India created the post of Chief of Defense Staff in 2019 to achieve what its military had long lacked: genuine jointness among the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The CDS was intended to function as the principal military adviser to the government, improve interoperability among the services and push through long-delayed reforms such as integrated theater commands.

Yet less than a decade later, the institution is being weakened by the very government that created it.

The issue goes to the heart of civil-military relations, military effectiveness and India’s ambitions as a rising major power.

The latest appointment to the office illustrates the issue clearly. For the second consecutive time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has chosen a retired three-star lieutenant general to serve as CDS, immediately elevating him to four-star rank upon appointment. Lt. Gen. N.S. Raja Subramani will now coordinate among serving four-star service chiefs who continue to command troops, budgets and operational structures.

This is an unusual arrangement for a position that was originally conceived as primus inter pares — first among equals.

Only the first CDS, Gen. Bipin Rawat, assumed office while serving as Army chief. His appointment carried institutional weight because he entered the role directly from active command at the apex of the military hierarchy. By contrast, a retired officer re-entering service on a contractual basis inevitably derives authority less from institutional standing than from political selection.

Since Rawat’s death in a helicopter crash in late 2021, the government has moved toward appointing retired officers — a shift that reflects both a rethink of the CDS office and a broader instinct toward institutional........

© The Japan Times