Military men don’t need political clichés, but only basic
needs to perform a professional job
COLONEL R
HARIHARAN @colhari2 |poliics |
Long-form |
04-06-2015
For the past one week the nation saw on TV
news channels vociferous and heated discussions on OROP, an issue that was had
long been ignored. The issue was not discussed on its own merits but because of
its relevance to Prime Minister Modi’s performance score card. So naturally the discussion died down to give
way to the ebullient Delhi Chief Minister put Kejri Act-2 to raise his showdown
with the Lt Governor to a new high. To be fair to some media channels, the
veterans were given space to clear the air on OROP.
Shorn of B grade Bollywood sentiments that
precede all discussions on armed forces, the homespun advice to veterans seemed
to be “if you guys had waited for 40 years, what’s the emergency now?” They did
not seem to remember that many veterans have already died without getting the
long overdue benefits of OROP while the leadership played its numbers game.
It is not wholly the fault of political
leadership at the helm because the nation has left serious discourses on
national security to politicians and bureaucracy with the uniformed men hanging
on the sidelines. With parliamentarians busy in shouting out each other over
non-issues, the question how to get the best out of our armed forces has been
left to languish. Loud three minute outputs in TV news discussions masquerading
as intellectual analyses on core issues are now occupying public space for
informed discussion. Pontificating op-eds
in print media that used do a better job of it are ignored by many looking for
instant gratification.
So our national activity seems to be
focused on trivia ie., sizzling Bollywood or cricket gossip or issues of
national self flagellation ie., secular aberrations of a society structured on
caste preferences in every walk of life.
Oh, I forgot to add Pakistan, which keeps Breaking News every third day!
Fortunately for the politicians and the
media, though not for veterans, OROP promises to drag on for a few more years
as indicated in Prime Minister’s Man ki Baat, though it may lose its media
appeal when Modi’s performance is not reviewed. But, how about other serious
problems affecting the armed forces? The nation needs to seriously introspect,
debate and discuss them as the armed forces are saddled with huge baggage of
issues dragging down their performance and efficiency. The truth is (with due
apologies to Georges Clemenceau, who led France in the First World War) “War is
too serious a matter to be left to generals or politicians” in 21st
Century.
Year after year the nation is spending huge
amounts of hard earned national wealth in the name of security. Warfare
has become highly technology dependent requiring real time up-gradations and
increments of arms and equipment of forces.
This has made armed forces prohibitively expensive to train, maintain
and equip to keep them fit for war. This has made the cost of defending the
nation go up in geometric proportion over the years. Even yesterday’s colonial
powers which reveled in two world wars have become dependent upon collective strength
rather than individual military prowess.
It is high time the nation started asking
the question: are we getting the best value for money spent in the name of
national security and defence? Unfortunately nobody seems to be doing this. In
the hands of politicians, this exercise has become a victim of competitive
politics. Typical example is the fate of General VK Singh’s classified letter
to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh listing out serious deficiencies of the army affecting
their performance written in his capacity as chief of army staff. The immediate
political reaction was to flog the hapless chief for leaking the letter to the
media though it had happened within the bureaucratic hierarchy as revealed
later. But what happened to the issues he raised? The parliament never
seriously analysed and debated them; everyone seemed to be happy with the
certification of the defence minister,who promised to look into it. That most
of the deficiencies Gen VK Singh had raised persist to this day is no secret.
Now the more articulate and better organized defence minister Parikkar has been
left with the unviable job of aberrations compounded over decades of national
lethargy. Even the super efficient Parikkar had to pass the buck to others as
demonstrated in the OROP issue after a whole year of cogitation.
After investing thousands of crores of
rupees of national wealth on security, the nation has to slay the holy cows of
bloated, inefficient establishments guzzling money to make the Defence Research
and Development Organization (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics, tank factories and
ordnance factories into centres of excellence. For this to happen the nation
has to ask hard questions. And that requires serious discussions and dialogue. We
should look for constructive solutions rather than preferring breast beating
over minor aberrations and make believe grievances ignoring gut issues.
Here are some “gut issues” of army. First
is the man behind the gun today. The
jawans of today come from all parts of India and not from oases of “martial
races” that Colonial masters had imagined. He joins the army not because of martial
or feudal traditions but simply because he cannot find a more lucrative
government job. He is generally a product of poor quality public education
which leave him deficient in knowledge and skills. He comes carrying all the
societal aberrations – poor self discipline, immune to violations of basic rights,
poor governance and caste and community prejudices. He has high expectations
from the army to meet the needs of increasingly urbanising consumerist society than
the semi-literate rural yokel of the 60s.
So the army has the difficult job of
ironing out these kinks, impart military skills and motivate him to fight for
his fellow men, unit and nation. In any case the word ‘patriotism’ is passé
now. So you cannot motivate the young soldier with Kipling’s observation “it is
not for us to reason how and why but do and die.” He now needs to have faith in
his weapon, military training and leadership and the cause. We need to provide
him these basics for him to perform.
He is no dummy who will just say ji
huzoor and kowtow. He keeps abreast
of national developments thanks to better literacy and multiple means of
instant communication. So he is no pushover. The world-over modern soldier is questioning
decisions as much as ordinary citizen. And our soldiers are no exception. So he
will react now to mindless decisions or orders.
This has been compounded by the demands
placed on the soldier by society which are
too many for which army cannot prepare him. Modern soldiering requires higher
knowledge levels for effective use of modern battlefield weapons and equipment.
So to train him into a first rate soldier is a huge responsibility and the burden
of army as it is hobbled at every step by our systemic deficiencies in turning
the youth into productive citizens. For instance in my own field of
intelligence, knowledge of electronic transmissions and sensors has become
integral to information gathering which was peripheral in our days. So a higher
level of training is required.
The burden of making an effective soldier
is on the officers of the unit. Many may
not know the army toils for three months a year in training even when units are billeted in
“peace stations” after serving a difficult tenure in mountains.
But the units just do not have enough
officers to do this basic essential minimum. The officer class is perennially
deficient from 15 to 28 percent while the army and the nation continue to
expect the units to deliver the same results without any deficiencies. This
problem has not been adequately addressed by all stakeholders and the quality
of delivery is bound to fall in times of war unless this systemic weakness is resolved.
Unit administration now is different from
the colonial "koi hai" days. It is more complex as class and regional
composition of unit which used to provide motivational veneer is withering away.
So motivation of troops for a common cause has become a tough call. Jawans come
from complex societies which are continuously battered by inequality, caste, religion
and class dogmas, and political gerrymandering. So Patriotism is not enough to
instill pride in them; so like ordinary citizens they look for more tangible
benefits from his job rather than ephemeral causes however prized they are. So
he is unhappy if he is denied the just demands to meet his obligations to the unit,
army and family.
Over the years there is a nagging feeling in
the minds of all those wearing uniform is that the country is simply not
bothered about the armed forces. This feeling runs the highest to the lowest
levels of military hierarchy which more often shows up only when they retire. I
do not see any light at the end of the tunnel to change this scene which has
been shaped by years of neglect. I see no national leader capable of changing
it in limited tenures in power, unless the nation loudly insists on
accountability for defence spending.
Given this background it is surprising that
the intelligentsia expects the army to continue to deliver a high quality of
service when the whole society is not doing so; after all army is the product
of the society. And however much army trains, inevitably it reflects the good
and bad points of society. Despite this
weakness, on a comparative yardstick the Indian army is still performing better
job than all other government services though its help is called for rectify
short term problems.
After training to shoot to kill, the army
is called to fight perennial insurgency in some parts of the country. And the
leadership wants it be done in a politically correct way. The other day former
home and finance Minister P Chidambaram spoke eloquently why AFSPA should be
modified even while troops are called upon to perform essentially civilian
policing jobs. He spoke of a magistrate on spot empowering the soldier to do
the job of handling a menacing mob; then why empower a soldier as done in AFSPA
he asked.
From my own years of experience insurgency
areas, I can assure the suave former minister, the government official is
usually the first guy missing in the scene of action. So where does the soldier
on the spot go looking for the magistrate? He has no option to run away from
the scene of action like the civilian official because it is against his ethos.
So my request to all politicians (who are perhaps smarter than the soldiers who
end up in icy wastes or boiling deserts) is to think through the problems to
find solutions rather than use them to score political brownie points.
But my cynicism is overtaking me when I see
nobody is worried about the armed forces
unless there is a failure or a perceived failure (remember the “army coup”
scoop published in a national daily?). Economist
Keynes said Clemenceau had “one illusion – France; and one disillusion
–mankind, including Frenchmen.” Only substitute India for France and Indian for
Frenchmen and it will reflect my view. Yet I hope the younger generation proves
me wrong by discussing issues hobbling our armed forces from giving their best.
Military men don’t need clichés, but only
basic needs to perform a professional job.
Courtesy:
India Today Opinion portal DailyO
