What Ails The Indian Military

I was listening to Arnab Goswami's investigation into the Purulia Arms Drop case. Mr JK Dutt, the last DG NSG was involved in covering up the case at the behest of the govt. A man who has been chasing swindlers and thieves is made the boss of a vital force of the govt. Shows how these officers who were helpful to the govt, are put in prize jobs even though they may be totally unsuitable for them. A damn they care what happens to the country and its security.

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Bahri

What Ails The Indian Military

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by Lt Gen Satish Kumar Bahri
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A very good question is being asked by Nitin Pai as to why the Service officer is being excluded from diplomacy and other fields which concern national security. The reason is that the civil services are insecure that if the soldiers are given a toe hold they will perform so well that their own performance will be eclipsed. One can count the number of service officers who on being demobbed from the services did extremely well in the IAS and IFS, on being transferred to them. So, in their own interest it is best to keep the Services at arms length.

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The officers of the self declared elite services ie., IFS, IAS and IPS believe that having passed the civil services entrance exam they are equipped to handle any situation. The trouble is that the people who judge them are of their own ilk. No wonder except for an odd unlucky one, every one of these three civil services reaches the highest appointment on offer. Accordingly, from the very beginning, specially after the Gen Thimmaya episode, the civil services have been busy putting a barbed wire fence around us. With equally insecure and weak politicians they have been able to exclude us from any decision making process at the national level.

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Remember, it first started with the membership of the newly opened India International Centre. Service officers could not become members of IIC as there was fear instilled in the politicians, that we may mix with foreigners and consequently jeopardise national security, while civil servants could. Then after 1965 ops the Services were kept out of the loop while negotiating the Tashkent Agreement, resulting in the return of areas captured with considerable loss of life. My day of greatest humiliation was when an IG rank retired officer of IPS was made a deputy minister of defence in the '90s. The government in its over 60 years of existence has not deemed it worthwhile to put any suitable Service officer to fill such a vacancy, when it appointed an ex Scientific Adviser, Mr Raja Ramanna, in that post. A job he very ably carried out.

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Have we not seen the gradual elimination of Service officers from governors' appointments. The politicians have found plain speaking officers, who do not want to carry out shady chores for the government in power, a pain. Instead they are being replaced more and more by pliable IAS, IPS and even IFS officers. It is only in our country where a Service officer has never held the post of NSA, JIC, RAW, IB or CBI. Even the NSG, a force trained by army officers and with its teeth arm manned entirely by Army officers and men, is commanded by a police officer who may not have even thrown a grenade in training. Only in truly democratic countries such appointments are not monopolized by a few select services.

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But then who said we are a truly democratic country which is honestly interested in safeguarding its independence and security?

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Lt Gen SK Bahri (Retd)

skbahri1@yahoo.com