India News | Not Fair to Comment: Army Chief on His Predecessor's Remarks on Theaterisation
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande on Thursday chose not to respond to recent comments by his predecessor Gen MM Naravane that framing a national security strategy was a prerequisite to take forward the ambitious theaterisation plan.
New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande on Thursday chose not to respond to recent comments by his predecessor Gen MM Naravane that framing a national security strategy was a prerequisite to take forward the ambitious theaterisation plan.
Gen Pande said an integrated and tri-services response to meet future security challenges is an "imperative" and that there was a need to get "right joint tri-services structures in place".
"It is not fair for me to comment (on Gen Naravane's remarks). But I think in the future, integrated and tri-services response to meet future security challenges is an imperative and towards this, I think, we need to get right joint triservices structures in place," Gen Pande said at a press conference.
He was asked to comment on the former Army Chief's remarks.
"Just to elaborate, we are looking at theatre command as a single entity looking after all security aspects and issues in a geographical area under one general commander. So I leave it here just highlighting the importance of theatrisation but stop short of commenting on what my predecessor's views were," Gen Pande said.
The Army Chief said the process of consultations and deliberations among the three services on the theaterisation plan was underway.
Delivering a talk on theaterisation at the 4th General KV Krishna Rao Memorial Lecture last December, Gen Naravane had said, "Theaterisation is not an end, it is only a means to an end. And that end has to be specified first in the form of a national defence strategy. That defence strategy, in turn, has to flow out of a national security strategy."
"Unless there is a national security strategy in place, to just keep talking about theaterisation is actually putting the cart before the horse," he said.
Gen Naravane was the Chief of Army Staff from December 31, 2019 to April 30, 2022.
According to the theaterisation plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
At present, the Army, Navy and the Air Force have separate commands. Initially, a plan was firmed up for the creation of an Air Defence Command and Maritime Theatre Command.
The theatre commands are being planned to integrate the capabilities of the three services and to ensure optimal utilisation of their resources.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)