil Chauhan took over the charge as India’s second Chief of Defence Staff and met Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh and the top military officers.
Gen Chauhan, an expert in military operations has closely dealt with crisis with China. He will carry forward the modernisation, theaterisation to ensure synergy among Army, Navy, Indian Air Force (IAF) and integration of Indian Armed Forces. He will have three roles — CDS, Permanent Chairman of Chief of Staff Committee and Secretary, Department of Military Affairs (DMA).
“I will try to fulfil expectations of the three services,” Gen Chauhan said. Before assuming charge of the CDS, Gen Chauhan paid tributes to India’s fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial in the India Gate complex.
The biggest challenge before him would be to end the colonial hangover within the force. The new CDS has ensured that de-escalation and disengagement at disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is done on India’s terms and conditions. Another alarming situation before the new CDS would be influx of Afghanistan based terrorist in disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.
Gen Chauhan faces a herculean task to ensure that India produces military platforms and weapons to be used by the forces and are exported to friendly nations in line with ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self Reliant India).
The new CDS will also have to ensure that the tri-services gets adequate budget from the government to carry forward the process of modernisation of the forces, barring capital acquisitions. The tri-services chiefs also have high expectation from the new CDS so that the critical projects like third aircraft carrier for Indian Navy and procurement of fighter jets for Indian Air Force (IAF) gets back on the track.
He will have to focus on budgeting and rationalising the same for each Service and work towards joint planning and acquisition. While making a list, he will have to take into consideration the emerging threats and the changing world and use of high-end technology to fight wars. The acquisition has to be prioritised accordingly as the requirements will be from tri-service.
