Monthly Archives: August 2018

More and more service officers are coming from middle and lower-middle-class backgrounds and have legitimate career aspirations. Most officers retire in early-to-mid-fifties and have family responsibilities. The organisational pyramid in the armed forces is quite steep and many bright and deserving officers miss out on board proceedings for higher promotions.

Bhartendu Kumar Singh
Indian Defence Accounts Service

For long, we have been fed with narratives that the armed forces are suffering from a high level of attrition, where more officers are calling quits. However, recent statistics show that the number of officers who left the defence services voluntarily in the last three years is minuscule and nearly constant: 677 in 2016; 725 in 2017; and 698 in 2018. What is worrying is the continued phobia and artificial concern about the ‘ghost of attrition’ and non-recognition of its positive and dynamic relationship with India’s emerging, vibrant and mature economy.

Established narratives on attrition consider it a bad element for the individual and collective morale of the armed forces. Attrition is often propagated as a major manpower concern for the armed forces. Such narratives are, however, bereft of facts, figures and actual justifications and do not confirm to contemporary trends in normative economics. Also, the impact of the so-called attrition has not been empirically established on issues such as the operational preparedness of the armed forces.

On the other hand, modern managerial principles treat attrition as a part and parcel of the organisational culture. Attrition brings dynamism, agility and mobility to individuals. Organisations are challenged to create an attractive work culture in response. From this perspective, attrition is good since it allows the servicemen and armed forces to retain dynamism and make the best of opportunities. There are credible reasons why established perspectives on attrition amongst officers are not true. 

First, the armed forces are supposed to be a reflection of larger social structure. However, the social profile of the service officers as well as the armed forces has changed in the last few decades. Unlike the old generation military elites who eschewed integration with the civil society even after retirement, the new generation of officers is uncomfortable with the garrison mindset and favours greater integration with civil society. They also detest some archival practices in services, like the overbearing and intrusive influence of the wives’ welfare associations. Some of them have working spouses who find it very difficult to adjust with frequent transfers.

Second, as Morris Janowitz rightly predicted, there has been an increasing narrowing of skill differentiation between military and civil elites; an outgrowth of increasing concentration of technical specialists in the military. Service officers who perform such technical tasks have direct civilian equivalents: engineers, signal experts, doctors, logistics experts etc. Technological developments in the last few decades have led to the ‘civilianisation’ of the military profession due to the blurring of differences with the civil side. The organisational culture that characterises civil jobs has, therefore, permeated the military side. Concurrently, military professionals perceive ‘careerism’ in the same fashion as their civilian counterparts. 

Third, more and more service officers are coming from middle and lower-middle class backgrounds and have legitimate career aspirations. Most officers retire in their early-to-mid-fifties and have family responsibilities. The organisational pyramid in the armed forces is quite steep and many bright and deserving officers miss out on board proceedings for higher promotions. The absence of vertical movement avenues goads them to move laterally, as and when opportunity knocks their doors.

Fourth, attrition is a given fact in developed economies like the US and UK. The military career is transitional for young men after graduation as they settle down in different professions after putting in variable years of military service. Military experience is valued by corporates and duly rewarded. Post 1991, the private sector in India has also become vibrant, mature and, in some cases, fatally attractive. Jobs have grown in public and corporate sectors, apart from entrepreneurship opportunities. Service officers are qualified and experienced enough to handle these jobs. This makes transition through attrition possible.

Critics of attrition forget that it is a social investment where some of the best trained, physically fit and highly disciplined professionals transit to civil society. As Samuel S Huntington wrote, “military function requires high order of expertise. No individual, whatever his inherent intellectual ability and quality of character and leadership, could perform these functions efficiently without considerable training and experience.”

Regrettably, we recognise their contributions only during wars or crisis situations with neighbours and mostly remain insensitive to their continuous training and exposure to security-building exercises. We do have examples of many prominent figures in public life, strategic writings, defence journalism and commercial flying who left the armed forces midway and have done quite well in alternative careers. Attrition is, therefore, a rational choice by officers and attempted only when the scope for upward mobility or betterment in personal life is assured. The society also benefits in process.

It emerges, therefore, that attrition affects the armed forces like other organisations in the public and private sectors and we need not overtly worry about it since the proportions have not reached the alarming level and create stress for manpower planning in services. Instead of perceiving armed forces officers as mere specialists in ‘management of violence’ and suitable only for security-related jobs, we should develop the right perceptions regarding them as specialists in many other segments.

Also, despite public policy efforts like pre-retirement professional education and training, reservation and weightage in jobs etc, institutional mechanisms for facilitating transition of retiring officers into civil society have not moved beyond the public sector. The private sector is still insensitive and accords little credence to incoming military experience.

Finally, our policy discourse needs to discuss ways and means for making attrition more attractive for short-service officers who need a second career more than anyone else and are faced with an uncertain job market when they leave the services in their mid-thirties.

It is time for a paradigm change in perceptions about attrition that is in response to socio-economic changes, re-defined civil-military relations, and above all, legitimate aspirations of service officers for themselves and their families. We need more policy support to make it a win-win situation for officers and society at large.

(Views are personal)

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, July 16

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Narnaul has decided that the case of Army man Ravinder Yadav be tried by court martial. He had been arrested five days ago on charges of sharing secret information pertaining to the Army with a foreign woman on Facebook and Whatsapp.

The order was passed by the CJM while hearing a petition moved by advocate of the accused, who pleaded that the case be tried by court martial, citing Section 475 of the CrPC. The advocate gave reference of a High Court order in a similar case to support his plea.

“Under Section 475 of the CrPC, there is a provision to decide that such cases be tried by court martial. We urged the magistrate to transfer the case to the Commanding Officer of 5 Kumaon Regiment in Arunachal Pradesh, where he is posted,” said advocate Ishwar Jakhar.

Yadav had joined the Kumaon Regiment as sepoy in 2017. Jakhar said the court had directed the Station House Officer concerned to hand over the accused to the Commanding Officer after obtaining transit warrants. The Commanding Officer had been asked to send the case back if trial was not held there, he added.

“The advocate pleaded in court that only Army officers could determine how much vital information had been shared by the accused with the woman. Since the police are unable to carry out such investigation, the case should be tried by court martial,” said a police spokesman. The police would obtain transit warrants for handing over the accused to his regiment, he said.

Sources said Yadav had disclosed during interrogation that the woman used multiple mobile numbers to chat with him on Facebook and Whatsapp and he shared information about his station of posting and weapons.

According to the sources, he had come in contact with her last year when he was posted at Amritsar. The woman had deposited Rs 5,000 into his bank account, the sources added.

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The directive, issued by the DGMO, aims to curb pilferage of information from Indian Army personnel, because ‘enemy agencies’ could access it.

New Delhi: The Indian Army has asked its personnel not to be part of large groups on internet-based chat or email services. It feels the move will control leak of sensitive information about the armed forces.

However, the Army has allowed them to be part of small, close-knit groups, where members are “service personnel known to each other” and “whose credentials can be ascertained”.

The missive is part of a list of instructions on information security issued last month by the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to all Army units and formations, with an aim to curb pilferage of information. It said this is particularly crucial, because enemy agencies have access to advanced monitoring, decryption and data analysis capabilities.

The directive said the primary source of information leakage has been identified as the increasing use of personal devices, especially smartphones, and messaging apps like WhatsApp to exchange official information, and has warned of strict action against personnel found violating instructions.

Also read: How WhatsApp is helping Indians lose weight, gain abs, and make money

Clear instructions

The DGMO has told personnel clearly that no free social media platform is safe, and information shared on such platforms could be compromised.

The presence of Army personnel on social media is to be controlled as per its existing social media policy, and they will have to adhere to the existing norms about revealing their identities and ensuring that pictures of equipment training, maps and other sensitive material are not uploaded. It also made a reference to the increasing instances of honey-trapping of service personnel.

The directive further stated that no information pertaining to the Indian Army should be shared through personal devices, and training material should not be stored in any such devices for future reference.

The use of smartphones is also to be restricted at places of duty, and banned in sensitive locations like ops rooms and training locations, irrespective of seniority. The mobile phones of personnel of all ranks would be checked quarterly, and records will be maintained.

The DGMO insisted that internet should be accessed from a centralised official facility and personal internet services, if any, should comply with cyber policies.

Too many lapses

Speaking to ThePrint, a senior Army officer, who did not wish to be named, said: “Such directives are issued from time to time because there have been too many lapses on the breach of confidential information.

“There are often some WhatsApp group invites where a person has to join using a link, which may not be a secure link. It is always advisable to be cautious of such networks.”

The officer also said the directive was not about banning social media among Army personnel.

“It clearly talks about the existing social media policy, which does not stop Army personnel from being on social media. The idea is to generally tell people to be more aware of which groups they are part of and what are they sharing there. It has come out of genuine security concerns,” the officer said, adding that such breaches have been reported in western militaries too.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

In a stinging response to the ongoing controversy over removing tax exemption to disabled soldiers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s office today tweeted a statement claiming it to be the “response of the armed forces on the issue of taxability of disability pensions”.

Later, the official Twitter handle of the Indian Army also tweeted the same statement. Sources confirmed it was an official statement of the Army Headquarters.

The statement says some people have been misusing the facility given to disabled soldiers as their pensions are exempt from income tax. It says: “Those who have found leverages in the existing system for seeking financial gains through their disabilities need to be scrutinised and taken to task, where ever necessitated… Over the years, there has been rise in personnel seeking disability even for life style diseases. The trend, if not checked at this stage, is a cause of worry, as the Army cannot have large number of personnel with medical disabilities in the rank and file.”

Sitharaman was the Defence Minister in the first term of the Narendra Modi government.

In June, the government had come out with a circular saying income tax exemption will be allowed to only those disabled soldiers who have been invalidated or incapacitated during military service.

At present, income tax exemption is claimed by all soldiers who get a disability pension. The new circular issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes yesterday has clarified that tax exemption for disability pension will be “available only to armed forces personnel who have been invalidated from service on account of bodily disability attributable to or aggravated by such service and not to personnel who have been retired on superannuation or otherwise”.

In other words, those who retire after full service with some disability will not get income tax exemption. There have been instances of income tax exemption being availed by those who retired with disability.

The Armed forces personnel who acquire disabilities due to various factors of service get disability pension, which is calculated as per the degree of disability a person faces. For example, a person who lost two fingers of a hand due to bullet hit will get a lesser pension than a person who has lost a leg or an eye.

‘A Cause of Worry’

Those who have found leverages in the existing system for seeking financial gains through their disabilities need to be scrutinised and taken to task… Over the years, there has been rise in personnel seeking disability even for life style diseases. The trend, if not checked, is a cause of worry. Army statement

New Delhi, July 30

An Army officer’s body has been found on a railway track at the New Delhi railway station, police said on Tuesday.

The body of the officer, identified as Lieutenant Diwakar Puri, was found cut into two parts on Monday morning, they said.

According to police, Puri was from the Army Medical Corps and a resident of Delhi.

He had gone to Lucknow to attend a training camp and was returning to Delhi on Shramjeevi Express, the police said.

A post-mortem has been conducted and the report is awaited. The body has been handed over to the deceased’s family, they said. — PTI

Hoshiarpur, July 26

Kargil Victory Day was celebrated today during which martyrs were paid homage at the war memorial here.

Deputy Commissioner Isha Kalia paid tributes saying that the martyrs who had sacrificed their lives for the country could never be forgotten.

Today, the entire country is bowing down to soldiers who laid their lives for the nation, she said.

She added that in the Kargil war, 527 soldiers were martyred, of which 13 were from Hoshiarpur district.

The Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Sainik Board Chairperson said it was due to the martyrdom of these bravehearts that today they were leading a safe life.

She said their acts could never be repaid and the country would always be grateful for the sacrifice of martyrs.

Kalia added that the district administration was with the families of the martyrs and if they faced any problem, it would be solved on priority basis. In addition, full honours will be extended to them at government offices, she said.

She also motivated students of Sainik Institute of Management and Technology and Pre-recruitment Training Center to follow the path of martyrs.

On this occasion, family members of Kargil martyrs were also honoured. Also, 31 beneficiaries were given cheques for Rs 3,43,000 as financial assistance and marriage grant from the Armed Forces Flag Day fund.

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, July 26

Twenty years have passed, but time has not healed his wounds. His fight is for justice and he is making all efforts so that the death of his son and other soldiers in the 1999 Kargil conflict could be declared a war crime.

Dr NK Kalia, father of the 1999 Kargil conflict martyr Capt Saurabh Kalia, today said successive Indian governments had failed to get justice for human rights violation of his son and other soldiers. He accused the authorities of adopting a liberal approach towards Pakistan.

In an interview with The Tribune on the 20th anniversary of the war, Dr Kalia said, “The previous governments followed the policy of appeasement and never wanted to annoy Pakistan. All this happened at the cost of valiant soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the security and integrity of this country in the Kargil war. Despite my repeated requests, the issue has not been raised at international forums,” he said.

He said had the issue been taken up in the International Court of Justice, his son would have got justice.

“I have been moving from pillar to post for the last 20 years. I also approached the Centre as well as national and international organisations on several occasions urging them to pressurise Pakistan to identify, book and punish those who indulged in the most heinous inhuman crime and kept his son in captivity for three weeks and subjected him to brutal torture. However, nothing has been done so far,” said Dr Kalia.

He said the wounds of all parents who had lost their sons and brave soldiers in the war were yet to be healed. “It is not only our loss, but of the entire nation,” he said.

He again urged the Government of India to take up the issue with the international community and ensure punishment for those who indulged in the brutal acts of burning bodies with cigarettes, piercing ears with hot iron rods, removing eyes before puncturing them, breaking most of the bones and teeth and chopping off various limbs and private parts of Indian soldiers, including that of his son.

An emotional Dr Kalia said,” I will continue to fight, hoping against hope, till my last breath.”

An unending battle

• Dr NK Kalia (pic) has been waging a constant battle to get the Kargil conflict declared a war crime in accordance with the Geneva Convention so that the guilty can be punished.
• He had even approached the Supreme Court in 2012 seeking directions to the government to raise his son’s case in the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
• He had also filed a petition with the United Nations Human Rights Council.