by Major General Mrinal Suman
Recent
appointment of the Chief of the Army Staff is being criticized by many. Most
unfairly, they are terming it as a case of ‘supersession’ or ‘out-of-turn
promotion’ or ‘breaching the line of succession’. Their opposition is based on
the following grounds:-
· All Army Commanders are equally capable of
being the Chief.
· Seniority is sacrosanct and inviolable.
· The government has no right to meddle in
the promotions of the army. It is for the army to throw up the senior-most as
the prospective Chief.
The above
logic is based more on insular sentiments than sound reasoning. Though equally
applicable to all the three services, further discussion is being restricted to
the army for the ease of analyzing the issue. To start with, it will be in
order to recapitulate the existing system of selecting officers for the senior
ranks.
Current
Process is Highly Flawed
As per the
present procedure, all general cadre officers of the rank of Major General are
screened by a promotion board for approval for the rank of Lieutenant General
(Lt Gen). Once empanelled, they stand in a queue as per their seniority;
waiting for the vacancies of Corps Commander to come about. Those with more
than three years’ residual service become Corps Commanders. Others, even if
more talented are wasted out on staff appointments. Hence, the Corps Commanders
are not necessarily the most talented officers of their batch. They were simply
lucky – their date of birth matched vacancies.
During
1998-1999, many brilliant Lt Gens failed to get command of Corps due to their
unfavorable age-wise placement. Once the government extended retirement age of
all service officers by two years, they had three years residual service and
became eligible. They rightfully demanded and got appointed as Corps
Commanders. This case has been recalled here to demonstrate utter lack of merit
in the whole process.
The same
flawed process is followed for the appointment of Army Commanders. Once again,
they form a queue, hoping and praying that a vacancy comes their way before
their residual service falls below two years. No cognizance is taken of their
performance as Corps Commanders. Following the same procedure, the senior-most
serving Army Commander gets appointed as the Chief.
The above
procedure can be equated with ‘auto-pilot ride’ – an army officer is required
to prove his competence till he achieves the rank of Lt Gen. Thereafter; he
rides auto-pilot and makes career advances purely on account of his seniority
and date of birth. If well-placed in the age-seniority queue, any Lt Gen can be
the Chief.
An
interesting corollary of the above arrangement is that every general cadre
officer approved to be Lt Gen is considered capable of being the Chief and, at
any given time, there are over 60 such officers. It implies that either the
Chief’s job is so pedestrian that it can be performed by a multitude of
officers, or, the army is flooded with abundance of talent. No rational
organisation can boast of such a claim.
The wisdom of
accepting the logic that every Corps Commander is fit to be the Chief is
totally absurd. How can the criteria for a Corp Commander and the Chief be the
same? A Corps Commander is a field commander of around 30,000 troops whereas a
Chief wears multiple hats while heading 1.3 million-strong army. To equate the
two appointments is highly untenable.
The current
system has another major drawback. It lends itself to manipulation by
unscrupulous Chiefs and thus perpetuates a regime of patronage. Every
Chief, on assumption of office obtains details of the dates of birth (and thus
retirement dates) of senior officers and thereafter, identify prospective
officers from his regiment or ilk. Before his tenure ends, he tweaks the system
to ensure that the selected protégé is suitably placed and all likely
challenges to his advancement are nipped in the bud. In other words, he firmly
plants him in the ‘line of succession’.
Earlier such
manipulation was done in a discreet manner. Over a period of time, the practice
has become so well entrenched that Chiefs have no qualms in openly flaunting
their favoritism. In the recent past, one such parochial Chief resorted to
unscrupulous means to clear way for his protégé to be the Chief. He found out
that along with stalling promotion of other competent contenders to the rank of
Lt Gen, he needed to curtail the tenure of a future Chief by a year to ensure
top slot for his protégé. As a consequence, the army was saddled with a
Chief who knew that he did not deserve to be there.
It is a well
known fact that most Chiefs cannot shed their regimental bias. Instead of
selecting best talent for higher appointments, their blinkered approach fails
to see beyond infantry, armoured corps and artillery loyalties. Chiefs who have
benefited from such preferred dispensation feel morally obliged to carry on in
the same vein and extend similar benefaction to their regimental subordinates.
Another issue
that is commonly overlooked relates to the fixation of individual seniority.
Within a batch, inter-se seniority is decided on the basis of the order of
merit at the time of passing out from the Indian Military Academy (IMA) and
does not change throughout the service career.
There have
been numerous cases where highly competent officers failed to pick up
appointments of Corps Commanders, Army Commanders and even Chief; just because
their course-mates were higher in the merit list prepared at IMA 35 years ago.
Thus performance at IMA continues to be the decisive factor for promotion to
the higher ranks. Operational service, war experience and demonstrated
competence over decades of active career become inconsequential. Can there be a
more irrational way of selecting top brass?
Finally
It should
never be forgotten that it is the national government that is responsible for
the defence of the country. National security is not an exclusive domain of the
services. The armed forces do not exist and function in an insular environment.
They are an instrument of the state.
It is for the
government to decide how best to discharge its duties of ensuring national
security. For that, it has an unalienable prerogative to choose the best talent
and it does not need to justify its choice. Fearing accusations of meddling in
the internal functioning of the services, the government cannot abdicate its
responsibility and allow the services to deprive the nation of the best talent
available, that too under a highly specious plea of seniority.
Indian army
is riven with regimental factionalism. Senior commanders advance in career but
fail to grow up. They never shed their blinkered outlook. The mess created
while granting additional vacancies to different arms and services is
symptomatic of their narrow-mindedness. To favour their own arm/regiment, they
have delivered a terrible blow to the army’s cohesion.
Surprisingly,
we appear comfortable with such internal parochialism and no voices are heard
against such blatant partisanship. But, when the government exercises its
prerogative to select Chief, our hackles go up and we start accusing it of
politicization of the army. We call it interference in the internal affairs of
the army; as if the army is an exclusive domain, independent of government
oversight.
The current system is most unacceptable. The concept of age-seniority
based ‘line of succession’ ought to be discarded and replaced by merit based
selection by impartial boards for higher ranks in the services. We have had enough of mediocre leadership.
Even Army Commanders should be appointed through a diligent selection process.
Finally, two
posers:-
· If the system of seniority based
promotions is the best, why start so late at the level of Corps Commanders? Why
not select/promote Brigade Commanders and Divisional Commanders on the basis of
their inter-se seniority? What is good for senior appointments ought to be good
for junior appointments as well!
· Agreed that all Corps Commanders are
competent but some are brighter than the others. Should the army not get the
best leadership? Similarly, all Army Commanders are capable officers and can
assume the mantle of heading the army commendably. However, their suitability
for the top job will not be identical. Why should the most suitable man not get
selected? Why should the second-best leadership be given preference under the
illogical plea of seniority?
The current controversy is most unwarranted. Quality of top military brass is too serious a
matter to be left to the quirks of seniority. Merit, talent and professionalism
should be the sole criteria. The Indian armed forces must throw up the best
leadership. We owe it to the nation.*****
By the kind courtesy of
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