Aakar Patel | Security strategies that require cohesion: “Doval doctrine” can be the first step
The Indian Defense Planning Commission was established on April 19, 2018. The committee was chaired by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and includes the Foreign Secretary, Minister of Defense, Chief of Defense Staff, three Service Directors and Secretary of the Finance Department.
It is a difficult task to take into account “defense and security priorities, foreign policy orders, operational directives and related requirements, relevant strategies and security-related doctrines, defense manuscripts and infrastructure development plans, national security strategies, strategic defense reviews and doctrines, international defense participation strategies, etc., etc., related strategies and infrastructure development plans, relevant strategies and infrastructure development plans, related strategies and infrastructure development plans, related strategies and infrastructure development plans”. It met once on May 3, 2018 and has not appeared to have met since.
In the absence of a national security doctrine, India probably relies on informally known as the “Doval doctrine”. The doctrine may not have been printed yet, but can be found in the video. In February 2014, just weeks before he was appointed as National Security Adviser, Mr. Doval spoke at Sastra University in Thanjavur. He raised the following points: Terrorism is a strategic threat to India because it is an international phenomenon because Pakistan feeds and promotes it. And because India has a large Muslim population.
However, terrorism cannot fight because it is an idea, a word. Only terrorists can be defeated (or ability “degraded”) because only a tangible enemy can be defeated, not a word or idea.
Therefore, India must name its threat, in this case Pakistan. After identifying the enemy, Mr. Doval asked a question: “How do you deal with Pakistan?” and then he continued to explain.
The issue with India’s national security strategy is Pakistan’s ability to fight sub-conventional wars (cross-border terrorism and armed forces) and India’s inability to upgrade its military escalation due to nuclear threats.
Mr Doval said: “I talked about their nuclear threshold, their strategic weapon systems, their missiles, their strategic partnership with China. How do we solve this problem?”
It’s simple, he said, “You know we interact with the enemy in three modes. One defense mode. Jokida and Chaps. If someone comes here, we’ll stop him from entering. One is defense crime. To defend ourselves. To defend ourselves, we’ll get from where we attack, and the third is nuclear effort. Mode.”
He said the current meaning is that under Manmohan Singh’s government, “we only work in defensive mode”. What he suggested was that India attacked Pakistan in various ways. In his words: “Committed to Pakistan’s vulnerability. It can be economic, internal security, maybe political. International quarantine. I won’t go into details. But… you changed participation from the defensive model.”
He hints that there is no choice but to do so, because offensive mode is turned off because there is no control over the upgrade, resulting in a nuclear threshold. Again, for him, the defensive mode is useless.
“You threw a hundred stones at me, and I stopped ninety, but ten still hurt me. I will never win. I lost, or a deadlock.
If you have a defensive situation, we will see the balance position of the balance. Pakistan is much more vulnerable than India. Once they know that India has moved its equipment from defensive to defensive source, they will find it impossible for them. You can make a Mumbai. Better than you. ”
He continued: “The only difficulty we have is that we are in defensive mode. If we are in defensive mode, we may reduce the casualties we suffer.”
This is “Doval doctrine”. It sees India’s strategic threat as Pakistan’s terrorism, and its response is to do what the enemy does to you.
It is not clear whether the government has adopted this unwritten doctrine, but Mr. Doval’s decade as the NSA means it must have a great influence.
In 2020, India faces challenges on the other hand. In assessing this situation, General Prakash Menon (Retd) noted that for decades, India’s political guidance to the military has been directed towards Pakistan as a direct threat. But now the threat of China is at the door, and this must change.
The political goals the military is expected to achieve reside in a document called “Raksha Mantri’s Directive” (weapons that the armed forces must be stocked under the UPA, which must be stockpiled under the circumstances of armed forces). General Menon said: “There is a continued lack of parents due to the lack of a coherent national security strategy. The National Defense Planning Commission, led by the NSA, was assigned the task two years ago. So far, it has not appeared. “That was in 2020.
After Pahalgam, the situation moved again to the Western Front. It has been five years since the conflict with China and seven years since the establishment of the National Defense Planning Commission. Perhaps recent events will encourage the government to present a national security doctrine when we are attacked, both traditionally and through acts of terrorism.
The author is the President of Amnesty International in India. X: @Aakar__Patel
