Issue 44 Vol II, July 31, 2007

A N A L Y S I S

Messing up the Armed Forces
Gobind Thukral

There is an old Punjabi song. “Mud aa lama to, sanu ghera bada rozgar, mud aa lama to, ve kanka nissar paain …” [Come back from the battle fields, there is enough work to live by; farms are full of maturing wheat]. The song was essentially for peace and against war. It is still relevant to the present torn and blood soaked world. With America leading the pack of nations into wars or war like environment all the time and heavy defence spending, no nation can afford to ignore its defenses. External and internal threats are real and require both defence officers and diplomats to deal with. Since independence Indian army has been called a number of times to defend the nation; wars with Pakistan in 1948, 1965 and 1971 apart, there was an unexpected big war with China in 1962. Worst have been the internal insurgencies, Nagaland since 1952 and rest of the North East including Tripura. All still on the boil. There was always Kashmir and Punjab too fell into the lap of the armed forces in 1984, causing a great deal of internal tribulations for the armed forces.

But Punjabis love for soldiery is now limited to lower ranks where boys from poor families with no other choices, opt for military services. Latest figures with the Union Public Service Commission show that among cadets for the National Defence Academy this year Punjab’s  share was just 1.5 per cent against 28 per cent of Uttar Pradesh. Even Bihar and Madhya Pradesh had more share. Wards from traditional armed forces families were no longer opting for the forces. Government admits that majority of the aspirants who seek commission in the armed forces do not measure up to the requisite standards. These can not be lowered as in case of civil services. There is acute paucity of officers for all three service wings. Figures presented in Parliament in April this year show, as many as 14,165 posts of officers and 20,432 posts of Personnel Below Officer Rank are at present vacant in the armed forces. The number of vacant posts of officers in the Navy and Air Force is 1,399 and 1,528, respectively. Similarly, in the case of other ranks, 3,665 and 16,767 posts are vacant in the Navy and Air Force, respectively. But none in case of Army. A report by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence released in May admitted: “Certainly it appears that with the present service conditions that the defence services are able to offer, we are not able to attract best of the youth."

These are the prospects in job market and conditions in the armed forces that decide the choices. Job wise educated young men would prefer other professions where there are lucrative offers. They would rather become doctors, engineers or marketing and management experts than to put on the uniforms and display stars on their lapels. To this has added the dire situation in the armed forces. Life was always hard and dangerous for the armed forces, but unfair and blinkered attitude of the Indian government and its defence establishment in pay scales, working facilities like housing, and schooling of their wards, postings and promotions has reduced the attraction of the armed forces. In a country of 110 crore people where armed forces number only 11 lakhs, there is an acute shortage of 14,000 offices and 35,000. Army is seriously under staffed. As against requirement of at least 22 officers in a regiment only 10 to 14 are available. This means more burden of the serving officers and fatigue. Postings in insurgency torn areas of Kashmir or North Eastern India come too often and these last more than the stipulated tenures. At times one officer gets posted up to five to six times before he attains the rank of a colonel. The officers sleep with guns in the hands where they encounter the unknown enemy any time of the day or night in atrocious terrains and hostile weather. There are no holidays. Steal some rest and be on the move. Forget about days or nights. Just remember that enemy is around and you could face the bullet anytime.

Though the Indian army has not fought a full-blown war since 1971, it is bogged down in fighting insurgencies, guarding restive borders and often quelling civilian riots. Unrest created by our worthy politicians is pushed into the lap of the army like the recent gujjar agitation in Rajasthan. Why can not this be left to police or Para military forces? Add the natural calamites or man made disasters; armed forces must come to the aid of a corrupt and inefficient civil administration. A roof falls in a Chandigarh market, the administration calls in army. Floods and earth quakes are routine duties of the armed forces. Since civil administration exists either on paper or comes to life to make a quick buck, the burden on the armed forces as it happened during earth quake in Kashmir doubles up. Offices and jawans cut their own ration and pooled money from their packets to provide relief. Lolab and Kupwara and other areas in Kashmir valley tell their own tales.

Peace time postings are shadowy even when there is no war around. And, there are little facilities around. Worst are the housing shortage and schools for children.  And when officers and jawans sit back and compare their ever thinning pay packets, they feel the real pinch. Even if these are not compared with heavy pay packets in information and technology or business management areas, these compared with the civil administration. Successive pay commissions have made service in the armed forces so unattractive that there continues to be a deficiency of over 35,000 officers and men in the services. Between 2001 and 2004, more than 2,000 officers applied to leave the Army. These included two lieutenant generals, 10 major generals and 84 brigadiers. With better prospects in the private sector, more than one thousand scientists have resigned from the Defence Research and Development Organisation over the last five years.

Suicides along with fratricides tell their own sad tale about the working of the army. It is absurd to argue that level of suicides in army is less than the civil society. It is a way to escape from a serious problem. In fact, the Indian army is losing more soldiers in these incidents than in action against the enemy. It lost 72 soldiers to enemy attacks so far this year. But over 100 soldiers have already taken their lives. In addition, another 32 have been killed by their colleagues. 408 soldiers have taken their lives, killed colleagues or died after colleagues ran amok since 2004. 333 of these killed themselves.

The army is indeed worried about this disconcerting trend. These Frayed nerves senior officers admit are worrisome.  Army claims to be strengthening formal and informal interaction between soldiers and officers. Leave policy, especially for soldiers posted in difficult areas, has being liberalised so that a soldier can go home to sort out his domestic problems.

Unhappy with the poor compensation and lack of understanding shown by the succeeding pay commissions, the three services have for the first time come together to demand their due. Currently the Sixth Pay Commission is engaged in revising the pay and allowances of central government employees, including armed forces personnel. The services are seeking a five-fold increase over their existing salaries to attract recruits and to check the growing exodus of officers. Would the government do something before it too late?

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India elects a female president
Swaraj Singh
Pratibha Patil will become India's first woman president after winning a comprehensive election victory, Indian officials say.

Mrs Patil, 72, won nearly two-thirds of votes cast in state assemblies and in India's parliament, they said.

The former governor of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan described her win as "a victory of the people".

Mrs Patil's supporters say her election to the largely ceremonial role will be a boost to millions of Indian women.

"I am grateful to the people of India and the men and women of India and this is a victory for the principles which our Indian people uphold," the Reuters news agency quoted her as saying.

But correspondents say some of her critics have described her as a political lightweight.

Mrs Patil emerged as a surprise, last-minute candidate after left-wing parties in the Congress-led coalition opposed the Congress Party's first choice.

She was backed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, but was mocked by opponents and by some sections of India's media.

Balancing role

Mrs Patil has courted controversy, recently telling a Muslim congregation that the veil was introduced to protect their women from Mughal invaders, a comment she later retracted.

She also faced allegations that a bank she helped set up gave out cheap loans to her relatives before it folded up.

The Congress Party has rejected those allegations and was highly critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition candidate, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an 83-year-old party veteran.

The presidency is largely a ceremonial post, but plays a key role with a fragmented electorate often throwing up precariously placed coalition governments.

Around 4,500 MPs and state legislators were eligible to vote in the election.

Mrs Patil will succeed A P J Abdul Kalam, a popular missile scientist, as president.

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