The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Bipin Rawat on June 21 ordered a long awaited cadre review of the 1.2 million strong Indian Army to cover wide ranging issues including cutting of 1,50,000 troops in the next four to five years to sharpen the Army’s effectiveness, prepare to defend two pronged offensive from China and Pakistan combined and merger of different verticals to optimise its functioning. The COAS carried out brainstorming sessions with his army commanders recently on cadre review. The majority of them gave a nod to the Chief to go ahead with the review as it is high time to increase tooth to tail ratio to make the army strong lean and mean – effective in battle worthy conditions.
An 11-member panel, headed by the military secretary Lt Gen JS Sandhu, is carrying out the review and is expected to make its preliminary presentation to COAS by the month-end before submitting its final report to Ministry of Defence (MoD) in November.
“Merging of some verticals and rationalising roles are likely to result in cutting 50,000 troops over the next two years. A reduction of 100,000 more personnel may be possible by 2022-23. But all this is in the study phase right now,” said one of the Lt. General of the panel.
The troop reduction is likely to be achieved through revamping different verticals including directorates at the army HQs, logistics units, communications establishments, repair facilities and other administrative and support areas. The cadre review order flagged concerns about how multiple verticals of the army had expanded over the years, despite technology infusion into the system.
“The line between verticals has got blurred, resulting in duplication of charters and associated manning. There is a definite case for reviewing the number of verticals with the aim of restructuring within the vertical as also merging where necessary/possible so as to arrive at economies of scale,” said the order.
Apart from downsizing, the review covers an assessment of the army’s future needs, career progression of officers, deficiency of officers in units, career management of non-empanelled officers, provisions related to leaving service, and improving the efficiency and morale of officers.
The ongoing review is examining the possibility of abolishing the rank of brigadier to ensure smoother career progression and also contemplating replacing division headquarters with integrated brigades under corps.
This massive cut is expected to help the Army save around Rs 7,000 crore and the money would be used to buy weapons. The move comes in the wake of the Army facing a severe fund crunch. In June it was reported that the Army had placed an order for only 2,50,000 modern assault rifles despite its total requirement of 8,00,000 rifles. After Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had presented the budget in March, the then Army Vice Chief, Lt General Sarath Chand had said that the allocation for 2018-19 had dashed the hopes of the modernisation – Army defence budget being 1.58 per cent of the GDP – lowest since 1962 war. He further said that the marginal increase was barely enough to meet inflation as 68 per cent of the force’s equipment falls under the vintage category. He had further told the Parliamentary Committee on Defence that the allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation was way below the committed payments of Rs 29,033 crore.A modern, war winning military needs to be state of the art in every dimension – doctrine, organisation, equipment and quality of its personnel.
Two issues emerge here. Firstly, there is no guarantee that the army’s savings will be given back to them as the saved money is retained in the ‘Consolidated Fund’, and whatever is saved or left over, goes back into it.
Secondly, reducing numbers does not necessarily translate into reducing expenditure. Actually, it will be the other way around. There is need to invest in getting higher quality personnel, pay to train them and re-equip the army with high quality range of weapons and systems.
The committee will also examine whether the army’s current officer shortfall of about 8,000 officers must be made up, or whether the overall authorisation can be reduced by about 5,000. Making up the full strength would make the competition for promotion even more intense than it already is. The percentage of officers approved for promotion in each board – already worryingly low – will fall even lower.
Instead, the army will examine whether a larger number of meritorious soldiers and junior commissioned officers (JCOs) can be promoted from the ranks to fill up officer vacancies. There is also a proposal to recruit JCOs directly. A direct entry JCO can do one year of training at the Officers’ Training Academy at Gaya or Chennai. Both these are running at half capacity and one of them can easily be made over to training JCOs and soldiers who are selected for Commission.
In view of the above a mere Rs 7000 crore saving is not enough for the suggested cadre review whereas army needs at least more than 3 per cent of defence budget allocation for modernisation of the army as is the case with the rest of the advanced world armies.
The best solution is to reduce civilian staff of the MoD and replace it with at least with 50 per cent from army up to the rank of Joint Secretary (Major General) as recommended by a high-powered Naresh Chandra Committee in 2011. The Committee had also recommended a permanent Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee for better coordination and adviser to the defence minister. Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services was established in 1968 to provide continuity in the functioning of the Armed Forces including the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Army, Navy and Air), Defence Staff Headquarters under the MoD. The Service contributes significantly in the functioning of Armed Forces Headquarters/Inter-Service Organisations except those relating to technical and combat aspects in respect to the Armed Forces. The Joint Secretary (Training) and Chief Administrative Officer in the MoDare the Cadre Controlling Authority and Head of the Department for AFHQ Civilian Employees. The number of employees in the service in 1968 was 1778; in 2011, 2644, and in 2016, 3235.This has only been empire building over the years and by giving the non-function upgradation (NFU) they become senior to army officers without any merit and cause only disruptions in the functioning of MoD.
There is a scope of reducing this staff by 50 per cent as it is only duplication with the Service Headquarters and will affect saving of more than Rs 15,000 crore for modernisation.
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