Daily News and Analysis (DNA) had published a thought provoking OPed by
former Vice Chief Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi titled ‘Take turbulence in the ranks
seriously’.
Col Karan Kharab (Retd) responds and follows it up through his
guest post ‘Suicides in the Army, diagnosis and remedy’.
The views expressed are not of this blogger.
The views expressed are not of this blogger.
Take turbulence in the
ranks seriously
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (Retd)
Three incidents of collective indiscipline by jawans in the last
few months, reflecting a breakdown in the traditionally close officer-man relationship,
are a cause for concern, especially as all three of them are related to combat
units, where a stable and healthy officer-man relationship is an article of
faith.
The Indian Army, with a justifiably proud record of service to the
nation, has always placed officers-men bonding at the highest level.
In the past, the army has handled such incidents with compassion
and firmness. Such incidents will no doubt happen again. However, there is need
for comprehensive remedial actions. We must not succumb to a tendency of being
simplistic, like attributing such incidents to recent cases of corruption
amongst a few senior officers. Such attributions are obviously absurd, as these
are two vastly different issues. The need is actually to focus on command and control,
discipline and officer-man relationships.
In combat units, a thorough knowledge of jawans by their officers
is a must. Included in this are the jawans’ capabilities and limitations; what
enthuses or dampens their spirits; their backgrounds as well as of their
families; and whether they are team persons or loners. Earlier, senior unit
officers acted as guides and mentors in this respect. Unfortunately, on account
of the huge shortage of officers in combat units today, as well as the large
number of tasks assigned to the few available officers, it is virtually
impossible for them to spare time to do so now.
The main reason for this state of affairs is the prolonged
employment in fighting insurgents and terrorists over decades now, which have
taken stress and fatigue to extremely high levels. These operations are
extremely difficult and full of tension, especially on account of scrupulously
adhering to human rights norms.
A major caveat of the army’s secondary role of assisting the civil
administration is that it must be released as soon as the task is over, but in
counter-insurgency operations there appears to be no end state! There has been
no insurgency in the north eastern states for many years now, but neither the
states concerned nor the central government want to release the army. In
J&K, the situation has improved vastly, but the police forces are not in a
position to assume control. The army’s reasoning that the situation will
deteriorate rapidly if the army is de-inducted is sound, but why are the police
forces not being made capable?
While the government must squarely take the blame for this state
of affairs, the army hierarchy also needs to be blamed for not pursuing it
relentlessly.
There are also three other issues that need to be tackled by the
government. The first is deliberately downgrading the esteem and importance of
the military by successive governments. This has resulted in our soldiers
becoming greatly disillusioned not only with the government officials but, what
is worse, also with their own officers, who are being viewed as devoid of any
power, as civil and police officials studiously ignore requests from commanding
officers relating to various problems of soldiers projected by them. This is in
stark contrast to earlier times when the civil officials responded with
alacrity when a commanding officer wrote to them about the personal or
collective problems of his jawans. This aspect needs immediate improvement by
good governance and by educating the officials.
Soldiers’ lay their lives on the line, not because of the pay or
allowances that they get (which in any case are less than what the equivalent
civil officials receive) but because of their self-esteem and military élan.
These need to be nurtured by the civil administration.
The second and related issue is the military intake. Although
recruitment rallies draw large numbers, the reason is no longer pride in
joining the military but massive unemployment, resulting in inferior manpower
joining the military. In the case of officers, young men from traditional
military families are no longer enthused with the forces. The main reason is
the decline of respect for the military.
The last point is the treatment of the veterans. The government
needs to understand that the policy of ignoring those who have served the
nation sacrificing their all will be a disaster in the long run. Future
generations will not heed the call of the bugle when they see neither respect
nor adequate financial benefits being given to the veterans. The present indifference
and callousness must end.
Will Delhi wake up?
The writer is a former
Vice Chief of Army Staff.
Suicides in the Army – Diagnosis and Remedy
Col Karan Kharb (Retd)
Something
very sinister is around. Operational
stress and official neglect are taking their toll in soldiers committing
suicides and protesting in a mutinous manner. Whereas step-motherly treatment
meted out by the Sixth Pay Commission to the Armed Forces is one of the reasons
for the falling morale, persistent indifference shown by the Government has
also added to the discontent. Even more saddening is the fact that the Military
authorities too have been brushing aside the malaise within. Recently, Lt Gen
Vijay Oberoi, former Vice Chief of Army Staff presented his diagnosis of the problem
in an article. Here are some additional
inputs.
Downgrading Esteem
and Importance of Military
Halos are extinct and
larger-than-life images have shrunk to real-life size everywhere in modern
times. The so-called all-powerful bureaucrats are being shunted around from one
post to another like shuttlecocks at the whims and fancies of political bosses.
Their careers alternate between witch-hunt and reward depending upon what kind
of political boss they get to serve under. Sunk in depravity, our politicians
have suffered their loss of image and credibility too. Nobody now buys pictures
of these leaders to display in homes or offices until official rules compel to
do so. Within themselves too, the same chair brightens or dims differently
under different occupants. World’s most qualified Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
compares atrociously with under-matriculate Indira Gandhi. Time was when
magnitudes of humanity poured to have glimpse of Nehru but not any longer.
What has survived,
however, is people’s abiding love and respect for the sincere, able, honest and
courageous leaders. They become icons of popular hope and respect. Oddly, some
of them come from the same rotten environment that media and people – we
included – hate and abuse for all our problems today – the bureaucracy. Agreed,
those who choose to defy the Establishment and follow the dictates of their
conscience are not many. Yet, we can see that those who did stood up and
changed the course of things drew public applause like TN Sheshan, E Sreedharan,
Vinod Rai, Kiran Bedi to name a few. In an even more degenerative field of
politics too, we do have a crop, however miniscule, of off-beat progressive
leaders like Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar.
Military in India has
been somehow shy of public exposure – a mistake that held it back from joining,
leave alone leading, the mainstream freedom struggle despite Netaji’s call for
the INA. Such a stance of aloofness emboldened Nehru and Krishna Menon to treat
the Military nothing more than a workforce that could be employed for
constructing roads and canals even as they doubted its loyalty and feared
coups. Field Marshal Manekshaw is perhaps the only Indian General who did make
a difference in exalting the military reputation. Lately, Gen VK Singh did stand
up boldly enough but the issue he took up first (date of birth) was
unfortunately too small and personal for the position he held. Later of course, he did write boldly to the
Prime Minister and did not hesitate to apprise the people about essentials of
national security.
Unfortunately, the
inter-Services and intra-service feuds are doing the Military more damage than
any politico-bureaucratic dispensation. The day the three Chiefs of Staff of
the Armed Forces stand up jointly as custodians of national security to express
their concern and advice, no Government will dare to brush it aside. Also, taxpayers are entitled to know the
state of their Armed Forces and, therefore, the Chiefs of the Armed Forces
(sorry, I don’t call them ‘Services’) should be required to formally address
the Parliament and inform the people on matters of national security and the
state of defence preparedness. There can be debates and disagreements on the
opinions they express but who, if not they, would be better qualified to speak
about matters of national defence and security? Sadly though, it may be
recalled how an Army Chief was ticked off by a former defence minister for his
remark about the un-demarcated border in Arunachal Pradesh. Likewise, a Vice
Chief of the Army Staff was snubbed by Shushma Swaraj so angrily that just the
next day an apologetic general withdrew his fully justified and well informed
opinion about the handicap of women joining the Army. Had they both reasserted
their stand as professionals without giving in to the bully in the lobby,
military’s image would have been fairly vindicated and credibility enhanced.
Alas, that did not happen.
To sum up, I would
reiterate the comment I made on an earlier occasion: The truth is that abstract
decorations like esteem, image, honour and izzet abhor pleading, and are not
available on request anywhere in the world. Being embellishments of power,
these gems of credit can be only earned by merit or seized by force. Repeated
pleadings will surely get us more sympathy, pity and merciful reportage
though.
‘Inferior
Manpower Joining the Military’
Undoubtedly, the
quality of officer intake has gone down. The quality of jawans, on the other
hand should have only improved with more graduates and technically qualified
youth joining the ranks. Perhaps the crux of the problem lies at the centre of
this matrix where a subordinate views himself academically equal or better
qualified than his boss. Don’t we see a shade of this attitude in the outbursts
of our Olympian celebrity Sub Vijay Kumar? With an increasing number of
officers now hailing from the same socio-economic milieu as their NCOs/OR, the
tradition of officers being ‘friendly but not familiar’ with men stands diluted
while the British legacy of ‘Koi haiy’ sahibs and servile, obsequious followers
has continued despite noticeable resistance. It is good that the Army has
decided to hire civilian sahayaks and other menials in place of
combatants.
I think time has come
when officer-man relationship needs to be redefined so as to weave them into an
integrated whole. Simplistic solutions based on traditional thinking will not
do. A paradigm shift is warranted to
enable higher commanders to view the whole spectrum from a different angle and
discover invisible challenges and opportunities.
The Irony of
‘Shortage of Officers’
In the present
scenario of military operations, maximum load comes on the unit where out of an
average of 22 officers authorised, only 8-10 are posted. Considering those away
on leave and courses out of these, it is 4-5 officers who share the load of 22.
Obviously, these officers, already stressed, have neither time nor energy to
inter-act with their men in sports, training, welfare and leisure time where
they could detect and diffuse discontent, if any.
Oddly enough, above
the unit level there is no deficiency of officers at any headquarters even
though all field formations largely remain static and un-engaged in operations
that are almost always limited to unit/sub-unit level actions. Higher the
headquarters, more the unauthorised attachments! Why? Because the higher boss
needs luxury and the attached finds his haven to the arduous unit tenure, and
also earns a better ACR through influence.
Despite deficiency of
officers, which is alarming by any count, all the pressure of VIP visits (a
euphemism for pleasure trips) comes to rest on the concerned units where
officers and men frantically work round the clock only to earn a ‘shabash’ from
the bara sahib. And imagine the height of hypocrisy displayed by a
‘punctilious’ GOC who, on his insistence, was presented a mess bill of Rs 45/-
for three days of royal revelry organised by a unit for him and his entourage
of personal guests. Clearing it for prompt payment, he said, “I have never left
a guest room without paying the mess bill”. Higher commanders need to
introspect earnestly and seek answers to some straight but pricky questions: Am
I using more man-power and resources than authorised, like Flag Guard,
sahayaks, drivers, vehicles etc? Then
follow your conscience, not necessarily the rulebook.
Also, the higher
commanders need to restrain themselves from meddling in unit affairs. Too much of curiosity and eagerness to
address Durbars, meet individual officers and JCOs and listen to their problems
is an intrusion into the CO’s domain which must be strengthened and never
weakened at any cost. Remove and sack a CO, if required, but let the next one
function with freedom and authority.
Likewise, within the unit, COs too have diluted the trust and bondage sub-unit
commanders traditionally had with their JCOs and men. Build the sub-unit
commanders into effective leaders.
Lastly, a question:
The Prime Minister warned the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th
August this year that the economic slowdown posed threats to national security.
Should the custodians of National Security remain silent an inactive when such
crisis is impending? There is risk involved in seeking answer to such grave
questions. But should such risks deter them?
May they find right
answers to mighty questions concerning National Security and move boldly and
diligently in unison. I wish the Indian Armed Forces and the country glorious
times ahead.
Col Karan Kharab was commissioned in the Bihar Regiment and
commanded 21 BIHAR. He was also an instructor in the IMA and had a stint with
the NSG. He can be reached at karankharab [at] gmail.com
