E-Paper
Indian Army: No politics please
IT IS a great revelation that even after 58 years of Independence, the awareness about the Armed forces with the people of India is such that a committee consisting of six eminent academicians and chaired by no less a person than a retired High Court judge, decides to treat Armed Forces of India like any other government department clubbing them with 500 other institutions whom they had asked the details of Muslim community persons working with them, their role and job content. Needless to say an avoidable debate has been generated with this issue taking a political hue.
IT IS a great revelation that even after 58 years of Independence, the awareness about the Armed forces with the people of India is such that a committee consisting of six eminent academicians and chaired by no less a person than a retired High Court judge, decides to treat Armed Forces of India like any other government department clubbing them with 500 other institutions whom they had asked the details of Muslim community persons working with them, their role and job content. Needless to say an avoidable debate has been generated with this issue taking a political hue.
The credentials of Indian Armed Forces as totally apolitical and secular are beyond doubt and need no scrutiny. Unlike other Government entities Indian Armed Forces work under a strict hierarchical organizational set-up.
If the Government felt that Muslims were less in numbers in the Armed Forces, all they had to do was to take Armed Forces into confidence. Armed forces themselves should have been asked to carry out this survey and suggest ways and means to enhance this representation if found less. Forces would have gladly done it. Why ask an outside agency having no knowledge of matters military to do it? It is worth noting that Army alone has 12,000 officers less. Air force and Navy are no better placed. Each Service is spending lot of money in Advertisements to attract the suitable youth.
An impression has also got created in this ongoing debate that Army is the villain of the piece who dragged its feet in giving this information to the committee while the Air force and Navy gave it promptly. Reasons for the Army’s reluctance to give this Muslim headcount to an outside agency as compared to Air Force and Navy are simple and not far to seek.
Air Force and navy are machine oriented technical forces with limited manpower quotient. A fighter pilot flying thousands of feet above the ground at more than twice the speed of sound, armed to teeth with four tons of lethal firepower is master of his own self, protected by his high performance machine and his own air combat skills. Death or glory comes to him suddenly and unannounced. If his plane is hit he can still bail out. Same is the case with a naval ship with tons of Armour protection. A ship does not sink immediately. Then there are lifeboats and life jackets. In such hi tech environment rumors have no role to play.
Individual courage and leadership takes precedence over collective courage.
Army on the other hand is a manpower-oriented force where inter-personal relationship, unities in thought, conduct and collective courage is more important. An infantryman goes to war unprotected with every possible weapon firing at him and a nagging thought that his every next step could be on a land mine that can blow off his limb.
He also knows that 50 per cent of his comrades in the attack will never see their near and dear again. In other words Army has to be careful about morale, motivation and cohesiveness of troops more than any other force.
