My Army Life (1977 to
2006)
Here is an article written from the
heart of a soldier. I wish that each of our citizens and more so men in
positions of power - whether politicians, bureaucrats , mediamughals and other
opinion leaders ( hell of a phrase ! ) - get to read this. And, more
importantly, act proactively for the sake of our nation.
By Gopal Karunakaran
I Love the Indian Army – but I must leave Now!
I stumbled into the Indian Army in the
late seventies. The School which admitted us mid-session, when we
returned from Singapore, where my father had a brief teaching stint at the
Singapore University, was The Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan. With teenage sons
of Army officers as friends, it was natural to apply to join the National
Defence Academy. A friend filled my form and even paid the application fee.
I wasn’t serious at all of pursuing a career in the military – much like
Hrithik Roshan in Lakshya. I saw a movie with my friends, after each of the
four NDA entrance papers, and argued with my father when he questioned
me on my lack of commitment to the exam.
Surprisingly, I qualified on the Service
Selection Board standing 19th in the Army all India merit list. I then
chose to join the National Defence Academy, as a career was assured at such
an early age. Astonishingly, within a few days of
joining the NDA, at pristine Khadakwasala, I began my life long
affection and admiration for the Indian Army. The NDA was awesome and I took to
it as if the place was always meant for me. It was, and probably still is, a
remarkable institution where everything works like clockwork, and
boys transform into enthusiastic, self confident young men with fire in their
belly and an idealistic vision to contribute meaningfully to the security
challenges that India would face in the future.
Three years later at the Indian Military
Academy in Dehra Dun, I learnt that toughness and fitness was not just about
well developed physical abilities, but also as much about mental strength,
and that the IMA motto of ‘Service before Self’ was not some Gandhian
mumbo-jumbo, but the very edifice of life in uniform as an officer.
The many years in my Infantry battalion
were even more memorable. Not a day was spent as “work”. Every day was
enjoyable with a huge family of 800 men; the love, respect and camaraderie was
astonishing especially in this day and age. A life of great honesty of purpose;
lived simply and with great pride, respect and honour.
I had a tour of duty in Kashmir in every
rank I have held. As a Lieutenant in Baramulla before the militancy, as a
Captain in the Siachen Glacier at 20,000 feet, as a Major and company
commander in Kupwara fighting terrorists, and as Lt Col as
second-in-command of my unit in Badgam in a counter insurgency deployment on the
outskirts of the Srinagar airport. Finally as a Colonel and Battalion
commander, I had three different innings in the Kashmir Valley, first as part of
the offensive plans during OP PARAKRAM in 2001, then fighting
militants in Anantnag during the 2002 Amarnath Yatra and during the state
elections, and finally on the Line of Control in high altitude in the majestic
Gurez Valley.
Interspersed between these challenging
times was an opportunity to serve with the United Nations in Iraq-Kuwait
as a Military Observer where I saw closely officers from 34 different
nations from around the globe and learnt from them about their militaries and the
relationship between the State and the soldier in other countries.
I also had instructional assignments at
the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun and at the Infantry School teaching
young infantry officers. I then had an enriching year at the Army War
College at Mhow during the Higher Command course in 2004-5, learning the art of higher
command in the military and traveling to
every corner of the country, expanding knowledge, visiting not just our various military headquarters,
but also the citadels of economic power of our nation.
After the one year sabbatical at Mhow, I
moved, in Apr 2005 to a dream job, to the seat of power of the Army in
Delhi – the Army Headquarters with an office in South Block and an appointment
in the personnel Branch of the Army dealing with postings and promotions of
officers of our Army.
After three years at Delhi, a Brigadiers
rank was round the corner in mid 2008. The sixth Pay commission too was
promising salaries to meet with the aspirations of soldiers and government
officials who had been made to feel like poor cousins to their corporate
friends in the galloping India of the 21st century.
Inspite of such a bright future, I felt
I must I leave the Indian Army.
The three years in the nation’s capital
left me with a strange emptiness which refused to go away. All the years,
I felt that the many years I spent away from my immediate family, in remote
corners of India, were for a cause which was noble and worthwhile. I always
felt huge pride for my soldiers and brother officers. I felt there is a
grateful nation behind all of us stationed so far away, battling the
vagaries of weather and the uncertainty of life.
I remember in SIACHEN, in 1988, just
before we started our deployment on the main Glacier, the shy 17 year old
soldier, no more than a kid, who met me, then the Adjutant, and requested me to
be posted to the transport platoon after this tenure, as he was very fond
of motor vehicles. Four days later, he was violently taken ill at KUMAR our
Headquarters at 16000 feet. We attended to him the whole night, as the
helicopter could come to rescue him away only in the morning. Sadly, the
High Altitude Pulmonary Odema which afflicted him was faster. He was dead
before the copter arrived at the crack of dawn. It was a sad loss so soon after
our induction on to the Glacier, but we took it on our chin as the
accepted dangers of a soldier’s life. We shed not a tear, and proceeded to do our
duty for the next six months, battling the odds and the enemy, in
incredibly difficult conditions. I recall when a soldier, who had slipped
and fallen towards the enemy side was rescued at Bana top, at 20,000 feet
by a brave and courageous officer who went across single handedly at grave
risk to his life, to get him back. The soldier spent four hours exposed to
temperatures of below minus 40 degrees C, (later both his arms were
amputated). When I met him in the hospital a month later he said he knew
that his company commander would come to rescue him. It taught me a lesson in
trust, faith, camaraderie and leadership which I shall never forget
for the rest of my life. I also recall the young soldier who
bravely jumped into a building, unrelentingly chasing three dreaded
terrorists who had hidden there. We were on the outskirts of Srinagar airfield
and fighting a fierce gun battle through the cold winter night in Dec
2000. He killed two of them but in the process was hit by a bullet through the
head. He died in my arms. What was even more poignant was the gesture by his
father when we honoured him on our battalions Raising day, the following
year. In an age where money means everything, the old man broken by his
young son’s loss, refused the money we as a unit of 800 had collected as a
gesture of our sympathy and concern. He said he had no need for the money and
the unit could put it to better use by honouring his brave son in any
appropriate way.
What I observed over these three years
at Delhi, unfortunately have been a sad revelation of the nature of the
relationship between the Indian soldier, the State and the people of India. Like
RK Laxmans common man, I have observed silently the ignorance and
apathy of the establishment towards all issues military.
As our expectations from our cricket
team, we expect the very best from our military in critical moments of our
history, like the 71 War or the Kargil conflict. If we were to build our home, we shall
obviously get the best builders and architects we can afford, if our mother was
taken ill, we would look for the very best hospital and doctor that we
can afford. The critical question is; do we do enough as a nation to ensure
that we have the best military India can afford?
Are we as a nation doing enough to
ensure that we have the best men and systems in place to guard our
sovereignty and security interests? Do we do enough to recruit and retain the
brightest men and do we have the structures in place to meet the security challenges
within and across our borders in the coming years?
For a start, the inability to put in
place an integrated Chief of Defence Staff is the foremost of our weaknesses
and is symptomatic of the apathy and ignorance of military matters in modern
India. It is often dismissed as a peripheral issue, one that can wait till
the services themselves resolve it. The hard truth is that without true
integration of the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, a modern military will be
grossly inept and incapable of prosecuting a modern day war. To use the
cricketing analogy a bit further, the Kargil war was T 20 cricket and can
hide a few fatal flaws, but a full scale war will be like a Test match,
only synergy; balance, close integration and team spirit will ensure
success.
You cannot blame the Defence Secretary
or the civilian staff in the Ministry of Defence for the lack of awareness of
these issues – very often the Defence Secretary would not have a days
experience in the ministry till he joins as the head of the Ministry of
Defence. He may have arrived from the commerce, railways or whichever
ministry, the senior most bureaucrat is available at that time. The Defence
Minister too often has no experience on defence matters till he becomes the
Defence Minister. It is like appointing
a CEO in a telecom company who had spent
all his life in the cement industry!
We cannot quite expect them to
understand the vital need for integration of the Services. As a comparison to our
system, the United States has a long tradition of appointing secretaries of
Defence and Presidents who have spent years soldiering or they choose from
retired Generals with vision and an impeccable record of service for these
assignments. In fact, even in India it would be inconceivable for the
Foreign Secretary to be appointed from amongst the bureaucrats in say the coal
ministry, so this assumption that the defence ministry can be managed by
amateurs is an insult and an affront to the security needs of India.
To cite another example, we have no
clearly enunciated and documented national counter-terrorism policy. In a
nation where the threat of terrorism looms larger with every passing day, it
is a matter of shame that we haven’t formulated one yet. With the best minds
in the Army, with years of experience in counter terrorism retiring
every year, it is a pity we have failed to capitalize on their experience
and set out a clearly laid out document. The alarming growth of the
Maoists in the Red Corridor, will test the ability of the Indian state to
respond to this challenge in the coming years. Policing being a State subject
and internal threats being the concerns of the Home Ministry, there is
an urgent need to look at counter terrorism holistically outside the
confines of individual perceptions of States and various ministries. We must
radically alter the narrow confines of each ministry when we define the
policy for internal threats. There is apparently a visible lack of
statesmanship and professionalism on any macro issue concerning national security.
An oblique pointer to India’s concerns
on national security and how embedded the military leader is in the psyche of
the educated Indian is the representation at various Leadership
summits and Conclaves. The ‘who is who’ of India and other countries are
invariable present. There will be national political figures, corporate leaders,
media barons, and of course movie moughals. So while we have the likes of
Aiswarya Rai and Sharukh Khan telling us their take on leadership –
the practicing military leader, whether a senior General or the young
Major who is an Ashok Chakra winner – shining examples of leadership in its
many hues – are conspicuous by their absence.
From our fiercely independent and
vibrant media, one would have expected greater maturity in their coverage of
security affairs. It is revealing that a study in the USA suggests that the
gradual erosion of coverage of international issues by their media
networks was possibly a reason for their flawed international security
interventions as the American public was not capable or knowledgeable enough to
question their leadership. The Indian media must ask itself – do they exhibit
enough concern on the larger dimensions of national security and do
they have enough knowledge of military affairs to fulfill their role
as the watchdogs of the nation? Will the increasing trivialization and localization
of news affect our security? There are many concerns that we
must address as a military, as a society and as a nation. There are individual
and collective responsibilities that we must fulfill. Will India and Indians
meet the challenge of the future? Time, and the collective will of the
nation, will tell.
NOW THAT IS THE TRUTH ... WHAT CAN
WE DO? FOR OUR SAFETY AND SECURITY, IF NOT TO BE GRATEFUL FOR THE SOLDIER WHO IS
PUTTING HIS LIFE ON THE BLOCK FOR US. Let this not be another mail we read and
forgot....
MY EXPERIENCE IS SAME AS YOURS. I AM A SHAURYA CHAKRA AWARDEE AND WAS VERY PROUD OF MYSELF, UNLESS I GOT POSTED TO DELHI. HERE I WAS STAFF OFFICER TO A LT GEN, WHO BEGGED AND REQUESTED A SECTION OFFICER (A THIRD CLASS BABU) ON TRIVIAL ISSUES. THE SECTION OFFICER CALLED ME BY MY NAME ONCE. WHEN I REPORTED THE MATTER, I WAS TOLD TO IGNORE HIM. WE REALLY SHOULD BLAME OUR GEN THEN THE CIVILIANS.
ReplyDeleteDear Sir, incidents u narrate is true and its a top-truth that a country's military should be guided only by experienced Mil.persl. Not the part-time "bureaucrats" or political body to be in the ultimate high level.
ReplyDeleteTrue..tragic but true. Recalling similar sit on Siachen the incidents brought a tear to my eye. and then I remember watching railway staff harassing soldiers even while Kargil op was on....
ReplyDelete