Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the top commanders of the three defence forces at the Combined Commanders’ Conference at Kevadia in Gujarat on Saturday.

For the first time, 30 junior commissioner officers (JCOs) and jawans from the tri-services will take part in the conference to be addressed by Modi.

A defence ministry statement said the apex-level military leadership of the country would review the security situation and defence preparedness of the armed forces and deliberate on organisational issues for evolving a joint military vision in the three-day conference that began on Thursday.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh addressed the conference on Friday.

“I spoke on a wide range of issues pertaining to the defence and security of the nation, the emerging nature of military threats, the critical role of the Armed Forces in meeting these challenges and the nature of warfare in future,” Singh said in a tweet.

“In a major change from the past, the scope of the conference this year has been expanded to make it a multi-layered, interactive, informal and informed event with the added participation of about 30 officers and soldiers of various ranks from the three services,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

Sources said the suggestion to include JCOs and jawans came from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Colonel (retd) Ajai Shukla said in a tweet; “Are we a neo-Nazi republic? A civilian prime minister starts appearing in public in combat fatigues, and insisting that enlisted ranks participate in commanders’ conferences! This constitutes bypassing the chain of command. Why are the chiefs silent?”