THE CHANGING INDIAN ARMED FORCES
By Lt Col CR Sundar, psc, MSc (Defence Studies)
Soldiers of my vintage brought up soaked in the Chetwodian piffle are today standing askance watching with awe the wrenching changes occurring in the Armed Forces. It cannot be long before the Forces become unrecognizable from what they used to be.
It began with ascent to power of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) at the center. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pre-election speeches lulled many to believe that he would fuss over and pamper the Services and retirees. But as he himself owned up it was ‘Joomla’, pure hogwash, vapid and puerile.
The first indication that the BJP did not set a great value on defence was discernible to the observant when Arun Jaitley was made the Defence Minister of the new government. He was in addition the finance minister and he didn’t much care for defence. During his tenure of seven months he visited the defence ministry perfunctorily perhaps once a week. On each visit he spent an hour or so riffling through files and left without speaking to anyone.
The next incumbent Manohar Parrikar is equally disinterested. He was reluctant to leave Goa where he was the Chief Minister but was compelled to replace Jaitley in November 2014. He exhibited his lack of enthusiasm while accepting a tri-services guard of honour. He wore sandals and sauntered on the inspection line with his hands in his pocket chewing the cud as his blue shirt flapped in the wind.
Meanwhile two things happened. One was the struggle of the veterans for One Rank One Pension (OROP) which hotted up at Jantar Mantar, Delhi with sympathy waves all over the country. The other was that Modi went around the country promising OROP, twice from the ramparts of the Red Fort, once at Siachen and once on board the INS Vishakapatnam in April 2015. In November 2015 Modi even lied that OROP had been granted. Eventually some relief has been given to the veterans but certainly not One Rank One Pension.
The government began hoodwinking the armed forces on procurement of vital hardware. Talks of better weapons for the infantry have been silenced. Illusory purchase of Rafale fighter aircrafts have turned a chimera and talks are on with USA for long range field artillery guns knowing well that USA is not a great field gun producing country.
Never the less many news making changes with no additional expenditure are afoot aplenty. It started with women officer contingent trumpeted as ‘nari shakthi’ at the Republic Day Parade. Indian instruments and cinema songs were played at the Beating Retreat Ceremony which till then solely comprised martial tunes played on military equipment. And now girls are to be taken into Sainik Schools and National Defence Academy and a brigade of girls battalions are to be raised.
So far in all these changes the core security has not been jeopardized. But what is perilous to the nation is the BJPs subservience to the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). It is well known that the IAS and BJP have since long coveted the huge tracts of land that the armed forces hold in prime locations around the country. To get at that the only way is to denigrate the armed forces and prop up sundry police forces. With this aim they buttressed the police forces against the Pakistani terrorists in Pathankot.
Now let us welcome the next stage in change. To begin with they could raise a few artillery regiments in BSF and tell the army to part with a portion of its guns and land to them. The CRPF could have a few armoured regiments equipped with tanks. They can make a demand on the firing ranges. CISF could be asked to build an air force with the new HAL Tejas and take over a few air force stations. And of course, medium machine guns could be issued to the police.
Looming changes will certainly be in military training where words such as nation, integrity, sacrifice, izzat and personal courage will be removed from the syllabus. Stress will be laid on how best to serve the local police sub-inspector.
Like they say, it is time to kiss Chetwode goodbye.
Lt Col CR Sundar,
Plot No. 43, 24th Cross Street,
Padmavathy Nagar, Madambakkam,
Chennai - 600126
80561 63792
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