Bengaluru: India will soon have a chief of defence staff to evaluate the requirements of the armed forces on merits, Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said Monday.
“The chief of defence staff will be a permanent post with a fixed tenure. Though the chief will be selected from the services, he will be impartial to all the three services – army, navy and air force,” Singh told reporters on the margins of an Aero India seminar here.
As the three services have agreed to the creation of the chief of defence staff, the union government will seek a consensus opinion of political parties to constitute the post with specific terms.
“The chief of defence staff will have an overall perspective and will assess the needs of all the three services dispassionately to utilise the funds as per their present and future requirements,” Singh added.
“The three Services have agreed that there should be a Chief of Defence Staff…we have to now get parties involved, as it is a political decision. There are pros and cons to the whole issue, the Services is now on board more or less. Now the political parties have to be taken on board. Once they give their opinion we will take a decision,” he said.
Asked whether government has started discussions with parties, Singh said it has been going on for a while, but now again “I think we are going to write to all political parties and ask them as to what is their opinion on this.”
Stating that who is going to be Chief of Defence Staff is immaterial as of now, Singh in response to a question said, “According to me – what possibility that could be explored is that there should be somebody in the Chief of Defence Staff’s position for a couple of years while all these issues are being worked out, like the CISC who could be there in that position let him operate for couple of years, once the difficulties are ironed out Chief of Defence Staff can be announced.
“These things have to have a political input. Political input is going to be asked for by this government. Once we have the parties on board I think it will be done” he added.
To a question on One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue, Singh said “it will happen soon we are addressing it, and more or less we have come to a decision. “Before Parliament session we should be able to announce it this is our wish,” he added.
Asked about when a permanent DRDO chief would be appointed which is being now handled by the secretary defence, Singh said “He (Secretary Defence) has been given the additional charge of Aeronautical Development Agency and DRDO for three months. So one would expect in these three months the appointment will be made.”
The three-day international seminar “Aerospace Vision: 2050” is being held as part of the 10th edition of the five-day Aero India 2015 on the Indian Air Force base at Yelahanka on the city’s outskirts from Wednesday.
(With inputs from Agencies)
