Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani will assume the post of India’s 3rd CDS on May 31, 2026 (File photo)
New Delhi: When the post of chief of defence staff was created in late 2019, it was welcomed with fanfare and almost immediately, misread. That confusion has not gone away.
Among veterans, defence analysts, and informed observers alike, there is a persistent tendency to inflate the role of the CDS beyond what the position was ever designed to be. A government press note from December 2019, which outlined the creation of the CDS post, is instructive as much for what it says as for what it does not.
Adviser to defence minister and not PM
The central question that the press note answers well, if one reads it carefully – is whether the CDS is the single point of military advice to the prime minister, or whether the position makes its holder “first among equals” in relation to the three service chiefs.
The answer to both questions is no.
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The press note specifies that the CDS serves as the principal military adviser to the defence minister on triservice matters and not to the prime minister.
The three service chiefs retain the authority to advise the defence minister on matters specific to their respective forces, preserving a plural advisory structure.
The design is deliberate: civilian oversight remains central, with the defence minister as the primary interface between military counsel and political authority.
The CDS also heads the department of military affairs within the Ministry of Defence and serves as its secretary, with a remit focused on integration across the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The post was announced by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, on August 15, 2019, in his Independence Day address, with the stated aim of promoting jointness in operations, logistics, and procurement – but without centralizing command.
No command authority – by design
A second critical provision in the press note goes to the heart of the debate. It states that the CDS “will not exercise any military command, including over the three service chiefs, so as to be able to provide impartial advice to the political leadership.”
The deliberateness of that formulation is worth noting. The CDS holds no command authority – not over troops, not over the theatre commands that remain a work in progress, and not over the service chiefs themselves.
The rationale given is telling: the absence of command is framed as the precondition for impartiality. An officer who commands cannot advise without bias; one who has no stake in operational outcomes can, in theory, counsel without parochial interest.
These provisions directly counter comparisons with the role of the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a figure who carries significantly more institutional weight and whose advice reaches the president far more directly.
Jointness, not supremacy
PM Modi’s Independence Day address, quoted in the background section of the press note, frames the purpose plainly: India should not have a fragmented approach, he said, and its military power must work in unison.
The CDS was conceived as an answer to exactly that fragmentation – the chronic inter-service competition over budgets, doctrines, and priorities that has historically hobbled defence planning.
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The confusion over the role persists, in part, because the expectations of many observers have been shaped by the US and UK models, where apex military figures speak for all services with singular authority.
India’s CDS was explicitly designed to be something different: a facilitator of jointness who leaves command with the chiefs and keeps advice at the ministerial, not prime ministerial, level.
The post, as the press note makes clear, was never intended to produce a first among equals. It was never given an operational role. It was never designated as the single point of military advice to the prime minister. That was the design, and it remains the design.
Current position
General Anil Chauhan currently holds the post. His tenure has been extended by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet until May 30. As permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee, Gen Chauhan’s priorities include inter-service procurement and advising bodies such as the nuclear command authority.
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Under his leadership, efforts to advance the theatre commands concept – aimed at enhancing operational synergy across services – have continued, though full implementation remains some distance away.
Defence analysts broadly note that the structure was designed to address historical inter-service rivalries while preserving service autonomy – a deliberate choice rooted in the country’s civil-military relations and its instinct for checks on concentrated authority.
The original mandate, as outlined in December 2019, remains unchanged. The CDS is a coordinator, not a commander. That distinction matters.
On May 9, the government appointed Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani as the next CDS. He will also hold the concurrent charge of secretary, department of military affairs (DMA), a twin responsibility that comes with the office.
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