Indian Defence Review

There is no glamour left in military career and this is too obvious for one to miss. Golf and polo will remain a distance dream for the vast majority and so also much of what is being promised in the advertisements. Military officers no more travel in uniform or wear it outside cantonments, because there is no glamour, charm and regrettably even respect and deference for it. No one ever visits a government office in uniform, because he is sure he would be cold shouldered and his work never done. As a military man and on top of it in uniform, he would loathe greasing palms, and nothing seems done by clean hands in a government office.

Military officers no more travel in uniform or wear it outside cantonments, because there is no glamour, charm and regrettably even respect and deference for it. No one ever visits a government office in uniform”¦

The youth of to-day is too discerning to miss the drawbacks that have come about in a military career. Ex-servicemen are the most visible element of government’s dispensation to servicemen. They could be, and during the British period were, the best form of advertisement for the services, but regrettably their condition and treatment at the hands of the Indian Government acts as the greatest disincentive to join the services.

Present day young men are well informed and discerning to be taken in by the gimmicks and absurd promises of advertising agencies. Army is in competition with vast range of other opportunities and avenues open to these young men. So the military has to put some thing concrete and viable on the table to draw the right material into the officer cadre, more so for short service.

Having failed to get justice for its officers, army is now considering recasting the very structure of the officer cadre in which 40 percent could be regular officers and the balance 60 percent short service commission. This way the career prospects of regular officer will vastly improve and consequently such a step will draw better material into the regular officer cadre. Further, it will result in considerable savings in the revenue budget of the military and pension budget of the government.

With such a large percentage of short service commission officers, who will serve for much shorter period, sent out of service with little opportunities for a reasonably good second career, short service will remain a poor option for the bright young men and consequently the quality of junior leadership, so important for the military, will remain sub standard. Such a state would impinge on the performance of the military. Therefore, it is imperative, in the national security interest, that the right material is drawn into short service commission cadre. The fact that they will serve for a short period, their standard and quality has to be really good to meet the exacting demands of the military.

The entry into the short service cadre can be made attractive if a suitable second career is offered. Thus if young men of ages between 17 to 19 with 10 plus two as educational qualification are taken and after six months of intensive training serve for five years and thereafter given free education in professional colleges along with a stipend of around Rs fifteen thousand per month or so for the duration of their education, military can look forward to getting the right material into the short service cadre. However the intake standards have to be so structured that these officers on completion of five years service are able to successfully pursue studies in professional institutions.

It is for the military top brass to make the political executive realize the urgency and the imperatives of getting the right material into the officer cadre and for such to happen there is no other option except to make short service commission attractive.

This can be done by reserving bulk of the vacancies in army’s own professional colleges ie, management, medical, law, engineering, technology, hotel management, dental sciences etc as well as obtaining reserve seats for others in the government colleges such as IITs, IIMs, Law school, etc. Some percentage (around 5 to 10 percent) should be absorbed in the civil services, CPOs and the state police. On joining government service, some of the service in the military should be taken into account in fixing their seniority. Around 5 to 10 percent could be considered for regular commission.

The military can work out the details of yearly release of short service commission officers and the number that can be absorbed in its own professional institutions, given regular commission, taken into the civil services and given admission in the civil professional institutions. It is for the military top brass to make the political executive realize the urgency and the imperatives of getting the right material into the officer cadre and for such to happen there is no other option except to make short service commission attractive. The government must get on board in this proposal. Such a scheme will not only bring about better working ethos in the civil services but will prove of immense value to the industry and other professions: where ever these young men will work.

It may be of interest to note that on demobilization of American Army at the end of Second World War, every soldier was given free college education. These men, who had faced dangers, innovated under adverse conditions, had acquired leadership qualities and were adept at taking risks, when joined corporate entities and industry, they gave these a new direction and impetus and America made enormous economic progress. To-day America faces corporate and industrial leadership deficit and is on the decline,: those veterans of the Second World War have since left the field.

‘Finally, it may be instructive to recall Churchill, that great architect of victory in the Second World War and consider what he had to say about the armed forces. He writes, “ Armed forces are not like a limited company to be reconstructed from time to time as the money fluctuates. It is not an inanimate thing like a house to be pulled down or enlarged or structurally altered at the caprice of the tenant or owner. It is a living thing. If it is bullied, it sulks, if sufficiently disturbed it will wither and dwindle and almost die and when it comes to this last serious condition, it is only revived by lots of time and money.” There is a lesson in all this for the political class in India.