That said, the Defence Minister's speech at the combined commanders conference calling for integrated command structures has to be welcomed. For the first time a political leader has ventured into this territory, but he must not pause there. The armed forces have to move into the direction of jointmanship, of that there cannot be any doubt. For that to be achieved, they would have to be willing to sacrifice some of their parochial service interests. If the army man can come under the command of a flier, so can the air force pilot serve under the direction of the officer in olive green orwhite. India's armed forces suffer from these perplexing postures. The Defence Minister must push them out of this intellectually debilitating attitude, and into the structures of the future. But for that to happen the government must, firstly, put the other decision-making arrangements in order. There has been an inordinate delay in setting up vital systems.

The country still awaits the constitution of a National Security Council (NSC). It has been some months since the task force report was submitted, and it is high time the structure was instituted. It is only after the NSC comes into place will the equally awaited strategic defence review (SDR) get underway. One follows the other, and they would be charged with the responsibility of analysing the country's strategic interests, be they political, diplomatic, societal, cultural and economic. It is the SDR that will tell the government what kind of armed forces we need, at what level of readiness and under what decision-making structures. Fossils are onlygood for teaching children history and biology, not managing the fourth largest armed forces in the world. The SDR will say all that, and it will also suggest that the armed forces integrate and demonstrate jointmanship today, for tomorrow.