M A I N   N E W S

N-command on Pak lines, say defence experts

New Delhi, January 5
Defence experts today welcomed the setting up of a Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) but stated that it was more or less on the lines of the Pakistani nuclear structure as it did not categorically spell out the chain of succession, both in political and military terms.

“The government has done a sort of political decision-making, which copies the Pakistani system...the chain of command should be clearly spelt out”, Mr K Subramanian, former Director of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) said.

He said: “ we should spell out who is going to be in charge when we have a ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons doctrine...the enemy’s first target will be Delhi to eliminate the entire political leadership and we saw this when it attacked Parliament on December 13”.

Mr Subramanian said “If you leave the command and control issue to various committees, they will postpone decisions as they have done in many other cases, like the purchase of Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) and the disinvestment issue...you can’t deal with the nuclear issue on committee basis”.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had yesterday put in place the NCA, comprising a political council and an executive council. The political council, to be headed by the Prime Minister, is the sole body which can authorise the use of nuclear weapons. The executive council, chaired by the National Security Adviser, will provide inputs for decision-making by the NCA and execute the directives given to it by the political council.

A Strategic Forces Command, under a Commander-in-Chief, was set up to manage and administer strategic forces, including nuclear assets.

Observing that India had not officially announced the contours of its command and control system, Commander Uday Bhaskar, Deputy Director of the IDSA, said ‘’this gap has now been filled. The fact that it took India four and half years after it declared itself a nuclear weapon state to announce the command and control system is a reflection of the nature of India’s and its distinctive strategic culture’’. UNI