Recent news of the Advance Jet Trainers finally flying into Air Force Station Bidar, the C-130J deal with Lockheed Martin for purchase of six of these aircraft and the Boeing’s catch of P8A, the maritime aircraft for Indian Navy would have brought smiles on many faces, particularly the ‘babus’ in Ministry of Defence and the top brass of Indian Military. Ironic it may seem, the ‘smiles’ were hidden behind and were totally masked by the ‘wrinkles’ that their faces had acquired over the years, sorry, decades of waiting.
Advance Jet Trainer ought to have entered the IAF inventory, if not in late eighties, decidedly in early nineties. But due to the then existing, for that matter even now, procurement process, the strangle hold of less than informed bureaucrats and myopic Air Force leadership, the AJTs had to wait for over 20 years to be painted with the tricolour. Story of many weapon platforms for the other services too has the same fate. DPP-2006 has been hailed as a revolutionary document that would supposedly hasten the procurement process. Nothing could be farther from the truth. An ordinary management graduate from a C-grade management institute shall unequivocally declare that the DPP-2006 is quite a few notches lower than the earlier process. For in DPP-2006 one more stumbling block in the form of ‘Special Secretary (Acquisition)’ has been created to the existing stumbling block in the form of ‘Defence Secretary.’
Before proceeding any further, let me state categorically that our bureaucrats are outstanding professionals in their respective fields. But the incumbent occupying the post of Defence Secretary simply does not have adequate time to cope with and comment-on numerous proposals from each service. It is simply impossible for any single individual to keep up with the pace. By creating a ‘filter’ in form of Secretary Acquisition, one more stumbling block has been created. Commenting on the professional expertise of these individuals is inconsequential because it simply is impossible for an individual to have the grasp of multi-dimensional issues, notwithstanding the excellent briefs put up by service headquarters. The need for organisational reform in the Ministry of Defence is the crying need of the hour. Existing procurement document clearly highlights the inadequacy of the set up. Glaring it may seem, but the fact is that the Service Chiefs are ‘absent’ from the various committees except the Raksha Mantri headed Defence Acquisition Council (DAC). DAC is essentially a ‘titular’ body and is meant to give ‘in principle’ approvals for capital acquisitions. The executive body is the Defence Procurement Board (DPB). To maintain the bureaucratic strangle hold and marginalise the position of Service Chiefs, DPB is conveniently headed by the Defence Secretary. Let factual position be stated as it obtains in practice. The Defence Secretary is lower in protocol to Service Chiefs only for the ‘line-up’ during ceremonial functions, where all four of them are required to be present e.g. Republic Day etc, where Defence Secretary is at the extreme left in the four men line up. But for all practical purposes Defence Secretary is the ‘Boss’ as far as procurement and all major issues concerning Defence Forces.
In stating the above state of affairs explicitly and unambiguously, there is no attempt or intent to malign the office of Defence Secretary. The country has seen eminent, competent and efficient bureaucrats shouldering this responsibility over the years with élan. Perhaps time has come to review the load on the Defence Secretary. The incumbent has only 24 hours to do the job which he/she cannot perform, almost entirely due to volume of work rather than professional incompetence and/or inefficiency.
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