Indian War Cabinet 2018 PROCEDURAL GUIDE 1 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 2 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.