New Delhi [India], October 22 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday unveiled the 'Civil Military Fusion as a Metric of National Power and Comprehensive Security' book by Lt Gen (Retd) Raj Shukla and a coffee table book 'Portraits of Valour: Timeless Military Art by Lieutenant Colonel Arul Raj', authored by Major General Ian Cardozo, AVSM, SM (Retd).
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan and Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi delivered remarks on the occasion, in which both emphasised the necessity of civil-military fusion and the initiatives taken by the army to fulfil the purpose.
General Anil Chauhan, drawing parallels from his role as CDS, said Civil-Military Fusion is about jointness and integration at the national level. He emphasised that it is a "difficult but even more essential process."
"When the government appointed me as the CDS, one of my primary jobs was to create jointness and integration among the three services. It's a very difficult task, but essential, I think. Civil-Military Fusion is about jointness and integration at the national level. It is even more difficult but even more essential, and that's what Raj Shukla has brought out in his book (Civil Military Fusion as a Metric of National Power and Comprehensive Security)," CDS said.
Anit Chauhan further said that the political leadership has guided the military to take some initiative to integrate this civil-military fusion.
"It's not that India has not made efforts toward this; in fact, in the recently held Combined Commanders' Conference, the political leadership gave us some direction in which they asked the military to take the lead in some of the initiatives where we can integrate," he said.
Additionally, Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi shared his own interactions with the author, Lt Gen (Retd) Raj Shukla and shared the lessons which helped during Operation Sindoor.
"Three things which I picked up from him [Lt Gen Raj Shukla (Retd)] at that point in time. One thing was the foundation for Operation Sindoor. At that time (in 2016), Uri [episode] had happened, and he conducted a detailed discussion and various options on how to approach this situation that may arise in future. So, I must concede very frankly, when this situation came to me, it was a very normal thing for me because I had already seen this earlier," he said.
Further speaking about military-civil fusion, General Upendra Dwivedi highlighted the importance of the military to take ownership to move the relationship forward.
"The book brings out the asset-based thinking, not the deficit-based thinking. Now, if you take the journey from civil-military relations to the MCF (Military-Civil Fusion). The moment you talk about MCF means that the military has to take ownership of moving the civil-military relationship forward. Earlier, we were telling that the responsibility lies with the civil, but this is the time the military has to take the ownership," he said.