"War Room"
Enters the political lexicon of India.
will it be adapted
for Good Governance ?
Perhaps the largest exercise in logistics in the world, has
just been completed in India. General elections covering the length and breadth
of India came to an end on 12 May 2014. Conducted over 9 phases, from 07 Apr to
12 May this year, this complex activity covered an estimated 814.5 Million
voters of which close to 100 Million were newly eligible this year. It is
estimated that the total expenditure incurred by candidates and the Government
would be close to US $5 Billion.
Interestingly,
well endowed National Parties used cutting edge technology to monitor and embellish
their campaign. It is gratifying to note that the word "War Room" has
entered the lexicon of political parties in India. Let me explain why.
The concept
of' Operations Room' or' War Room' is an integral part of Military operations.
It enables rapid dissemination of information to all stake holders, uses the
best available means of communication with back up modes, employs well trained
personnel to interpret incoming data, analyses and presents material to senior
authorities for quick decisions and is always manned 24/7-365days-in peacetime or War.
The only
time our political leadership is exposed to this environment is when there is a
war, a natural calamity or a catastrophic event of national importance. Given a
chance, senior politicians and bureaucrats would rather not be present in a war
room, which demands speedy decision- making under hostile conditions. When
rapidity of thought and action are demanded from it, our political system which
depends on decision- making through Committees and consensus achieved over
months of debate, is highly stressed. Ipso facto, it generally resists accountability
for decision- making.
Increasingly
in the course of their tenure, key Ministers are required to tackle emergencies
such as hi-jacking of aircraft, terrorism, natural calamities etc which need an
efficient Operations room environment described above. However since the
Cabinet Secretary is the senior most civil servant who has the powers of
coordination among numerous ministries and State Governments, he is also the
leader of the team nominated to tackle an emergency. Going by recent experience
of Governance, he may be heading scores of Committees for critical decision
making inputs, thus making him a Superman blessed with extraordinary skills of
materiel and time management.
Just to
clarify, in War like situations, the War book held by all Ministries contains a
list of activities which permit smooth coordination and transition from peace
to war. This assumes that there is
sufficient indicators of an impending hostile action by the enemy and that the
Government has the sagacity to declare a precautionary state of readiness. Special
powers for the Armed Forces to requisition civil transportation and such like
activities essential to mobilize, are accorded strictly in consonance with the
instructions contained in the book. Operations thereafter are left to the Armed
forces to execute within the frame work of broad guide lines of intentions
outlined by the Government of the day. The war room/operations room thus becomes
the hub of activities during hostilities.
In order to
deliver during hostilities, the three services, upgrade and modernize their
facilities on a regular basis, to make information- flow as close to real time
as possible; so that they are not found
wanting when the need arises.
Civil
servants on the other hand neither have the training nor the wherewithal to
lead or guide operations for which facilities akin to operations room become a
vital link. For instance when a hi jack occurs, various personnel listed in a
Government memo which is revised from time to time, would need to congregate at
a temporary facility which has the barest minimum communications and
information dissemination facility. During the Kandahar Hi jack of IA 814 on Dec
1999, readers would recall that the aircraft could not even be detained at Amritsar
due to delay in assessing the situation and consequently deciding on the course
of action. Adhoc arrangements and lack of frequent drills often lead to
disastrous handling of a sensitive situation.
On a
positive note, recognizing the need to handle situations related to aircraft
through an organised Operations Room manned by qualified experts, the Indian
Air force facilities have recently been brought into the loop. Similarly for Sea-
Piracy, the Naval facility has been appropriated.
In the
absence of qualified experts and facilities to expeditiously and efficiently
handle less than war situations, we need to find early solutions within the boundaries
imposed by peace time limitations.
A possible
solution is to identify a permanent team of experts drawn from various agencies
of Military ,Police ,Intelligence and Civil services, to activate urgent
containment actions in the first instance. This implies that the expert team
should either be available in the vicinity of the operations room or at best
gettable within 20 minutes or so of the emergency.
Second, a suitable Operations room needs to be identified and
equipped with connectivity to numerous civilian agencies that may be required
to react to a disaster. A National Disaster Management Authority exists but it needs to be provided with an
operations room which goes beyond natural or man- made disasters along with connectivity
to the remotest parts of India. Cell
phones and Satellite communication terminals now, make this highly feasible.
Third, Clear
demarcation of responsibility and accountability among decision makers and
operational authorities need to be documented for efficient execution of the
task.
Fourth, frequent drills need to be conducted to assess the
readiness of the team and its ability to receive and disseminate
orders/instructions to the remotest parts of India. Unless similar teams are
constituted at the State level it is unlikely that the mission can be
accomplished expeditiously.
It is in
this context that the 'War Room' model employed by Political parties for
election, plays an important role to underscore the dire necessity to replicate
such models and concepts to meet genuine national emergencies. It is an inextricable component
of good governance.
A holistic
review and prophylactic actions are the need of the hour.
Vice Admiral(Retd)
Suresh Bangara former C-in-C of Southern Naval Command was also the head of
Naval Operations from 1999 to 2002 and the first Deputy Chief of Operations of
HQ Integrated Defence Staff
