While the Commando Forces should have an integrated tri-Services set up, the Special Forces should be delinked from the military and placed under the highest political authority – the Prime Minister

Amongst various recommendations made by the Prime Minister appointed Naresh Chandra committee, a significant one is for setting up a separate Special Forces Command. What will be of relevance is the time frame in which this organisation will come up and more importantly the manner in which it is organised. The emergence of irregular/asymmetric forces with greater strategic value over conventional and even irregular forces in conflict situations over conventional and even nuclear forces in recent years has remained unacknowledged by India.

Consequently, we failed to create deterrence against irregular forces and have relied only on diplomacy, which is not wholly effective since it is not sensitised to the advantages of Special Forces. For instance, after the Anglo-Franco-Israeli assault on Egypt in 1956, the British had been booted out of the Middle East. A few years later the British Foreign Office offered the services of the SAS as “advisers” and experts to help the Middle East regimes quell their insurgencies and meet other security needs. This led to the British regaining their influence in the region and re-emerge as a major foreign affairs player in the energy-sensitive region. Similar initiatives have been undertaken by Special Forces of many countries including US, UK, Russia and Israel.

We have remained at great disadvantage since lack of strategic forethought has deterred us to exploit the strategic potential of our Special Forces. Amy Kazmin wrote in Financial Times September 9, 2011, saying, “The instruments of state action have become dysfunctional”, says K. Shankar Bajpai, Chairman of India’s National Security Advisory Board and former Ambassador to the United States. India’s strategic interests extend between the Suez to Shanghai….but we have neither the manpower nor the strategic thinking to handle these challenges”.

Pakistan’s SSG has been operating in J&K, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal and Bangladesh from time to time. Additionally, the LeT (covert arm of ISI) has been linking up with Indian Maoists and the radicals in Kerala. If China aims to stir up NSCN, ULFA, Manipuri PLA and Maoists insurgencies while claiming Arunachal Pradesh, can we rule out covert and proxy involvement of their intelligence agencies and Special Forces? Covert presence of Chinese Special Forces and intelligence agencies in Pakistan, POK, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India is real possibility.

There is an urgent need to develop publicised overt capabilities and deniable covert capabilities as deterrence against irregular war thrust upon us and the will to selectively demonstrate it to ensure its effectiveness. We need to create macro conditions for Special Forces through measures like a national vision, joint doctrine, joint organisations and integrated intelligence support.

What India needs for coping with irregular/unconventional threats and power projection is Special Forces for strategic tasks including as deterrent against irregular and asymmetric warfare, Commando Forces for within border tasks beyond capabilities of regular infantry and Airborne Forces for rapid reaction and force projection within and outside India. While the Commando Forces should have an integrated tri-Services set up, the Special Forces should be delinked from the military and placed under the highest political authority – the Prime Minister. They should have access to integrated intelligence plus varied insertion and extraction capability and adequate support elements. Their manpower base should be all India including the Military, PMF and CAPF.

Special Forces should be tasked for strategic tasks including surveillance and target designation in areas of strategic interest, shaping asymmetric and conventional battlefield to Indian advantage, deterring opponents exploiting our fault lines, controlling fault lines of adversaries, undertaking information/psychological operations and unconventional warfare, anti hijack, building partner capabilities with friendly countries and providing the cutting edge for strategic force projection.

The views expressed herein are the personal views of the author.