Challenges to National Leadership in the 21st Century India

General

The Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) organised a seminar on “Challenges to National Leadership in the 21st Century India” on July 02, 2009 at the CLAWS campus. The seminar was attended by a large gathering of officers from the armed forces and select guests from the strategic community. Lt Gen KM Seth (Retd), former Governor of Chattisgarh was the chairman while Col SC Meston, Senior Fellow CLAWS presented his paper on the subject. Manvendra Singh, member BJP, Maj Gen Ashok Joshi (Retd) and Maj Gen GD Bakshi (Retd) were the discussants.

Col SC Meston, VSM

Col SC Meston identified the various leadership challenges India has to overcome in order become a superpower. He asserted that Indian civilization right from Mehrgarh (7000-3000 B.C.) through the Golden age (Mauryan and Gupta period) to the Sikh empire had a glorious tradition of administration, scientific innovation and empire building. A nation which had the largest city in the world, the best sanitation system, people of high caliber and moral values. India’s greatness as a nation emerged clearly.
He mentioned that during independence, the question raised was ‘will India survive as a nation’, and today 60 years later the question being raised is ‘will India become a superpower’. Col Meston pointed out that India is  lacking in Strategic culture, national Interest and national Security strategy are not well articulated. To have an impact as a leading power, he identified the following critical leadership challenges facing the country:

Coordination, Integration and Implementation:

• No monitoring agency: turf wars and exploitation, there is daily fire-fighting to get things moving.
• Highest order of corruption and no accountability at lower functional levels.
• There is a need  to re-look at our security and intelligence related  institutions.

Socio-Economic Issues:

• Politics based on caste, religion, region and class is of a high order.
• Growing population of young workers: Average age of population in India will be 29 years, If not exploited lack of jobs could shake India at its very foundation and lead to political turmoil.
• Widening urban- rural gap and rising expectations.
• PDS Schemes: Leakage& Corruption permeates the system.
• Far too many bottlenecks in Infrastructure development.
• Extremely unhygienic conditions prevails in the health system, alarming levels of adulteration in food products.
• Strikes by PSUs like Oil hold the nation to ransom; shortage of power and drinking water could make matters worse.

Global and Regional Challenges:

• Intelligence: No co-ordination among agencies; NIA is a mere investigative and not coordinating agency.
• Terrorism: We have to fight our wars in our own terms.
• Instability in our neighbourhood: Nuclear arms race continues: Growing Instability in Pakistan  puts question mark over safety and security of nuclear weapons in that country.
• Pakistan has failed in its one point agenda of dismembering India but could exploit prevalent weaknesses of casteism and regionalism.
• China’s influence in the region is expanding, If India is unable to match China militarily and not keeping up with economic strides, China is unlikely to take India seriously.
• Global Warming: Inundation of Bangladesh due to rising water levels could trigger a massive exodus of population into India.
• SAARC should be made more collaborative in its functioning and orientation.

In a survey carried out as part of the study among cross sections of society, poverty emerged as the biggest challenge followed by casteism, regionalism and religious extremism. Corruption, terrorism.and naxalsim, illiteracy and disparity between the rich and poor also emerged as major challenges among others.

In a survey of 600 other ranks at the Junior Leaders Academy, Bareilly, casteism, lack of education, unemployment, corruption and lack of mutual respect were identified as the top five challenges facing the country.

Spelling out recommendations to counter the challenges Col Meston listed the following:-

• ‘Integration and coordination’ should be the ethos of our working culture, turf wars would cease to exist. Integration between departments and agencies and their functional leaders will produce excellent leaders.
• Establish national Leadership and Strategic Institute.
• Evolve a national Security Strategy.
• For better coordination amalgamate certain apex ministries under Principal Cabinet Ministers.
• NSA and Cabinet Secretariat must incorporate all service chiefs or the Joint Chief of Staffs Committee on national security issues.
• NSC Should focus on national security issues and be delinked from mundane and routine matters. It should have adequate resources.
• Integration and jointness should commence at the formative stage: IAS/Armed Forces/IPS trainees could undergo at least six months training in each others’ training institutes. This could be easily achievable if IAS recruitment commences after class XII.
• National Security Advisor should be accorded cabinet minister status and can  be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
• Involve ex-servicemen and college students in bringing accountability and checking corruption in major projects such as road construction. Ex-servicemen can be mobilised in case of strikes. Maintain a national database of skilled workers.
• Armed Forces may consider mixed regiments gradually to bring about more homogeneity.
• Communalism/Casteism/Regionalism based statements should be considered gravest national crime.
• There can be a coordination Mechanism at MEA to put all ministries on ‘one frequency’.
• Establish a National Counter Terrorism Centre under a Cabinet Minister. MAC can be re-constituted to coordinate all terrorist related intelligence from all agencies.
• Pakistan: Countering terrorism should be based on Indian interest only. Seek engagement with Pakistan army.
• SAARC: Establish a Counter Terrorism Military Institute and also a peace institute.
• India should play a more enhanced role in the strategic neighbourhood.

Manvendra Singh, former MP

Most of India lives in villages, administered by districts which even today are governed in exactly the same manner as was done by the British. This colonial set up has to change if India aspires to become a superpower. More trust has to be placed on the local level authorities. In a parliamentary democracy a Prime Minister and National Security Council are oxymoron. Flaws exist in both civilian and military structures. Post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) should be created. He did not agree with the recommendation of clubbing ministries stating that rather it is time to dissolve certain ministries. He believed that the role of IAS officers should be restricted in strategic matters which is not their domain. In the end, he pointed out that no change can happen without a critical mass of leadership and we cannot replicate somebody else’s system.

Maj Gen Ashok Joshi, VSM (Retd)

Maj Gen Ashok Joshi began by narrating the high qualities of leadership and strategy prevalent in Ancient India from Chanakaya to Kautilya.
He pointed out the directives issued by PM Manmohan Singh to military commanders that India’s strategic footprints should cover a much larger area beyond the immediate neighbourhood but India seems to be mired with numerous internal challenge ranging from Cross-border terrorism, naxalism to caste based politics of vote bank and regionalism.
He narrated the high qualities of leadership and strategy prevalent in Ancient India from Chanakaya to Kautilya. He deduced that Conventional wars are unlikely to occur and internal conflicts motivated by ethno-political, communal- religious or socio-economic factors may increase. Non- military threats- cross border migration, organized crime, arms/ drugs smuggling, money laundering are likely to increase.
He recommended among others that India should be positive and don the mantle of leadership of the entire South Asian region. Replace ostrich like attitude and somnolent reactions to become pro active. Economic, political, social, and military spheres are interdependent hence vision and decisive  leadership  is necessary at the apex level. Act locally in real time first before aspiring to become a global power.

Maj Gen GD Bakshi, SM, VSM (Retd)

Maj Gen GD Bakshi observed that barring the Mauryan, Mughal and British period centrifugal tendencies were prevalent in India before Independence.
He agreed with Col Meston’s view that our biggest drawback is lack of implementation and coordination of policies. Our willingness to use military force has become a big question mark and undermines our credibility.
He recommended that there should be more participation of young politicians in the upcoming National Defence University (NDU). The number of ministries should be reduced to increase efficiency. By 2026, 1 Billion of India’s population will be in the job sector, this manpower should be absorbed in the military to prevent crisis.

Chairperson’s Remarks

Lt Gen KM Seth complimented Col Meston for taking up such a vast and critical subject for study. He was of the view that in the last four decades the value of national leadership has shrunk by falling into the trap of casteism, religious fundamentalism and vote-bank politics. There should be a robust delivery mechanism for implementation of schemes where the fruits should reach the true beneficiaries- the villages. There should be certainty of punishment and greater accountability. The national leadership should cut across party lines and evolve national Interests and policies. In the next 10 years the focus should be on education, health and agriculture. We should intensify efforts to become a regional superpower.

Discussion

• Government is not the only custodian of national leadership. People are responsible for electing ministers with criminal background. Only 33% of the population exercise their franchise. No urban voter turnout in Mumbai even after 26/11.
• Decline in national leadership post-Independence.
• No inner democracy within major political parties.
• Not everything has gone wrong with the system, society when it starts participating will throw up new ideas.
• Electronic media can play a crucial role in building political pressure on our national leadership to deliver and in bringing about awareness.
• There should be equitable distribution of growth.
• Think-tanks should play a greater role in educating politicians on strategic matters.
• Pakistan: Need to understand mindset of Pakistan Military; Pakistani generals refuse to change attitude towards India.
• Future of India lies in its people; Concept of the Welfare state first emerged in the Ramayana, We need to look inwards and there should be simultaneity in action.

Concluding Remarks

Brig Gurmeet Kanwal, Director CLAWS thanked the audience and discussants for their valuable insights. He concluded by saying that unless justice is delivered in time, governance will continue to suffer. All the three pillars of the constitution- the legislature, the executive and the judiciary need to perform in harmony.

(Report Compiled by Col SC Meston, VSM, Senior Fellow CLAWS and
Rohit Singh, Research Assistant, CLAWS)