Lt Gen
Harwant Singh
In a
developing economy, rapid industrialization and a country well on the road to
prosperity, preference for government jobs tends to decline. This has not
happened in India so far due to a number of reasons. One, government jobs offer
unmatched security of employment, two, seniority overrides merit, three,
mediocrity prospers, promotions are plentiful and finally, there is much rent
to be collected with minimum risk. Government employees have still not shed the
colonial era hang-ups of being masters and not public servants: ego and false
notions of status persists.
Within
the ambit of government jobs, military has lost most of its shine, because
hardly any of the pluses of government jobs apply to this service. Economically
well placed democracies offer many incentives and perks to make military
service attractive and somewhat competitive with other job avenues, so as to
draw on the right material. As opposed to this, in India, sustained attempts
have been made to make this service more and more unattractive, by
disadvantaging it in every possible way. Even after spending much money on T V
advertisements and lowering of intake standards ( in recently held promotion
tests 80 percent of officers failed in Part B and D examinations )
military has not been able to fill its huge deficiencies in the officer cadre(
approximately 24 percent ).
As
country’s economy further improves, less suitable candidates will come forward
to join the military but instead will be attracted to lucrative jobs from a
wide range of other options, where the intelligent and the more ambitious can
realize their full potential. This relegation of military as a
profession, which bears on the quality of intake into officer cadre, will
eventually impact our ability to face future security challenges: internal and
external. Merely modernising and upgrading equipment and weapons systems,
building defence infrastructure etc, will be of little avail, if those who have
to strategise and exploit to the optimum their potential, lead troops into
battle, do not measure upto future demands of national security.
Much
before the Second World War, American government wanted to prune down the
defence expenditure by cutting down the strength of officer cadre by 12000.
Speaking before the Senate, General Douglas MacArthur, the greatest general in
American history said, “ If you want to cut every thing out of the National
Defence Act, the least element should be the officer Corps. If you have to
discharge every soldier, if you have to do away with everything else, I would
still professionally advise you to keep those 12000 officers. They are the
mainspring of the whole mechanism; each one of them would be worth a thousand
men at the beginning of a war. They are the only ones who take this
heterogeneous mass and make it homogeneous group. ” Incidentally Indian
army is short of 12000 or so officers.
Persistently
down grading of the military by the government and taking pot shots at it by
all and sundry, is considered fair game. If the Army Chief talks of good
governance, some MPs, which included later day defence minister, want him
sacked. ( this was when quarter of a million of his troops were deployed to
ensure minimum governance in many parts of the country.) If the service chiefs
stands up for their officers and troops against the vagaries of the 6th
Pay Commission and the Committee of Secretaries, as a compulsively moral
obligation and command commitment, an editor-in-chief of a national newspaper
wants them sacked. Yes sacked and no less! For these so called liberals and
their warped and constricted understanding of democracy, the civilian control
of the military only means, ‘not to reason why, --!’
When
asked whether Indian Army can do a ‘Geronimo’( elimination of
Osama-bin-laden) the Army Chief, says yes, ( without naming target/country )
the press and a whole lot of others are at his throat. Raising the issue of his
date of birth in public, leaking to the media that government has over-ruled
his visit to attend the biennial conference of Pacific Armies Chiefs does
deliver grievous blows to the institution of the Chief. This periodic
targeting the chief greatly irks the serving and veterans. When the
home secretary makes a statement, almost sabotaging Foreign Minister’s visit to
Pakistan, there is not a whisper in the media or the government! We do
have some strange notions of an Army Chief’s functioning in the Indian
democracy. On the other hand consider this.
When
British government decided to send troops for the invasion of Iraq, Sir
Michael Boyce, Chief of Defence Staff of U.K demanded an unequivocal
statement from the government that the invasion was lawful, without it, Boyce
felt, his troops could lay themselves open to charges of war crimes. Figure an Indian
army chief demanding anything even remotely close to such a requirement and do
visualize the storm it would generate and send many an editor into a tail spin,
in the name of civilian control over the military in our special democracy! It
is not only the military’s chief who can be easily targeted, but the military
as an institution is fair game to hunt. Sample only a few.
Due
to periodic transfers, children’s education suffers immensely. To
overcome this drawback, military started own schools and a number of
professional colleges. Now the Honb’le Supreme Court has ruled that admission
into military's professional colleges be opened to civilian children too. Why
then should the military run such colleges! It is surely not military’s job to
run colleges for other than its own wards, whose education suffers due to
extreme turbulence in their schooling.
CAG has
objected to military having golf courses in the cantonments on its own land (
class A land ) and that golf is not a recognized game! Surely the military can
use its vacant land in the manner it feels best and also the games its officers
can and need play. It is military authorities concern and responsibility to
ensure that their officers remain physically fit and mentally alert. The CAG
may not know, but his better half would, who is an avid golfer and plays
regularly at the Air force Golf Course, that there is a golf course in the
President’s Estate in New Delhi.
The
government (MoD ) wants to gain control over units and formations private
funds. Government created a department in the MoD for the Welfare of
ex-servicemen with no one from the defence services on its staff. The attitude
of the staff in this department towards the veteran is completely negative,
bordering on hostility. At another level their Supreme Commander is in total
denial of the painful experience of veterans returning their medals. Anomalies
pertaining to defence personnel, dating back to 4th Central
Pay Commission are still to be resolved: some two decades later!
These
are few cases out of the numerous where the military faces pinpricking and
neglect. This constant and needless needling and driving the military against
the wall will greatly de-motivate the serving and further dissuade those who
may want to joint military’s officer cadre. The most negative image of the
military as a career is reflected in the condition and the manner of treatment
of veterans by the government. Unless this picture is drastically recast, all
efforts at TV advertisements at great expense are a sheer waste of money.
Authorities continue to remain divorced from reality and therefore, needs
to come alive to the ground situation.
Such
treatment, the inherent drawbacks and travails of military life bears heavily
in selecting military as a career in India. Add to this the risk to life and
limb. With very few promotions which come rather late in service and no
provision for ‘non functional pay’ which is available to all class 1 central
services, few suitable candidates want to opt for the military. Just about 0.02
get up to HAG and HAG Plus Pay Band while on the other hand almost
hundred percent of their equivalents in the civil, make it to these pay bands.
A government, with a bent of mind perpetually bent to downgrade the military in
every possible way and the manner of treating the institution of the army
chief and the veterans, does contribute immensely in making this service so
very unattractive.
However
here we are concerned with making the best of a bad situation and work out
means and methods to redraw the contours of officer cadre so as to attract,
whatever could be termed as suitable material with the lowest possible
acceptable standard. There is the need to recast the officer cadre with much
larger Short Service Commission officers. ( SSC ). This will not only, some
what improve the career prospects of the regular cadre officers, but in the
long run will be economical to the state and the army’s cutting edge will
remain young and vibrant. The right material can only be drawn if this cadre is
made really attractive.
The
intake into the SSC should be between 17 to 19 years age and after a short
spell of 6 months intensive training, serve for a period of 5 years. Since they
are to serve for a short period, their standard at intake has to be rather high
for them to fulfill tasks that are likely to be assigned to them and their
subsequent assured rehabilitation. This should be done by taking 10 to 15
percent ( after some entrance test ) into the civil services, another 10 to 15
percent into the CPOs and around 10 percent offered regular commission. Another
10 to 15 percent should be given free education at IITs/IIMs/medical colleges (
depending on suitability ) with a stipend of minimum of Rs 30000/ per month and
the balance admitted into military’s own professional colleges and given free
education and stipend, much of which would get adjusted against gratuity.
It
is through such incentives, particularly in the field of higher education, that
the U.S. army is able to draw on the right material and keep the deficiency in
its officer cadre in the military down to around 3 percent. These young
officers, with their military background and training, when absorbed into
various fields such as civil services/CPOs/business/ industry etc, will be able
to bring about, in these fields, change for the better. Military life offers
unique opportunities to a young officer to develop leadership skills, learn to
innovate and operate and deliver under extreme stress. They also learn to live
with risks to their lives and are well adapted in converting adversities into
opportunities. Once such a scheme is implemented, nation will be able to draw
benefit from this disciplined and dedicated pool of talent, while army’s
shortages in the officer cadre will be made up to quite an extent.
Courtesy:
The Tribune, August 14, 2010
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