India News Online » News Analysis » Security Issues » 

No let-up in guard on borders

	April 11, 2005

India will not lower its guard on the borders even as it forges ahead with people-to-people contacts and confidence-building measures with Pakistan, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.



Addressing a conference of top Indian Army commanders in New Delhi last week, Mukherjee drew the Army leadership’s attention to China’s military infrastructure in Tibet and the implications of the rapid modernisation of



China’s armed forces, especially its Navy.

The Chinese growth is being watched by various powers who are reassessing their own positions vis a vis that country. We must be alive to these changes and their implications on our strategy, said Mukherjee.

India, he said, would pursue a dialogue with Pakistan on all outstanding issues and simultaneously promote confidence-building measures. He however, cautioned there was “a need to guard against the use of softer borders to promote subversion and terrorism”.

Mukherjee said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had “shown a perceptible change towards the better”. The ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) had generally held except for a few violations.

Though infiltration and casualty figures had come down, Mukherjee cautioned the forces to be alert as the terrorist infrastructure on the other side of the LoC remained intact.

He also referred to developments in Nepal, saying the situation there was a “cause for worry”.

The most “potent challenges” facing India, he said, came not from conventional wars but from unconventional threats like religious fundamentalism, terrorism, insurgency, arms smuggling, nuclear and missile threats and weapons of mass destruction.

“We have to strengthen our border and airspace management, internal security and maritime environment to face these challenges successfully,” Mukherjee asserted.

Referring to defence cooperation with various countries, Mukherjee said Russia continued to be India’s major strategic partner. While there had been an expansion in cooperation with the US, Israel too had emerged as an “important technological partner”, he noted.

Speaking on the Army’s reorganisation, he said the government had approved the creation of the Southwestern Command with headquarters at Jaipur as part of efforts to streamline the command and control of India’s western borders.

Army officials said the new command would be a key link between the Northern Command in Jammu and Kashmir and the Western Command in Haryana, and would play a key role in the launch of offensives from the desert areas of Rajasthan.

Mukherjee said the government would speedily implement all the recommendations of the AV Singh Committee to “achieve better combat effectiveness by bringing down the age profile of field commanders”.

He expressed concern that a large part of the defence budget is taken up by manpower expenditure. He asked commanders to think in terms of lesser number of men and for a smaller “tail” in the Army.

Stressing the need for optimum and cost-effective combination of technology and manpower for the country’s defence requirements, Mukherjee underlined the importance of coordination in planning, equipping and operations by the three services.

He said joint plans would have to be drawn up by them and equipment held by any service should be compatible with that of other services for effective inter-operability.

Referring to modernisation, Mukherjee said: “New technology provides an increased range of options for operations and compels us to rethink our doctrine and the way we looked at the situations.

“The change in the security scenario requires a constant review so as to assess how the Army operates or reacts in a given situation.”