Indian War Cabinet 2018

Indian War
Cabinet 2018
PROCEDURAL
GUIDE
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By virtue of being a War Cabinet, a natural sense of urgency shall prevail in the committee.
Therefore, we will not limit ourselves to complicated rules of procedure. As such, you as
members of the Cabinet shall decide your own procedure, keeping in mind that procedure is
meant to facilitate debate and not hinder it. Nevertheless, certain guidelines are to be followed
at all time.
HIERARCHY
An important thing to remember is that unlike UN committees, all members of the War
Cabinet are not equal. There exists an order of ranking or hierarchy within the committee, and
delegates are expected to be aware of it and respect it. While there exists no diplomatic
courtesy in a War Cabinet, disrespecting a higher ranking official is not something which will be
taken lightly
For example, unlike the Executive Board of a UN committee (where they hold mere facilitating
powers), the Prime Minister is the highest authority in committee and all actions decided upon
by the committee must be approved by him.
The following is the hierarchy of the Indian War Cabinet:
Prime Minister
Defence Minister
Chief of Army Staff
Chief of the Air Staff
Chief of Naval Staff
Secretary (Research)
Director, IB
National Security Advisor
Minister of External Affairs
Minister of Finance
Minister for Home Affairs
Director General – ITBP
Commander-in-Chief Strategic Forces Command
Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command
Tier 0
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 1
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 2
Tier 2
Tier 2
Tier 2
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 3
Tier 3
DEBATE
As mentioned previously, there exists no fixed rules of procedure, and portfolio holders shall
be devising their own rules of procedure. However, the generic format of debate followed can
be thought of as a cross between a Moderated Caucus and an Unmoderated Caucus.
DOCUMENTATION AND PROOF
All sources of information in committee will be open to debate and interpretation, unless
otherwise stated by the Prime Minister or Defence Minister. Official documentation coming
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from the President’s Office or the PMO shall be treated as proof, while information emanating
from all other sources will be debatable.
PORTFOLIO AND ROLE
It is important that all portfolio holders conduct thorough research not just into the post which
they hold, but also into the character of the person that they represent. While any single person
or portfolio holder cannot have a ‘foreign policy’, a lot of importance is stressed upon being
able to play the role of the person you are to perfection.
It is also important to know which aspect of debate falls under the ambit of which official. For
example, all queries and arguments stemming from intelligence are the prerogative of the
Director, IB and Secretary (Research). Similarly, military capacity and implications will be the
prerogative of the Chiefs of Staff. External affairs will naturally be handled by the Minister for
External Affairs, and so on.
Another area which needs to be researched is the history of your respective offices. You need
to be aware of what actions have been taken in the past, and more importantly, how far your
mandate extends and allows you to take action.
ACTIONS
1) Directives: Directives would need the unanimous support of the council and the
approval of the Prime Minister and Defence Minister to pass, and would carry specific
instructions to carry out specific tasks.
2) Statements: Statements can be released at any time through the Prime Minister’s Office,
and would be visible to the entire world in the form of press releases.
3) Communications: These can be sent to one or more embassies of other countries, or to
specific departments of the Indian government or military, conveying updates, stands,
and developments in debate.
CONTINUAL CRISIS COMMITTEE
A continual crisis committee basically means that we are meeting specifically for the purposes
of a crisis, and as such, the crisis will continue to develop around us. Regular updates will be
received in committee, upon which debate shall be based.
The distinguishing facet of a CCC is that with every update, there is always a possibility of a
time jump. For example, if we begin on January 1, 2018, and subsequently an update is
received of incursions by China on January 17th, 2018, then the next session of the War Cabinet
will resume on the January 17th itself. We will thus have made a time jump, owing to the fact
that we are in a continual crisis.