It is appropriate that the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Anil Chauhan, used the occasion of the first Ministry of Defence tri-service seminar to emphasise that ‘peace without power is utopia’. He further elaborated the point by declaring that India is not a pacifist even as it stands on the side of peace, while acknowledging that power ensures peace.
Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh suggested a possible contradiction in the title of the seminar, ‘Ran Samvad’ (War Dialogue). “Where there is a war, how can there be a discussion, and where discussion is taking place, how can there be war?” he said. But he added that dialogue must always be there, as it was in Mahabharata.
Hosted by the prestigious Army War College in Mhow, the seminar marks an important beginning. The Ministry of Defence and the three Services are engaging in dialogue with a focus on evolving security challenges, doctrines, and emerging technologies that threaten or enhance military capabilities. The underlined theme was, of course, present in the seminar’s name, discussing how India looks at its future military scenario, and how to engage in the most efficient wars. Which, after all, remains the sole objective of a professional soldier. The CDS was spot on when he declared war fighting as ‘military’s bread and butter.’
Talking war for peace
Technologies that are shaping today’s conflict zones—and are likely to do so in the future—were, of course, a subject of much interest during the seminar. Each of the three Services made its pitch on what shapes their planning and preparations, especially given India’s recent high-technology conflict with its long-term military antagonist, Pakistan. Lessons drawn from Operation Sindoor remain the primary focus of military discussions in the region, though each Service interprets them differently. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military supremo Gen Asim Munir got elevated to the rank of Field Marshal, and he also awarded himself the country’s second-highest battlefield gallantry medal.
The contrast with India, thankfully, couldn’t be more stark. The lion’s share of the wartime gallantry awards has rightly gone to the Indian Air Force—the highest being the prestigious Vir Chakra, third in the order of battlefield honours. Most pertinently, the senior-most rank receiving the gallantry recognition is a Group Captain, someone who clearly demonstrated valour and heroism ‘in the face of the enemy’, as all Defence Ministry citations are wont to say. That reflects true integrity in the field of “war, warfare and war fighting”—a point highlighted by the CDS at the recently concluded Ran Samvad.
The contribution of air power was naturally in focus at the Mhow dialogue, since Operation Sindoor was primarily conducted in the air—whether manned or unmanned. Lessons drawn from the operation are still being analysed threadbare, at least in India, as is clearly evident from the structure of Ran Samvad. Data, technology and tactics are coalescing in the analyses being drawn up. But this is an ongoing process, as the various planning, training and operations directorates are burning the midnight oil to prepare better for the future. Intellectual integrity is non-negotiable for efficiency.
This integrity comes from the rigours of military training and ethos—values the Army War College inculcates in soldier-scholars attending the most critical courses of their professional careers. Officers from sister services attend the prestigious Higher Command Course as well, while other institutions of military learning do their part. None, however, is more important than the Infantry School, whose wide range of courses forms the bedrock of tactical training upon which is based the most valuable application of force: the Indian boot on the ground.
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One prominent takeaway from every gallantry awards list over the past three decades has been the preponderance of recipients for counter-insurgency operations. Counter-insurgency is really the reality of military operations, and as permissions ease, they have come to include the Air Force and Navy as well, albeit in minuscule numbers. This form of warfare has cost the maximum lives, manpower deployment, and bestowed the most bravery honours on soldiers. Operations like Sindoor are brief flashes in the combat spectrum, which is, and will remain so, dominated by the drudgery of counter-insurgency.
The fundamentals of counter-insurgency operations rest on the age-old formula upon which warfighting pivots, Section Leading Platoon Tactics. The combat section is the brick that supports the higher objectives of all military formations. So, even as the value of stand-off weapons, loitering drones and precision munitions is highlighted at dialogues like Ran Samvad, the unchanging fundamentals of combat must never be forgotten—or taken for granted. In the end, it is the boots on the ground that matter most, best led and with the fewest lives lost.
Manvendra Singh is a BJP leader, Editor-in-Chief of Defence & Security Alert, and Chairman, Soldier Welfare Advisory Committee, Rajasthan. He tweets @ManvendraJasol. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)