Collective Indiscipline in Army: Causes and Remedy

 Recent acts of indiscipline in an artillery unit in Ladakh are inexcusable and guilty, both the officers and jawan must be brought to book quickly. But these acts are not the causes of disease; rather these are symptoms of a deeper malaise afflicting National Defence. In his seminal book on British Indian Army Mr Philip Mason attributed 1857 Mutiny by Bengal Army to two main causes, namely `financial pedantry’ and `intolerance’ of the Company Bahadur, which led to perceived `feeling of being slighted’ amongst the soldiers. The disease manifested itself like rashes in many military cantonments. The symptoms were disposed off by shooting a Mangal Pandey at one cantonment or removal from command of some British officer at another cantonment. Nobody had the wisdom to search for causes and when the same were pointed out by more intelligent ones, like the testimony of Company Commander at Mangal Pandey’s Court Marshal, it was ignored or pilloried and the regulations were made more stringent. Similar situation prevails today. While physical acts of mutiny are passé even more harmful is passive disobedience or passive resistance. A demotivated and sullen Army led by a corrupt and parochial leadership which goes into periodic spasms is the last thing a nation wants. It is time for us to look deep and institute corrective measures to remove the causes.

 

Ministry of Defence (MoD) as an adversary

Today the MoD and services have an adversarial relationship because Mod behaves in a predatory manner towards the military. Let us take example of civil-military relations, management of defence lands and conduct of defence PSUs.  

Civil-Military Relations. During the standoff between UPA1 and the Military on SCPC much was made of Service Chiefs behaving as “Union Leaders”. Similarly when General VK Singh raised the matter of critical deficiencies in Army arsenal his letter to PM was termed “Open defiance of civil Authority”. We must realise that the soldier are denied right to form unions, because it is bounden duty of his superior to address his problems through a strict chain of command. This chain leads to the Service Chiefs. When the Service Chiefs raise matters of pay anomalies or ammunition deficiencies they are doing what they ought to do in a democratic setup. Calling this “Open Defiance of Civil Authority” shows nothing but illiteracy of commentator.

Treatment of Senior Officers.  The history of political-military relationship in India over the last 60 years includes the Krishna Menon-Thimmaya clash which resulted in public humiliation of Thimmaya by Nehru, ignominy of Rodrigues being made to eat humble pie by Chavan to placate Fernandes, dismissal of Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat when he informed Defence Minister that Cabinet orders on the appointment of a Vice-Admiral as un-implementable being violative of Naval Instructions (quasi-legal), stand-off post award of Sixth Pay Commission pay scales, and denial of justice to General VK Singh to foist a parochial line of succession on the Army. The Service chiefs have been reduced to mere departmental heads who can even be questioned by a Joint Secretary level official of the MoD regarding suitability of a Lieutenant General for promotion. Because the bureaucrats in general and IAS in particular view themselves as government and others as mere departments[i].

The story would have been quite different had General Thimmaya not withdrawn his resignation and the Service Chiefs who followed held their ground.  However that was not to be and since then the Government has regularly played favourites with potential Army Chiefs. The supersession or side-lining of Gen Harbaksh Singh, Gen Prem Bhagat and Gen SK Sinha are case in point.

Defence Land. In its report of 2003 the CAG vide Para 2.6.1 and subsequent sub-paras the report discussed cases of failure of DGDE to take possession of land or recover correct rent despite Court Orders in favour of Defence. Let us understand some basic facts about Land Encroachments and Illegal Occupation: (a) a total of 20540.04873 acres is under encroachment/ illegal occupation. Which is 10 per cent of total 200000 acres of land distributed over 62 Cantonments. (b) Ninety per cent of land under encroachment/ illegal occupation is of B Classification, which is the responsibility of Defence Estate Officer. (c) Illegal constructions and encroachments can only happen when the Engineer Department of Cantonment Board and local politicos collude over the years to perpetuate this gigantic scam. To perpetuate silence of collaborators people have been fed a preposterous lie. Logic is twofold. (a) You cannot demolish such a huge number of buildings where innocent people have invested their life’s earnings and (b) violations on such a large scale prove that rules are inherently out-dated.

Conduct of Defence PSU. Couple of years back head of Ordnance Factory Board was caught with his hand in the till. Now BEML is in news for overcharging the Army for TATRA trucks. Track record of BEL with regard to supply of electronic equipment is no better. In fact when many knowledgeable people like Brigadier (retired) IM Singh and others remarked that Defence PSU by themselves manufacture nothing rather these are dealers for various foreign suppliers, they were bang on target. 

Differing expectations from Military and Civilian Officers by the media.

Type of Officer.  In a great, new, improvised Army of several millions it is obvious, impossible that all the young officers can have been at a Public School; nor can they have the benefit of passing leisurely through the good old regimental mill--or school-as did the officers of the Old Army. Notwithstanding all that the New Indian Army officers, have displayed on the Siachen, Kargil, Kashmir or wherever the this Army has fought, the same bravery as their predecessor.

Service Privilege of Army Officer. Indian Army Officers are accused of being feudal and dis-connected with the men the command with commentator forgetting even recent examples of officers like Vikram Batra PVC. They are pilloried for having a sahayak, which is considered as epitome of slavery. No one wants to know as how and why this system came into being or is it even relevant today or needs to be modified. Off with the head seems to be the policy. Please remember that sahayak is a legal entitlement while open misuse of manpower or resources by politicians and babus is a crime!

Misuse of juniors and Resources by Civil Officials. But have the self-same media ever questioned tents pitched on the road in front of houses of the civil and police officials, where the policemen and other employees stay 24x7 to serve the master. Have the media ever questioned the concept of Camp Office which allows every IAS and IPS official in District to defray his house electric and water charges and free use of government transport to the wife and children.  Have the media ever asked as to how are civil officials including Finance Ministry officials are using Army Cars? Has anyone ever examined the fortunes of the Group A Babus and those of their offspring; how were those offspring educated and then employed etc.

Role of Media. Has media ever carried out sustained reporting these issues? No! Why? Then why do we want to destroy Adarash in Mumbai? Or why do we want to punish only Tejinder Singh or TATRA and not MoD who control these Defence PSUs.

We expect the military officers to be held to more stringent standards. Why? Because the Nation has given them a higher responsibility! Fair enough. But has the same nation (or the state acting on behalf of Nation) given them even equal pay and status vis-à-vis civil employees??

Festering Wounds

Pay Anomalies. In run up to implementation of Sixth Pay Commission report the Committee of Secretaries that was constituted to harmonise the SCPC, selectively distorted the final pay scales to the detriment of the armed forces in relation to the paramilitary forces. This led to widely reported stand-off between Chiefs of Staff Committee led by Admiral Mehta and UPA 1. Ill After effects of the standoff are being felt even today. The civilian bureaucracy has consistently taken anti-military stand leading to a situation wherein even the instructions of the PM to constitute a committee are not implemented, may be with tacit approval of the PM himself.

ACP for JCO and Other Rank. The Sixth pay commission stand that reduction in the service period for soldiers from existing 10 and 20 years to 7 and 14 years will not be valid as it is already lower than in case of civilian employees of 12 and 24 years, does not hold good. Civilians even at 24 years are able to get the second ACP, but the PBOR are unable to avail this benefit as they retire, between 17 and 19 years.

Non-functional Pay Up gradation (NFU) for Officers. Carrying the anomaly forward the Government refused to extend the benefits of NFU to military officers available to civil group A officers.

Rank Pay. Rank Pay as an element of basic pay, has been in existence since the New Pay Code – 1950 and has always been taken into consideration for deriving replacement scales, by successive Pay Committees/Commissions, as also for the purpose of establishing equations and relativities. The Services, had recommended a running pay scale to the IV CPC, to reduce pay disparities due to inherent differentials in promotion in different branches and to loosen the linkage between rank and pay (something which the VI CPC has now done for all). An element of the basic pay was recommended as Rank Pay, by the VI CPC to reward professional merit and as an incentive for promotion. The fact that it is part of the scale and nothing extra, is illustrated by the table below:-

Rank	III CPC	IV CPC  (Min Pay)	Rank Pay Element of Basic Pay – IV CPC	V CPC
JTS	700	2200 (3.14)		8000 (3.64)
2/Lt	750	2300(3.06)		-
Lt	830	2500(3.01)		8250 (3.30)
Capt	1020	3000(2.94)	200	10000 (3.33)
STS	1100	3000 (2.73)		10000 (3.33)
JAG	1200	3700 (3.08)		12000 (3.24)
Major	1350	4000(2.96)	600	12800 (3.20)
Lt Col	1700	4700(2.76)	800	15100 (3.21)
NFSG	2000	4500 (2.25)		14300 (3.18)
DIG	2250	5100 (2.27)		16400 (3.22)
Col	1950	5500(2.82)	1000	17100 (3.11)
Brig	2200	6150(2.80)	1200	19100 (3.11)

The table above, clearly illustrates that the replacement scales granted by successive pay Commissions are generally in line with the replacement scales granted to both Civil and Services. It also emerges that rank pay was carved out of the scale and nothing extra was granted over and above the scale. A fact also acknowledged by VI CPC (Para 2.3.10 (iv), page 75 refers).

Arrears of Rank Pay. The Supreme Court ruled that Rank Pay has be in addition to Basic Pay and the affected officer(s) be paid their due arrears since 1986. This order has not been implemented and now the Honourable Supreme Court also seems to be wanting to bury the case, rather than ask government to implement its judicial order.

One Rank-One Pension. The case is simple and straight forward, which has been made complicated by a partisan bureaucracy.

It is time for the Political Parties, Judiciary and the Media to unite for a sustained action to address all infirmities and anomalies relating to military in a fair, comprehensive, quick and transparent manner without involving bureaucracy because the Nation cannot afford a demotivated military in these turbulent times.

---

[i] Geetanjali Gayatri, Senior – junior `war’ hampers work, The Tribune (Haryana Plus), 05 December 2008, pp4. The news report carries a telling comment from an IAS who sums it up with `great clarity to drive home the point of their superiority, “The IPS officers must realize that we are the government and they are only one department. If this can be kept in mind, such issues of non-issues (sic) will not arise”.