At the time Op Kartikeya was being written the Government of India (GOI) was carrying out a comprehensive review of India's security environment. Ever since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to hold office, they had promised to accord high priority to the country's defence needs. Part of the promise was fulfilled by the nuclear explosions at Pokharan. Kargil prompted a further push in this line of thinking. The creation of a National Security Advisor, the integration of intelligence services under the National Security Advisory Board, and the publication of India's nuclear doctrine were all steps in the right direction. There was also a crying need for a similar integration for the Indian Armed Forces.
Following the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee (and a report by the group of ministers) the NDA government proposed to create a Defence Staff Headquarters (DSHQ) with numerous joint commands and a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) at its head. The CDS would serve as a single-point military adviser to the GOI, whether in a crisis or for peacetime planning. Due to inter-service rivalry and political fears, what we got eventually was a watered down integrated Defence Staff Headquarters and a Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CIDS). The appointment of a CDS has been postponed indefinitely.
The DSHQ as portrayed in Op Kartikeya has no similarity to the above. For one all commands, save one, are located at a single underground structure in the outskirts of Delhi. Secondly the DSHQ has operational control over the lone AWACS aircraft, since it straddles all three environments (air, land, water) and is useful to all three services. This is unlikely to happen in reality. Thirdly personnel from the three service headquarters (and from their regional commands) can be attached with the DSHQ to help plan and execute operations for their relevant service. In this manner the service chiefs have a sense of active participation in the joint operations. This too is a stretch but fits in nicely with the flow of the story.
The fears of the CDS becoming a defence supremo, of the DSHQ having rifts with the three service headquarters, and of inter-service rivalry have been shown to occur but in the interests of the story such temporary ripples are quickly smoothed over. The reader is free to decide the merits of each argument.
