The current exchanges between the government and the army ask more questions than answers, particularly when both the Minister of Defence and the C-in-C are persons of apparently impeccable records. The difference of opinions between the civilian government and the army assessment has always existed, but it is for the first time that it has been turned into a public debate. Was it accidental, deliberate to create a rift between the army brass and the ruling government or a calculated politically motivated leak is hard to determine, but nothing erupts suddenly into a conflict without a long history of impending warnings.
There were times in the past when an army officer was a considered to be a man of unquestionable integrity and honour. The soldier of any rank was someone who could do no wrong and held a prestige of the highest values for the civilian populations. To join any of the armed forces one had to have a calibre of the highest degree. Considering the many courses that he has to attend during his career an officer is probably as much qualified as any MBA if not more to take over any kind of management function. Why did it all change and come down to a low where the army C-in-C has gone to the SC over a trivial issue of Date of Birth at the fag end of his career and why not much earlier? This cannot be just written off as another round of army-politician standoff, but requires introspection by all of us as a nation.
To understand this better one needs to look into the civilian-army relationship from the past to the present.
Right from the Roman times, it has been a tradition all over the world that the armies always camped away from the cities. No general could enter Rome with his troops. The only one who did so was assassinated in the senate itself. The army was strictly under the Senate with a civilian mandate. This tradition has come down throughout the ages and was inherited by independent India as well. The soldiers remained strictly within their cantonments, where no civilian dared to go without a reason. It was mandatory for them to be in civilian dress when moving within the towns and cities. Except for heinous crimes, the forces had their own form of justice. The quick and fair court martial was virtually the highest judicial system of conviction and synonymous with disgrace. It was considered below the dignity of an officer to appeal against such decisions in a civilian court even when he was within his right to do so. The positive side was that within the officers’ high yardstick of fairness, these were rare and far apart. The soldier had to trust his commander in battle. In turn, the commander had to earn that confidence and only then would the soldier be motivated to die for the country. The unwritten law of all the forces was unequivocal; an army commander could never abandon his men, a pilot hit over enemy territory to go down in his craft after causing the maximum damage and a ship’s captain drown with his ship even when everybody else had abandoned it. None of these values exist in the civilian world.
When Gen. V.K. Singh did not resign after having failed to gain his full objective in the Supreme Court, he only proved to be a weak person. This simple act of his alone might have lowered the morale of those below more than fighting a war with inadequate arms. Verbal claims are not exemplary in the army tradition. Moreover, the timing of his initiation of CBI cases against certain officers, no matter howsoever correct, could not have gone well with the officers in uniform either. There have also been insinuations of his giving uncomplimentary ACR to officers not agreeing with him. An officer in his capacity should have other means of eliminating potential dissenters without making it obvious. A PIL against the appointment of the next chief only affirms one’s doubt whether the affair was not politically or even communally motivated.
Though the army was isolated from the civilians, it also kept it away from the local and national politics. One of the first acts of the civilian government of independent India to assure that the armed forces remained under its mandate was by creating a disparity of salaries between the forces and the bureaucracy, putting the latter on a higher bar than the former particularly among the higher ranks. It took over fifty years to bring them at par again. Today some might wonder whether this was a right move when one looks back at the Chinese war. On the flipside, we have only to look across our borders to realise what this could have resulted into. No country under a military dictatorship has ever been known to progress.
However, many things have changed over the years. The expansions of townships and cities have brought the civilian population to the very fringe of the cantonments and in places such as the capital, even overlapping them. It has not only eroded the awe one had of the uniform but the greedy builders have tried to encroach on their lands wherever they could. It does not require much intelligence to be suddenly faced with such scams within the forces. Minor ones have always existed, which were handled within the army itself. It is only recently that one is faced with major cases of corruption. Considering the length and breadth of the armed forces they are small in contrast with what our politicians have been accused of. Still, given the immaculate reputation that the forces carry, even the slightest blot appears huge in magnitude.
Trained to guard the borders of the nation, the soldier learnt to shoot only to kill unlike the police and other paramilitary forces. The army has been reluctant to take up any deployment to control civil unrest including action in the Maoist infected regions. Many of their soldiers came from the same region and putting them into action there would mean asking them to shoot their own. Only when civilian dispensations have completely broken down is the army called in to take action. Some civilian casualties are bound to be inevitable. The AFSPA must be looked at from a perspective of the larger picture. Operation Blue Star still haunts us almost thirty years later. The government of the day will have to take the responsibility for it not the soldier who merely carries out an order unquestioningly. The soldier who hesitates even for a moment to weigh the pros and cons will only find himself killed sooner than later. The activists may say anything but that is where the case for the army rests.
So far it has only been the Border States where the army has been deployed to fight insurgency. Its refusal to be pulled into it in the heartland only brought out its glaring qualitative difference with the BSF, CRPF and the local police. The latter could neither match them nor the insurgents in both skills and weapons. The Indian political class never upgraded the civilian wings of the law keeping forces in keeping with the requirements of the times. This has been one of the main reasons for the spread of the red zone across so many states apart from the political will. So when the army offered to train the paramilitary forces in jungle warfare, it was a step in the right direction that was long overdue. But it still did not address the fundamental question why the urgent needs of our armed forces have been downplayed? For that we have to look elsewhere.
The difference between the Roman model and ours is that the senators were mostly veteran soldiers, whereas to find one amongst our political class is an aberration. The same is true of the bureaucracy. Even if some came from families with army background, they will be far less in the times to come. As such it is not easy for them to see the general’s point of view in defence preparedness particularly of the ground army. This has always been a point of friction between the forces and their political masters. As much as the civilian governments keep the army isolated within bounds of moral values, they also fear it the most because it is the only one of all the three wings that is capable of a coup. Although this is highly improbable given the Indian federal system and the vast of diversity of the Indian subcontinent, the ruling class fears it more than the armies across our borders. Perhaps nothing gives this a greater conviction than that the Indian Military Academy does not discuss the Bangladesh war as their curriculum while for the rest of the world it is a case history. It is an open secret that no Army Chief has belonged to the truly recognised martial communities until recently; only the air force and the navy have been headed by them. A delay in modernising the army assured that it remained weak. When the Defence Minister made a statement on the floor of the house that delays in defence purchases were to assure that all such purchases were free of corruption, it only affirms this presumption. When one cannot even buy a pin without the involvement of middle men where is the prudence of avoiding one when the defence of the nation is at stake? Belated reports of fast tracking defence purchases could be just as meaningless considering the imbroglios that our bureaucrats are so adept in creating. No matter how much we may pride ourselves of our independence, defence purchases are closely linked to foreign policies. With our research and development proving to be grossly inadequate, there could be little that is secret about our defence preparedness. It is of little consequence that although we look upon ourselves as a world power our forces have lacked the courage of taking the war across to the other side.
It is time that the politician realised that if the army ever wanted it could stage a coup even with half the weapons in it armoury.
So far the Indian army has proved itself as second to none when it came to fighting unequal wars except for the Chinese debacle. Even then, the main reason was the refusal of the civilian government to discern the army concerns and disconnect between the then Defence Minister and the C-in-C. Although still inadequately prepared, the ’65 war was one of individual valour apart from the boosted morale of the civilian population of Punjab. The ’71 war is the best example of the result when Indira Gandhi put her full trust in Sam Maneckshaw. However, over the past many years the army has been faced with a dearth of quality personnel, especially officers. With the opening of the economy more and more are opting for the lucrative civilian jobs and the disciplined army has become the last choice as a career. While it labelled the forces as the only institution with honour and integrity, the civil society fought tooth and nail against any suggestion of conscription. Not only has this created a greater monetary chasm between the two irrespective of the army’s many facilities, it has also divorced the civilians from the hardships of a soldier on the border. It is little wonder that a business community of Gujarat and the intellectual West Bengal have the least representation in the armed forces. When not even NCC is mandatory in school like in the one that I went to, our youth has neither learnt the discipline of a unit nor responsibility of handling even a basic weapon. It was time that they looked upon Israel as a role model. The Jews have been the most persecuted race in the world for centuries. Never in their history have they been known to be fighters until they were forced to take up arms to fiend for their homeland. Today every able man and woman is a fighting force in that nation with a strong democratic government. Switzerland is yet another country that was neutral during the two World Wars but its people are still skilled to be soldiers if ever required.
The armed forces are the only institutions that uphold the nation before any caste, creed or religion. It cannot afford to have such differences when fighting an enemy whether on land, air or sea. Some politicians have also tried to breakdown even this fabric of unity in our country but the forces have held firm against it. We don’t have to look beyond our parliamentarians to realise how personal and parochial agendas overtake the national issues. Incredibly the only time they have faith in the armed forces is during a conflict. The army would love to have more of them to keep it battle ready and its identity as a unit intact. But this is not a lucrative proposition. Conscription of some form in any of the three wings or paramilitary forces for every able bodied person, a kind of internship that would go a long way to bridge the gap, but it is impractical in a country with over a billion. However, if the government of the day can bring forth a RTE bill, it can also look towards some kind of a training that would give us even a greater respect and confidence for our forces. There is no reason why we cannot have a retired general becoming the Prime Minister or the President in the future.