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Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony (11th June 2005)
On 11 June, 2005 the Governor of Maharashtra, Shri S. M. Krishna laid the foundation stone of the National Center of International Security and Defence Analysis (NISDA) at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Bhavan in the premises of the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
The Chancellor evinced keen interest in the nature and activities of NISDA. In his message he encouraged NISDA faculty and wished a successful future to NISDA.
Former UGC chairman Dr. Hari Gautam also graced the occasion.
Dr. Hari Gautam’s Address:
His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Maharashtra and the Hon’ble Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Prof. Ashok Kolaskar, the distinguished Vice Chancellor of the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Prof. Gautam Sen, Professor Sawarkar of Strategic Studies and Founder Director of National Centre of International Security and the Defence analysis, Eminent academicians, Esteemed former Vice Chancellors of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Faculty Members, Members of the Press, Ladies and Gentleman.
It is indeed a great honour and elated privilege for me to have been invited to be present at this great occasion. It is an event of history. It is a milestone in the history of higher education not only in India but the world over. The National Center of International Security and Defence analysis shall define, redefine and reorient the holistic aspect of the academic cum practical security, international security encompassing various disciplines through a inter disciplinary and multi disciplinary activities.
University Grants Commission way back on 27th November 2001 declared – “…in the interest of nation and education, the University Grants Commission has, this year approved to establish a NATIONAL CENTER OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENCE ANALYSIS at the Savitribai Phule Pune University”. It was then decided by the UGC to first create the National Center, which hopefully shall grow into what we believed into the “National Institute of International Security and Defence Analysis”. Rupees Five crores were awarded as the seed money for the establishment of the National Center while Rupees Sixteen crores was parked, specially earmarked for this centre to grow into the National Institute of International Security and Defence Analysis. The National Center located in the Pune had a unique and special advantage to coordinate and collaborate with around 23 defence establishments existing in the city alone. Such a combination I believe could not be possible at any other location in India.
The Savitribai Phule Pune University is one of the foremost universities in India. It has attained the UGC status of the “University of Excellence”. The progress of this university has been directly linked with sincere commitments and immense sense of dedication on the part of dynamic and eminent Vice-Chancellor – Dr. Ashok Kolaskar. My compliments to him. I also compliment and congratulate Prof. Gautam Sen, Founder Director of National Center of International Security and Defence Analysis for having created this history in the field of higher education. I pray God to bless their efforts. I pray God to bless NISDA and I prey God to bless the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
We all are great and immensely obliged to His Excellency Shri S. M. Krishna to have been with us at this historical event. He has done a great favour in laying the foundation stone of the main building of the NISDA – one of the milestone in the history of academics.
Prof. Gautam Sen, Founder Director of NISDA also addressed the distinguished gathering.
Prof. Gautam Sen’s address:
Your Excellency Mr. S.M. Krishna, Chancellor and Governor of the State of Maharashtra,
Dr. Hari Gautam, Former Chairman of the University Grants Commission,
Prof. Ashok Kolaskar, Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University,
Former Vice Chancellors – Dr. Ram Takawale, Dr. V G Bhide and Dr. Vasant Gowarikar,
Colleagues, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the Savitribai Phule Pune University and NISDA, I am taking this opportunity to welcome all of you for today’s function which has been organized to record the formal laying of the Foundation Stone of the building which will house NISDA and the FM Radio Station of Savitribai Phule Pune University in the hands of Mr. S M Krishna, the Chancellor and the Governor of the State of Maharashtra. Both have great significance as well as relevance for the academic community.
NISDA represents the effort to bridge the gap between the realms of ideas and the domain of public policy making while the FM radio Station represents the extension of the Information Technology in the very core of existence of the University on a day-to-day basis.
Some twenty five years back, on a cold December night in 1980, I received a call at Boston from late Mr. P.V.R. Rao, the former Defence Secretary and President of the Asian Development Bank. In his typical characteristic way he told me that my eight-year holiday in the United States as graduate student and as a research associate was over. I was asked to return back to India and create a National Center for the study of national security affairs within the University system. A few months later when I formally joined the Department of Defence Studies at the Savitribai Phule Pune University to hold the first endowed chair professorship in defence studies in India, I realized that the old man has had the last laugh on my carefree life style at Harvard and the MIT.
National security analysis was then conducted within the fortified domain of bureaucratic organizations viz. the Ministries of Defence, External affairs, Home etc. The study of national security affairs by incorporating the core values and the civilizational pre conditions of a nation state by the academia in the institutes of higher education was nonexistent. The gap between national security analysis which was policy oriented and national security studies which was policy relevant was enormous.
Your Excellency, one of your illustrious predecessors, Air Chief Marshal Latif was the then Governor of the state of Maharashtra and with whom I had interacted in the Joint Planning Staff while I was a staff officer at the Army Headquarters during my earlier career in the Indian Army. He and Professor V G Bhide, the then Vice Chancellor of the Savitribai Phule Pune University came to my aid and with their help changed the existing name of the Department to Department of Defence and Strategic Studies (DDSS). I also created the National Security Forum (NSF) whose founding members were Mr. Ram Sathe, former foreign secretary, Admiral J G Nadkarni, former Chief of the Naval Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Air Marshal Y B Malshe, former Vice Chief of the Air Staff amongst others. The NSF was addressed regularly by the serving Service Chiefs, Ambassadors, Academics including Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in May 1991, when he was the Chairman of the University Grants Commission just before he took over as the Minister of Finance. The NSF soon became the Center of Advance Strategic Studies (CASS), an independent NGO with Admiral J G Nadkarni as the first Director of CASS and continues to be housed within the DDSS. The rest is history.
Having initiated the system as I have indicated earlier along with the incorporation of Sawarkar Memorial and BC Joshi Memorial Lecture series, creation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Chair on Policy Studies with an endowment from the Indian Army and the Resident Scholars Program funded by the Indian Army, I was quite content by 2001, that I had created a tolerably good department for the study of national security affairs till this gentleman sitting next to you, Dr. Hari Gautam, the then Chairman of the UGC decided that I had not done enough as yet. Your Excellency, in a lighter vane, may I add that a conspiracy was hatched between him and Professor Ashok Kolaskar against me – the outcome being NISDA which you have inaugurated formally by laying the foundation stone of its building today.
NISDA is the first National Center to be an integral part of a university department in any Indian University. NISDA has quickly gone ahead and instituted the first Chair Professor of Air Power Studies by creating an endowment fund for the same. NISDA has similar plans to create an endowed Chair Professorship for Naval Studies. Empirically, between NISDA and the DDSS there are three chair professors, two full professors, one reader, two lecturers, fourteen resident scholars from the Indian Army, one research associate and two project associates. From a two-member faculty in 1980, NISDA-DDSS conglomerate is the largest entity in any Indian University dedicated to study national security affairs. The two memorial lecture series have been addressed by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam the present President of India, late Nani Palkhiwala, the serving Service Chiefs of the Indian Armed forces, Ambassadors, Chairmen of the Atomic Energy Commission, Governor of State, eminent educationalist, scientists and many others since 1982. We will soon be bringing out a published volume of these public lectures delivered under the two memorial lecture series.
NISDA’s mission is to create human resources, expertise and a school of thought to contribute to strategic policy making to safeguard our national interests and harmonize them with universal security concerns. Security is no longer the responsibility of the Armed Forces alone. The world in the post cold war period has been overtaken by the information revolution. The country today has to be more concerned about securing the non-strategic dimensions of ecology, environment, pollution, energy and the rights of the unborn. In this sense, security has become an amalgamation of efforts achieved through the coercive use of force on one hand and policies at diplomatic management with security assessment on the other. We hope that NISDA operating through its five divisions viz. Modeling and Simulation Studies, Science Technology and International Security Studies, Policy and management Studies, Area studies and Non Traditional Security Studies will provide policy relevant outputs to the decision makers in our country.
Your Excellency, you will recollect that when you took over as the Governor of the State of Maharashtra, I wrote to you my views on institutions of higher education in India. It is relevant to quote the same here for record that
“I remain concerned with the existing asymmetry arising out of the present leadership in institutes of higher education responsible for guiding the destiny of research, teaching and training…. This has lead to proliferation of ideas and methodologies, which in the long run, may not contribute to consolidation and integration of efforts to further the cause of basic research so essential for converting the science of today into implementable appropriate technologies for tomorrow…. Secondly, I believe that at the core of any transformation is the ability to establish a civil society where there is a total guarantee of human security…. Modular shifts without interdependent modes have to be restrained from being institutionalized… Universities therefore have to be protected to continue as a place to remain endowed with idle capacity to think conceptually and perpetuate abstraction with logical empiricism.”
I have a fond hope that NISDA in years to come will be able to fulfill the vital role that I have enumerated in my address today.
Your Excellency, thank you for sparing your time to come to the Savitribai Phule Pune University. It is more significant to all of us since you have been a hardcore academic having taught International Law and also the first Fulbright Scholar to become a Governor of State in India. Please consider Savitribai Phule Pune University as your own and give us the privilege
Discussion with Mr. K. Subrahmanyam (16th July 2005)
On 16th July 2005, Mr. K. Subrahmanyam, former member of the Policy Planning Cell, former Convenor of National Security Board and former Director IDSA visited NISDA and presented his views on the role of universities in strategic studies. Present during the discussion were former Vice Chancellors Professor V. G. Bhide, Professor. S. C. Gupte, Professor Vasant Gowarikar. Professor Ashok Kolaskar, Vice Chancellor Savitribai Phule Pune University and Dr. M. A. Tutakne, Vice Chancellor Symbiosis Deemed University, Lt. Gen. D. B. Shekatkar, Shivaji Chair Professor, Air Marshal A. K. Trikha, Chair Professor for Air Power Studies, Professor A. S. Dalvi, Head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Professor Gautam Sen, Sawarkar Professor of Defence Studies and Director NISDA along with Research Associates of NISDA.
The discussion of over one and a half hours revolved around the perspectives to bring closer the academia, the public organizations of government and the society at large. It was agreed that there was an urgent need to bridge the gap between the realm of ideas (the university system) and the domain of the public policy making (public organizations including government).
All present endorsed increased participation of the Universities in India not only in Strategic Studies and Public Policy studies but also in the other wide ranging areas of defence production, research and development in government and private organizations related to defence needs, international negotiations on defence related procurements and production facilities etc. Professor Gowarikar expressed strong views regarding the various decisions that were taken by the Government related to import of defence products. With his enormous experience and intimate understanding, Mr. K. Subrahmanyam gave deep insights into contemporary national security issues and explained the process of governmental decision making on strategic issues in India.
Professor Ashok Kolaskar, Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University felicitated Mr. K. Subrahmanyam on this occasion.
Discussion on Indo-US Defence Relationship (23rd July 2005)
NISDA held a seminar on the “New Framework for US-India Defence Relationship The Defense Framework” The main speaker, Lt. Gen Joshi (Retd), admittedly adopted a subjective stand that covered the nuances of the emerging relationship. Gen Joshi underlined the fact that the defence pact was not custom-built for India and it was yet another example of the US worldview safeguarding US exceptionalism. While the tenor of Gen. Joshi’s was that of a cautiously critical skepticism, the discussion that followed brought out several positive aspects of the emerging relationship. Prof. Gautam Sen indicated that we should take note of a major paradigm shift that has taken place in that he pointed out that for the first time in the Prime Ministers statement in the US following the signing of Indo-US defence framework, there is no advocacy of ideas, but there is an intellectual fervour to influence the western world to agree that the voice and the opinion of the largest democracy in the world cannot be left unheard or not taken seriously. The Chairperson, Shri Ram Pradhan said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush have taken the bilateral relationship to a new level, the implications of which will be clear only when the PM presents the details in the Parliament. The participants concurred that Indo-US relations would move from a dialogue on constructive engagement to one of truly interdependent partners.
Executive Summary
According to Lt. Gen, Joshi, the pact covers five aspects of the new Defence relationship. These are: commonly shared values and beliefs, common interests, modes of cooperation, a three-tier structure for mobilizing cooperation and pure mechanics for implementing the pact. He highlighted that the belief in political and economic freedom, democratic institutions, rule of law, security and opportunity around the world could easily be interpreted to suit US national interests more than India’s national interest. Similarly, the convergence of interests in maintaining security and stability, defeating terrorism and violent religious extremism, prevention of the spread of weapons of mass destruction and protecting the free flow of commerce via land, air and sea-lanes have a clear potential of tending towards divergence since the immediate concerns of the two countries in each of the issue-areas vary significantly.
Many participants vouched for a cautious approach in the implementation of the pact especially with regard to the implications of bypassing multilateral forums, setting up of a multipolar world and strengthening relationship with neighbouring and other developing countries. They emphasized that India should display the ability to discern between regional and global issues, between her national interest, which will be served in her relationship with Russia and China, and where there is a convergence of interests with other states, as in the case of the fight against terrorism. Several probable divergences were highlighted during the discussion. For instance, the US method of dealing with terrorism in the Islamic world was considered inappropriate for the Indian subcontinent, which is home to nearly 450 million Muslims. Agreements on non-proliferation could also pit the two countries on opposite sides of the table. Moreover, in the case of nuclear technology, US has stopped producing nuclear power plants for electrical energy, while we need Thorium based fast breeder reactors (FBR), which they cannot give us. So this will only mean that they will get to observe and supervise our nuclear power plants, like the Plutonium based one in Trombay. Their defence deals will be more along the lines of license production, but is not likely to bring about transfer of technology. In the area of economic linkages, the US will be in a position to define what the ‘free-market’ for India should be. The pact will also effect our relations with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is gradually combining economic and security issues.
On the other hand, many present viewed the defence pact as a new window of opportunity that would bring together two of the world’s largest democracies. They argued that India had been vying hard for the last half century to establish a strategic link with the US. The emergent global environment provided the background for such a relationship. Each side has signed this document in pursuance of its self-interest and will interpret it accordingly. Deviations in pursuit of self-interest may be expected from either side. Indian leaders have done a creditable job in extracting concessions from the US in the strategic domain without giving away too much in an otherwise unequal power relationship. Since India is a declared nuclear weapon state, permitting transparency into our nuclear plants generating power for civilian use would have little adverse fallout. This document and the subsequent joint communiqué issued by the Prime Minister and the US President give a new orientation to the Indian foreign policy.
Again on a positive note they noted that USA’s shift of focus is deliberate. During a Discussion Group Proceeding organized by Prof. Stephen Cohen approximately three years ago, he had stated that it was in the interest of the US to make India into a “major power” to counter a possible “threat” from a Sino-Russian alliance over the next decade or so. Yet others pointed out that the US is building partnerships with India, EU, Russia, Japan and China as part of its effort to build a 6-power world. The US needs places for investment, human capital for employment and energy. So cooperation in these three areas will be mutually beneficial. We will also get R&D for pharmaceuticals and nuclear material. So the defence agreement must be seen in the context of the larger agreements.
The Chairperson for the session, Shri Ram Pradhan was of the view that national interests guide national policies and relations between countries are continuously evolving. The US has moved from isolationism to active involvement in certain regions of the world. India has always regarded the US as a natural ally in its task of nation building. However, US policy of building regional military alliances and India’s determination to remain non-aligned led to divergence of their relationship in defence matters. India’s growing relationship with the Soviet Union in economic and defence fields made the Indo-US relations static. It was during the Clinton era that USA decided to explore placing Indo-US relations on a different footing in order to create new power equation to face China emerging as a super power. India was looked upon as a possible axis along with Russia.
Note: If you desire to get a copy of the transcript of the deliberation of each participant, kindly request us at nisda@unipune.ernet.in. NISDA will be happy to send you the same by e-mail only.
The list of Participants
There were 29 participants including resident scholars of the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Faculty members of the Savitribai Phule Pune University and other distinguished invitees.
Speaker: Lt. Gen. Ashok Joshi, (Retd.) Former Shivaji Chair Professor Of Policy Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Chair: Shri Ram Pradhan, Former Union Home secretary, Government of India and former Governor.
• Col. Kapil Arya Resident Scholar (RS) in Department of Defence and Strategic Studies (DDSS).
• Prof. Ram Bapat, Professor of Political Science.
• Col. Bijay, RS in DDSS.
• Gp Capt S.G. Chitnis (Retd), Secretary, Centre for Advance Strategic Studies (CASS), an NGO located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Prof. A.S. Dalvi, Head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Air Marshall A R Ghandhi (Retd)
• Col. Sanjay Holey, RS in DDSS.
• Shri Bhagwan Joshi, Former Secretary Government of India and Financial Advisor to Ministry of Defence.
• Shri. M.R. Joshi, Former Director R & D Engineers, Dhigi, Pune.
• Col. Virendra Kapoor (Retd), Director Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management, Pune.
• Lt. Gen. H.M. Khanna (Retd), Former Northern Army Commander during Kargil Operations, and former Shivaji Chair Professor Of Policy Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Dr. Vijay Khare, DDSS, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Air Marshal Dr. S. Kulkarni (Retd), Director, Centre for Advance Strategic Studies (CASS), an NGO located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Col. Ajay Kumar, Resident Scholar (RS) in DDSS.
• Air Marshall Y.V. Malse (Retd.)
• Air Chief Marshall H. Moolgavkar (Retd), Former Chief of the Air Staff.
• Admiral J.G. Nadkarni (Retd), Former Chief of the Naval Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
• Lt. Gen. R.K. Nanavatty (Retd) Former Northern Army Commander.
• Prof. P.V. Panat, Professor Of Physics, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Lt. Gen. Vinayak Patankar (Retd)
• Prof. Shrikant Paranjpe, Professor of Defence & Strategic Studies, DDSS.
• Col. K.D.Pendharkar, RS in DDSS.
• Col. Lalit Rai, RS in DDSS.
• Maj. Gen. B.N. Rao (Retd), Former Shivaji Chair Professor of Policy Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Prof. Gautam Sen, Sawarkar Chair Professor and Director NISDA, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
• Air Marshall A.K. Trikha (Retd), Former Commandant of the National Defence Academy and presently Chair Professor of Air Power and National Security Studies at NISDA.
• Prof. Rajendra Vora, Head Department of Political Science, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
