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Need to bridge chasm between India's citizen and military
Posted:Oct 21, 2014
By Vice Admiral Suresh Bangara
Can you deny that the military in India today is 'an enigma wrapped in a riddle'? There is just no connectivity with even the better informed citizens of India.
Most would not know even the rank structure or what the military does in peace time. Each passing year will make it worse unless we initiate some corrective measures. Why is there such a large chasm between the citizen and the military?
At the time of Independence due to the preceding great wars which lasted for half a decade each, there was enough understanding of the duties, trials and tribulations of a soldier. Indeed the British used a large number of Indians to fight their wars. Consequently, most Indian families belonging to both undivided India and post Partition were in awe of the soldier.
This was further bolstered when fiercely patriotic Indian soldiers and sailors made a very difficult decision to fight the British in pursuit of freedom for India. These are well documented. In 1946 sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied and set the stage for the subsequent freedom struggle. The fact that any Indian soldier worth his salt was a quintessential patriot, expedited the withdrawal of the British occupation forces.
While India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and V.K. Krishna Menon, his trusted defence minister, were known for their belief that the days of war were over and that fighting for peace and tranquility at the UN was the flavour of the day, the consequent downscaling and neglect of the armed forces had to be hastily redressed after and during offensive actions in 1947, 1962 and 1965.
The trauma of 1962 and the subsequent efforts to rejuvenate the military served a very important purpose of keeping the soldier engraved in the hearts and minds of the Indian citizen. However, long periods of no war -no peace coupled with unusually long deployment of the army on counter insurgency operations have willy-nilly relegated the relative importance of the soldier in our society.
The uncaring attitude of successive governments to deny justifiable demands of the veterans, and repeated attempts to sideline the cause of the veterans have had deleterious effects on the importance of the soldier in our society. A society which fails to care for the serving and retired soldier invariably is guilty of lowering the image of the soldier which is synonymous with lowering the prestige of the country as a whole.
On matters military, discipline, national integration and leadership, what has gone largely unappreciated is the fact that the National Cadet Corp act of 1948 slowly but surely engaged the entire youth from schools and colleges across the country. We had thus created a precious resource of the largest trained youth power in the world. By the early 1960s, lateral entry into the three services had begun. Many young men and women not only realised the importance of the military but were fiercely patriotic due the curriculum which nurtured their resolve to place the country above all. Currently the strength of NCC stands at 13 lakh cadets. It has the potential to double if not triple the number.
Periodically, the question of instilling discipline among the youth has been under discussion among the intellectuals. Making NCC compulsory for all students is an option that has found favour, but was not implemented due to resource constraints. What might be the broad contours of such constraints? Budgetary consideration is the foremost. Currently the centre and state governments have a clear cut responsibility for sharing financial and manpower related burden. This in turn has largely limited the growth of NCC.
For instance, there are 100,000 cadets who have volunteered from schools and colleges of Maharashtra. Increase in population has resulted in creation of more educational institutions, both government-run and those of the private sector. There are 800 educational bodies on the waiting list to raise more units of NCC. Given the growth of our economy in recent years and the ability to fund schemes of national importance, it would appear that budgetary limitation may not be as big an obstacle as it was in the earlier decades.
The manpower requirements of the training and administrative staff from the three services is the second constraint. The services are unable to provide additional staff to meet the enhanced load of training. This can be resolved by permitting ex-servicemen to undertake this task through an ordinance or an amended NCC act of the parliament. This will also provide much needed post retirement opportunities to the large number of soldiers and officers who enter the job market every year.
There are two other issues which need scrutiny. The first is to expeditiously introduce e-governance to make accounting and administration as transparent as possible to avoid misuse of scarce resources. The second pertains to the Armed Forces themselves, who have relegated this rich source of potential recruits, to the lower rungs of priority.
In the 1960s when I was a NCC cadet, senior service officers availed every opportunity to visit the nearest NCC units during their tours. It was indeed a source of inspiration for the impressionable minds of the young students. In spirit alone they could match the best serving personnel of the forces.
From the foregoing, it would appear that investing wisely in training the youth while simultaneously exposing them to discipline, leadership and national integration is a desirable option. If we lack one vital trait as Indians today, it is discipline.
So, let us reap the benefits of the much-touted demographic dividend of India. Here is a low hanging fruit ready to be picked. If implemented, this single step would bring the youth - the dominant segment of our population for the foreseeable future - closer to the military as never before and bridge the gap between the citizen and the military.
(Vice Admiral Suresh Bangara is a former FOC-in-C, Southern Naval Command. He can be contacted atsouthasiamonitor1@gmail.com)
Can you deny that the military in India today is 'an enigma wrapped in a riddle'? There is just no connectivity with even the better informed citizens of India.
Most would not know even the rank structure or what the military does in peace time. Each passing year will make it worse unless we initiate some corrective measures. Why is there such a large chasm between the citizen and the military?
At the time of Independence due to the preceding great wars which lasted for half a decade each, there was enough understanding of the duties, trials and tribulations of a soldier. Indeed the British used a large number of Indians to fight their wars. Consequently, most Indian families belonging to both undivided India and post Partition were in awe of the soldier.
This was further bolstered when fiercely patriotic Indian soldiers and sailors made a very difficult decision to fight the British in pursuit of freedom for India. These are well documented. In 1946 sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied and set the stage for the subsequent freedom struggle. The fact that any Indian soldier worth his salt was a quintessential patriot, expedited the withdrawal of the British occupation forces.
While India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and V.K. Krishna Menon, his trusted defence minister, were known for their belief that the days of war were over and that fighting for peace and tranquility at the UN was the flavour of the day, the consequent downscaling and neglect of the armed forces had to be hastily redressed after and during offensive actions in 1947, 1962 and 1965.
The trauma of 1962 and the subsequent efforts to rejuvenate the military served a very important purpose of keeping the soldier engraved in the hearts and minds of the Indian citizen. However, long periods of no war -no peace coupled with unusually long deployment of the army on counter insurgency operations have willy-nilly relegated the relative importance of the soldier in our society.
The uncaring attitude of successive governments to deny justifiable demands of the veterans, and repeated attempts to sideline the cause of the veterans have had deleterious effects on the importance of the soldier in our society. A society which fails to care for the serving and retired soldier invariably is guilty of lowering the image of the soldier which is synonymous with lowering the prestige of the country as a whole.
On matters military, discipline, national integration and leadership, what has gone largely unappreciated is the fact that the National Cadet Corp act of 1948 slowly but surely engaged the entire youth from schools and colleges across the country. We had thus created a precious resource of the largest trained youth power in the world. By the early 1960s, lateral entry into the three services had begun. Many young men and women not only realised the importance of the military but were fiercely patriotic due the curriculum which nurtured their resolve to place the country above all. Currently the strength of NCC stands at 13 lakh cadets. It has the potential to double if not triple the number.
Periodically, the question of instilling discipline among the youth has been under discussion among the intellectuals. Making NCC compulsory for all students is an option that has found favour, but was not implemented due to resource constraints. What might be the broad contours of such constraints? Budgetary consideration is the foremost. Currently the centre and state governments have a clear cut responsibility for sharing financial and manpower related burden. This in turn has largely limited the growth of NCC.
For instance, there are 100,000 cadets who have volunteered from schools and colleges of Maharashtra. Increase in population has resulted in creation of more educational institutions, both government-run and those of the private sector. There are 800 educational bodies on the waiting list to raise more units of NCC. Given the growth of our economy in recent years and the ability to fund schemes of national importance, it would appear that budgetary limitation may not be as big an obstacle as it was in the earlier decades.
The manpower requirements of the training and administrative staff from the three services is the second constraint. The services are unable to provide additional staff to meet the enhanced load of training. This can be resolved by permitting ex-servicemen to undertake this task through an ordinance or an amended NCC act of the parliament. This will also provide much needed post retirement opportunities to the large number of soldiers and officers who enter the job market every year.
There are two other issues which need scrutiny. The first is to expeditiously introduce e-governance to make accounting and administration as transparent as possible to avoid misuse of scarce resources. The second pertains to the Armed Forces themselves, who have relegated this rich source of potential recruits, to the lower rungs of priority.
In the 1960s when I was a NCC cadet, senior service officers availed every opportunity to visit the nearest NCC units during their tours. It was indeed a source of inspiration for the impressionable minds of the young students. In spirit alone they could match the best serving personnel of the forces.
From the foregoing, it would appear that investing wisely in training the youth while simultaneously exposing them to discipline, leadership and national integration is a desirable option. If we lack one vital trait as Indians today, it is discipline.
So, let us reap the benefits of the much-touted demographic dividend of India. Here is a low hanging fruit ready to be picked. If implemented, this single step would bring the youth - the dominant segment of our population for the foreseeable future - closer to the military as never before and bridge the gap between the citizen and the military.
(Vice Admiral Suresh Bangara is a former FOC-in-C, Southern Naval Command. He can be contacted atsouthasiamonitor1@gmail.com)
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