Soon after the 1971war, federal studies were initiated by the government to re- appraise the performance of our military system during that war. A key recommendation of these deliberations and the subsequent ‘White Paper’, published the same year, included the proposal of creating a‘ unified high-command structure to oversee all military work, combat coordination, and joint missions.’ This took five years to materialize in March 1976, leading to the establishment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee(JCSC) for the purpose. However, the JCSC was assigned only a diluted role‘—of providing military advice to the government, synchronizing jointness and coordination among the Army, Navy, and Air Force’. Later, this mandate was gradually enhanced to include development of strategic weapons systems and organizations aswell.

The chairman JCSC, was the principal adviser to the government in war time, but in peace or tension period, he usually formulated recommendations to the government, on issues of more than one Service, through a committee system. When there was divergence of views among the Services, hepresented alternatives for a final decision by the government, as he did not wield executive authority over the Armed Forces. Till it’s recent replacement, this system worked well, despite its limitations. These included the following: First; the Services Chiefs and the CJCSC, had direct access to the prime minister for military matters concerning their own spheres, which was mainly beneficial for individual Services, but unhelpful for tri-services issues and judicious allocation of scarce resources.

It also diminished and masked the need for unity of command and........

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