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Task force report on National Security Council in a few weeks: Pant

Rajesh Ramachandran in New Delhi

The task force, set up on Friday to constitute a National Security Council, will submit its report in a few weeks.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had promised an NSC in its manifesto and its national agenda for governance.

Former Union defence minister and task force chairman K C Pant told Rediff On The NeT that a meeting would be convened immediately after Air Commodore Jasjit Singh returns to Delhi.

"I think it is possible to submit the report in a few weeks. It could even be out within the next month," said Pant.

Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, director of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, is the convener of the task force. He is away in Baroda and will return to the capital only on April 17.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman and BJP leader Jaswant Singh -- a former major in the Indian army -- is the third member of the task force.

Pant said the brief for the task force was to formulate proposals for the constitution of the NSC.

While working out the Council's constitution and its role and function, the task force would also make several suggestions. "We would make suggestions like ministers being made ex-officio Council members," Pant said.

According to defence analysts, the NSC will be part of the government and not just an advisory body.

"I have not talked to my colleagues,'' said the former Congress leader who joined the BJP recently. ''It would be premature to explain the character of the NSC as the functions of the task force have not been spelt out yet."

Pant said the Council would have to assess the security scenario on political, military, energy, internal security and economic angles and harmonise and co-ordinate between the various organisations. It would also go into the organisation and finances of the armed forces.

According to the BJP manifesto the party plans to, "establish a National Security Council to constantly analyse security, political and economic threats and render continuous advice to the government. The council will undertake India's first-ever strategic defence review to study and analyse the security environment and make appropriate recommendations to cover all aspects of defence requirements and organisation."

Pant said that, though conducting the Strategic Defence Review and analysing the threat perception are very important, the Council should look much ahead, into the changing geo-political situation. It should also evolve long, short and medium-term strategic plans.

Union Defence Minister George Fernandes had said that constituting the Council and carrying out an SDR had become all the more important in the light of Pakistan testing the Ghauri missile.

But Pant, the former defence minister, insists, "There is no need to connect it to Ghauri's test-firing. It did not crop up suddenly. It was there in the BJP manifesto."

Moreover, it is not the first time the country attempts to have such a Council. The V P Singh government had set up the first such NSC on August 24, 1990. The Council met only once.

Apart from the Council, the National Front government had also constituted the National Security Advisory Board. Though it should have met twice a year, it did not meet even once.

Pant said the Council would not necessarily be on the lines of the earlier one. "The earlier one did not seem to have worked.... Other nations too have such councils, though they may not be called by that name."

In its manifesto, the BJP has also promised to set up a national commission that "will study and analyse the trends in defence technologies and appropriately advise the government on the development and induction of the advanced weapons."

Another major promise pertains to the induction of nuclear weapons. It remains to be seen whether the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government will fulfil these promises.

EARLIER FEATURE:
Lt Gen K S Brar (retd) on the need for a National Security Council

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