By G D Singh,
Army officers must realise that the
jawan has moved on. Soldiering is no longer a way of life but a chosen
profession
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The face-offs between officers and
jawans at Samba, Amritsar, Leh and other locations and the evident anger
amongst jawans and mid-level officers have come as serious blows to the Indian
Army. The inspiring army slogan of ‘naam, namak, nishan’, which roughly
translates into ‘reputation, loyalty, flag’, can no longer obscure the
disconnect between officers and men, and a growing leadership vacuum. The biggest
casualty is the morale of an army that has always believed in the primacy of
the man behind the gun.
The army jawan carries impeccable
credentials. But in peacetime today, by rising up against his officers, the
jawan has raised serious questions about the army’s leadership. These incidents
cannot be blamed on the army’s traditional whipping boys: the netas and the
babus. Shortages of equipment or outdated weaponry have had no role to play.
Nor were these soldiers driven by grievances over pay and perks. The generals
are brushing these incidents off as ‘local command failures’. This shortsighted
policy of denial cannot hold back the wellsprings of grievance.
Instead, the generals owe it to the
nation to introspect. They must create an operating environment and ethos that
would satisfy the aspirations of a new generation of soldiers and young
officers very different from the one that fought in 1962 or 1971. This new
generation is drawn from a society undergoing rapid economic and social
transformation. Urbanisation of rural areas and values and unprecedented
economic growth have profoundly reshaped the common Indian’s self-perception
and expectations. And there is a widening gap between this demanding new
generation and status-quoist generals.
Numerous studies on the ‘drivers of
engagement’ have established that today’s young Indians value job content more
than pay and perks. This is equally true for the Indian jawan. When my
generation of officers joined our units, a jawan took pride in being selected as
an officer’s helper. Today, jawans avoid being detailed as a ‘batman’ or as a
‘sahayak’. The change has come about because jawans’ expectations have
fundamentally altered. But the generals have failed to respond to this change.
With officers increasingly drawn from
the lower middle class, the social gap between officers and jawans is rapidly
diminishing. Instead of welcoming this healthy development, the generals
continue to embrace the past, propagating a top-down feudalism that rests on
the belief that a jawan’s greatest privilege is to serve the domestic,
administrative and personal needs of his officers. The generals must realise
that India has moved on; soldiering is no longer a ‘way of life’, but a chosen
profession, something that would be welcomed by any professional army.
Also driving change is the electronic
media, which batters the jawans with a mix of news, rumours and outright lies.
Reaching the soldier in real time, this has melted the distance between Siachen
and South Block. The ongoing coverage of graft and discipline cases involving
top generals is eroding the fundamental compact between soldier and general,
which rests on mutual trust. For decades, soldiers on the front lines motivated
themselves in the belief that their leaders were men of honour; corruption, if
any, was limited to logistical and support services. Today, this myth stands
exploded. The chaos in soldiers’ minds is exacerbated by a proliferation of
retired generals, air marshals and admirals on television, super experts on
matters they singularly failed to solve or address whilst in service.
With corruption in senior ranks out in
the open, the generals are in denial. They, in turn, blame the value systems of
the present generation, the MoD’s incompetence and the indifference of the
political class. While all these issues must be addressed, a key question
remains: what have the generals done inside their own organisations to engender
a culture of professional and financial honesty, and to manage and motivate
their men? Is it just convenient for them to function as post offices, passing
the buck to the defence minister, writing letters to the prime minister, and
mouthing platitudes on TV?
To use a common military exhortation,
‘Generals, wake up!’ The problems that bedevil the army cannot be solved by
liberal leave regulations, opening holiday homes for jawans at hill stations,
or by commissioning yet another leadership study. The jawan is claiming his
right for change, for a more professional and equal relationship with his officers,
based on mutual trust and respect, rather than the feudal, patrimonial
parent-child relationship of old. We can no longer deny that to our fighting
men.
With the jawans having already spoken,
this change must come from the top, from the army chief and seven army
commanders. Without entirely dumping tradition, they must innovatively adopt
the realities and flavours of soldiering to the new generation of soldiers. Two
successive chiefs have spoken about the army’s internal health. It is time to do
something about it.
The writer retired as Deputy Chief of
The Army (DCOAS)
It is a pity that the high command of the armed forces of India has deteriorated to virtual post offices as observed by the author very rightly. The world has changed and there is a need to change the manner in which the army officers treat their jawans. We got our army legacy from the royal british army. Why not attempt some learning from other countries like the US ? There are discussions in the public now that India and its traditional enemies would not attempt any war now as that would be a suicidal attempt for both sides! It is time to do some thing innovatively now !
ReplyDeleteSad but true everyone from General to Rifleman to Common man all salute the same man; The Loot man.
ReplyDelete