Saffron, olive-green and tricolor.

India has a new army chief. Well, sort of. Are you an army chief if your predecessor is still in uniform, sitting above you, waiting to usurp your powers in an unfixed, rapidly mutating political environment? If you look closely, it is a clever scheme. Create uncertainty through division. Divide and rule. And while it is true that General MM Naravane heads the army organogram, his predecessor General Bipin Rawat ascends to a newly minted tri-service leadership position. The terms of reference of the newly created post of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) are interesting. They are supposed to be. Ajit Doval wrote them. If truth be told it is a clever spin on the old position at the top of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Some additional powers have been thrown into the mix by renaming the Department of Defence within the Ministry of Defence as the Department of Military Affairs and making the CDS the head of the department. But that is not the clever part. It is the standard run of the mill game of reorganising bureaucracy and calling it something new. Sir Humphrey Appleby be praised.

The clever bit is this. On March 16 this year, General Rawat reaches the age of superannuation. So, he would have to retire by then. Hence the by-laws were amended to offer the new CDS relaxation till the age of 65. With me so far? So, he can stay in this office for slightly over three years and three months, right? Well, he can. Doesn't mean he will. Why? Because the author of the appointment letter forgot to mention his term in office. He serves until further notice. So, you get a temporary reprieve for now but one toe out of line, buddy boy, and you have had it. After rank flattery, helping Modi win election by turning his force into a vehicle of election campaigning, abandoning the families and relatives of his service members from minority communities and throwing the Indian secular Constitution into the bin, the general who was elevated to the position of chief of army staff by abandoning the well-established seniority principle still remains a puppet on a single string. Ready to be cut loose at the most minor display of infraction. And the presence of this puppet is enough to keep the three services chiefs, especially the COAS, permanently insecure, on their toes, occasionally even on their knees.

Consequently, General Naravane, a gallant Maratha, has been on message since the assumption of his office. And that is to be expected. He was appointed the vice...