The British soldier can stand up to
anything except the British War Office -
George Bernard Shaw in the ' Devil's Disciple'.
The same can be said about our Indian Armed Forces as they had withstood in the past and continue to this day anything except their own Ministry of Defence. While the world over,all other democratic nations have retained the relative status of their military vis-vis their civilian counterpartsl, the Indian Armed Forces have been down graded in the Order of Precedence by the bureaucrats in connivance with the politicians through a regular step by step process . This is one reason why the one of the recommendations of Arun Singh's Committee for the creation of a Combined Chief of Staff for the three wings of the Armed Forces is yet to see light of the day as the bureaucracy fears that such post will denigrate the Defence Secretary's status. This is despite the fact that our Armed Forces Chiefs displayed utmost sense of loyalty to he Government. I quote Lt. Gen. SK Sinha from one of his published articles. "Orders
had to be carried out in the spirit of the Charge of the Light
Brigade, immortalized by Lord Alfred Tennyson. Service before self
was to be our motto. Our first Indian chief ensured that those high
traditions were upheld despite the upheaval and turmoil of Partition,
when the Army had to be vivisected and young officers with little
experience had to suddenly replace senior British officers.
Two instances
affecting the officers of my generation underscore their sense of
loyalty and discipline. The first pertained to our emoluments and the
second to the reckoning of the seniority of a certain category of
officers. Our counterparts in the ICS and IPS were allowed to retain
their higher emoluments that they were drawing in the British regime.
Their successors, recruited post-Independence in the IAS and IPS,
were given reduced scales of pay. In the case of the Army, the scales
of pay of officers recruited before Independence were also
drastically reduced to the new scales formulated for
post-Independence entrants. To highlight what this meant, I may quote
specific figures. I was a Major on the staff drawing Rs 1,065 per
month. Overnight my salary was reduced to Rs 700 per month. Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel wrote on March 22, 1947, that this was very unfair
to Army officers. Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel wrote on March 22, 1947, that this was very unfair to Army
officers. The Finance Ministry maintained that the Government could not bear the heavy
financial burden." ( History is repeating itself now ! The Government who could brush aside the estimated losses of lakhs of crores of rupees in various scams without batting an eyelid, announces in the Parliament that they cannot afford to bear the economic burden of about Rupeess 2000 Crores to implement " One Rank One Pension" policy though it was one of the items in their Election manifesto. What, as disciplined ex-servicemen and citizens of this country can we do except to lay our gallantry medals at the door steps of Rashtraapathy Bhavan . )
The second issue
pertained to officers commissioned below the age of 21. During World
War II, the minimum age of recruitment had been reduced to 18. It was
arbitrarily decided that officers commissioned below 21 will have to
forfeit nine months of seniority and pension. The reason given was
that during the War, the period of cadet training for officers had
been reduced by nine months. This was unconvincing. All officers,
irrespective of age, had done the same duration of cadet training
during the War. If any of us had gone to court on these two issues,
these unfair orders would have been struck down. No one took recourse
to legal action because that was against the culture of the Army. We
accepted these Government decisions with a stiff upper lip.
The Sordid Story of Pay Fixation:
Never in the history of Armed Forces of any country there is any instance when the retired officers had to fight for their legitimate emoluments in the High Courts and ultimately in the Supreme Court of their country to counter the most adamant and insensitive bureaucracy as this story unravels. This is mostly culled from the blogs of Major. Navdeep Singh.
As many of the civilians may not be
aware this is the gist of this sordid episode. After the 4th Central
Pay Commission , an integrated pay scale of Rs 2300-5100 was
implemented for officers from the rank of 2/Lt to Brigadier. In addition,
rank pay was authorised to officers from the rank of Captain to Brigadier ranging from Rs 200 to 1200 which was to be added into the basic pay
for all intents and purposes. However, while fixing the pay in the
new scales, an amount equal to the rank pay was deducted from the
emoluments resulting in enormous financial loss to all officers
holding the rank of Captain to Brigadier as on 01-01-1986 in their
pay and and later in their pension.
The Honourable Kerala High Court in a
case filed by Maj AK Dhanapalan had termed this deduction of rank pay
illegal and not sustainable in Law. A Special Leave Petition filed by
the Union of India was also dismissed, albeit not on merits but on
technical grounds of limitation. Many similar petitions
were filed in various Honourable High Courts all over the country
which were clubbed together and transferred to the Honourable
Supreme Court to be heard along with an SLP of similar nature which
had arisen out of a case that was allowed on the basis of the
judgement in Maj. Dhanapalan’s case. The Honourable Supreme Court
on 08 March 2010 upheld the said verdict and granted relief to all
similarly placed officers along with an interest of 6%. That was not
the end of the issue however. The Government constituted a committee
to look into the amount involved and went back to the Honourable
Supreme Court by filing an application for recall of their order of 08 March 2010 on the grounds that the order would entail burdening
of the exchequer and also stating that many more issues on the
subject were not taken into consideration by the Court.
The case thereafter remained pending
before the Honourable Supreme Court and was finally argued on 03
September 2012. After hearing marathon arguments of the Solicitor General
appearing for the Government, it was finally settled that there was no
infirmity in the order passed on 08 March 2010 and it stands.
The case was not without surprising
(sordid)developments which can now be shared since the issue no
longer remains sub-judice.
First was the total incorrect and
skewed presentation of the status and pay of military officers
vis-à-vis officers of the civil services projected in the affidavit
appended with the recall application filed by the Union of India. The
speciousness thereof can be viewed from the blog of Major. Navdeep
Singh. http://www.indianmilitary.info/2011/11/rank-pay-case.html
Secondly,when it was being projected by the Government that the
Services HQ were also in favour of getting the verdict recalled /
reversed, the three services on the basis of a decision taken at the
apex level, clearly, officially and categorically informed the
Solicitor General in writing that the Armed Forces were not in favour
of the matter being contested against the affected officers and in
fact were in favour of getting the verdict of the SC dated 08 March
2010 implemented.
Thereafter, the Ministry of Defence
wrote to the Services HQ asking them to withdraw the communication to
the Solicitor General, however to the credit of the Services, the
said communication was ultimately not withdrawn. ( Recollect the
quote of George Bernard Shaw)
Besides showing utter disregard for the
opinion of the services in this matter, this incident shows as
to how the MoD tries to browbeat the services into accepting its
views. Needless to state, in litigation, one party to a particular
litigation can never direct another to take a particular stand.
However this has been continuing unabated in the MoD wherein they
force the Services to reflect the stand of the MoD before Courts and
not project their (services’) independent views as is permissible
under law.
The credit for this
win goes first to Major. Dhanapalan who fought against all odds and the Retired Defence Officers’ Association (RDOA) who had
been unflinchingly following up the matter with great zeal in a very
objective and balanced manner.
Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces :
Ever since Independence, the MoD and the political bosses always viewed the Armed forces in general and Army in particular with suspicion. They had and some even to day continue to have an inherent fear that the Army may take over as it happened in neighborhood- Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma at various points in time. Here again I quote what Lt.Gen. Sinha has written about the way the bureaucrats has gone about in ensuring a decline in the stature and status of the Indian military. Quote" Except for Subhas Chandra Bose and
Mahatma Gandhi who did not survive the aftermath of Independence,
India's political leaders lacked military experience. Their
single-biggest fear, patently unfounded, was a military coup. The
existing army department was turned first into the department of
defence and later the MoD. At the time, defence secretary H M Patel
and his successor twice offered to integrate the service headquarters
with MoD. But General Rajindersinhji and General K S Thimayya
refused, fearing they would lose operational command and the panoply
of pomp and pageantry by joining the ministerial whirlpool.
The first they did soon after Independence was to abolish the post of C-in-C and reduce the order of precedence of the Chiefs of the Armed Forces. I will deal separately about each one of our Army Chiefs in a subsequent post. Suffice now to say both Jawaharlal Nehru and later Indira Gandhi were apprehensive that the Army Chiefs during their time ie FM Cariappa and FM Sam Manekshaw may throw out their government and assume power. That this was totally unfounded never crossed their mind. After evicting the raiders backed by regular Pakistani soldiers in 1947, the Gen Cariappa asked for three months time to recoup ,reorganize the Order of Battle in Jammu and Kashmir and push out the Pakistan Army beyond our borders. Nehru , foolishly ordered cease-fire and took up the case to UN. The tactically well established Indian Army units lost all the advantages they had gained and the country is paying the price for his decision ever since. Gen Cariappa gained immense popularity among the public and became a national hero. This was hard to stomach both by politicians who were basking on the glory of getting India free from the British by the political movement and by the bureaucracy who felt that their supremacy is getting threatened. So When the last of the British General left our shores , a new Indian Chief had to be named.
Soon, the army got fully involved in
J&K, Junagadh, Hyderabad and Goa operations. While their prestige
rose, their clout gradually declined. It was not even consulted in
deciding crucial operational issues. Civilian bureaucracy, in cahoots
with the political leadership, cut the services down to size. The
generals were careless and naïve not to notice the diminution in
their stature and status. But the civilian bureaucracy at once
grasped the import of civilian control and went about following a
policy of divide and rule: keeping divided the three wings of the
armed forces and parrying proposals of their integration with the
ministry, not without assistance from the services themselves.
The higher military leadership of that
time was browbeaten or simply forced to accept the supremacy of
civilian bureaucratic authority and political interference in its
internal affairs. The noose around the services kept tightening in
parallel control -- superimposed with an additional layer of
financial checks -- over major aspects of organisation,
administration and operational readiness.
From the stunning decline in the
Warrant of Precedence to the erosion of financial and operational
autonomy, the decline corroded promotions, postings, ceremonial
functions and, lately, even distribution of canteen profits. At one
stage, the MoD asked to scrutinise promotion exams and was told it
was a professional matter. In short, MoD gradually commandeered
power, leaving the services with just the trappings of dwindling
pageantry. At no stage did the services stand up to be counted." Unquote.
The role played by many of the Chiefs of the three wings in toeing the line and playing into the hands of politicians and bureaucrats will be discussed in a future post.
KM Cariappa, a senior most Commander,was to take over as Army Chief. The political bosses wanted to have
Rajendra Sinhji, junior to him, appointed as chief. Sinhji
was the brother of the Jam Saheb of Navanagar . WhenRajendra Sinhji heard of this, he told Jawaharlal Nehru that he would rather resign if
he was appointed the chief. Not only Cariappa was senior to him , but also his supersession will lead to
political interference in the selection of Army Chief. Cariappa was appointed the chief. Of Course Rajendra Sinhji became the Chief when he was due. Now compare this with the situation today. An Army Commander then had direct access to the Prime Minister and could tell him him his views without fear or favour. To day even to meet the Defence Secretary he has to ask for prior appointment and wait for his sweet will. Meeting or conferring with the Defence Minister like Mr. Pranab Mukerjea was out of the question and meeting the Prime Minister an impossible task. Even the letter written by the Chief to the Prime Minister through the Ministry of Defence is intercepted and leaked to the media.
Likewise after the 1971 war , FM Manekshaw became a household name. He was hailed by one and all for the way he conducted the war and the way he handled the prisoners of war. Never in the history of any war in the past (including those conducted by the so called champion of human rights and human values that is the US), the prisoners of war have been treated in the true letter and spirit of Geneva convention as the Indian Army did with Pakistan PoWs. It was ensured that their religious sentiments were respected and the Army went to the extent of providing them halal meat. That apart, FM Manekshaw was one person who will not brook any non-sense and had an open aversion to red tape, bureaucracy. He was sharp and could not be easily hoodwinked or browbeaten by the babus in MoD.
I do not know the authenticity of the following episode, however, considering that it involves FM Manekshaw , I venture to narrate the same .
"On a rather warm day the Defence
Secretary, Harish Sarin, a very powerful civil servant, upon entering
the Ministry’s conference room said to a Colonel sitting close to a
window, “You there, open that window!”
Before the Colonel could get up came a
sharp “Sit down” came from Manekshaw, who had also just entered
from another door. Turning to the Secretary, he said, “Mr.
Secretary, don’t you ever address one of my officers in that tone
of voice. You may say,“Sam, would you please open that
window, and I will open the window for you. That officer is a
Colonel, and not ‘You there’.”
Harish Sarin mumbled something to the
effect that he didn’t mean it that way, to which he replied,
”I don’t care how you meant it. I
heard it & didn’t like it."
To decry him , a rumour was floated by vested interests in the MoD that he is planning to take over the country for Army assisted rule. Smt. Indira Gandhi openly asked him directly whether he has any such plans. He is reported to have told her " I may be having as long nose as you have but I do not poke my nose in other's affairs" or words to that effect. An innocuous reply by him to a journalist in a most joking manner was blown all out of proportion by vested babus and politicians.
In the recent past, a deliberate lie was propagated when two mechanized infantry battalions were going on their routine peace time exercise when the case of Gen VK Singh was being heard in the Supreme Court. To what extent the MoD can play foul can be gauged from the fact that no official denial was published immediately after that news item was published in a leading newspaper nor any action was taken to pull up the Newspaper for rumour mongering. Compare this to the hue and cry created by the political parties and the Government machinery on cartoons in school books and in newspapers.
Over the years the the status of the Chiefs are relegated below that of Cabinet Secretary and even the Attorney General of India and the Chairperson of union Public Service Commission. We are talking about the Chief of the fourth largest Army in the world. Army Commanders are even further relegated that they are on par with Secretaries of the State Government. Southern Command covers Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala State and the Army Commander's status is no better than the Chief Secretaries of all these states!
The other instance was the deliberate and planned supersession of Lt. Gen. PS Bhagat. Lt Gen PS Bhagat, a Victoria Cross winner and a brilliant General, was a no non sense man and ruffed a few feathers in the MoD when he was an Army Commander. The Government gave an extension to Lt.Gen. GG Bewoor at the last minute when every one was expecting Bhagat to take over. This eased out Bhagat because of his age. There was much disappointment in the Army and MoD had its victory.
The story of the supersession of Lt. Gen. SK Sinha is even more sordid. I quote from his article . Quote "
The second
instance was in 1983. I was the senior Army Commander and had been
brought as Vice-Chief to Delhi, a little before the then Chief,
General Krishna Rao, was due to retire. He told me that I should
understudy him as I would soon be taking over. Suddenly, Indira
Gandhi decided to supersede me. I immediately put in my papers. A
Member of Parliament raised this issue in Parliament, saying I had
been passed over because of my views in dealing with Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale and my father’s close relationship with Jayaprakash
Narayan (JP).
I had not complied
with the request of the Punjab Government to send tanks and troops to
the Mehta Chowk Gurdwara, where Bhindranwale was residing with some
40 riflemen. Subsequently, Chief Minister Darbara Singh approached
Mrs Gandhi and she issued orders that the Army should be asked to
carry out that operation forthwith the same night. I suggested that I
be given more time to execute the order and this task be carried out
by Punjab Police. The Prime Minister agreed to change her order. This
happened more than a year before Operation Bluestar which took place
after I had quit the
Army. As for my connection with JP, my father and he had studied
together in a college at Patna and were good friends. During drought
in Bihar, JP had set up an NGO for carrying out relief works, and my
father worked in an honorary capacity with him.
Six leading
Opposition MPs, including former Prime Minister Charan Singh and
former Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram, issued a joint statement,
criticising my supersession. Earlier, for the first and only time,
three Supreme Court judges were superseded for the appointment of the
Chief Justice of India. The three judges resigned. The Opposition
alleged that the Government wanted a committed judiciary and a
committed Army. The then Defence Minister desired that I meet the
Press. Some journalists accompanied by the Chief PRO of the Ministry
came to me. I gave a short statement, “I do not question the
decision of the Government. I accept it. I have decided to fade away
from the Army. General Vaidya chosen to be the Chief is a friend of
mine and a competent General. I am sure the Indian Army will flourish
under his able leadership." Unquote
(About Generals AS Vaidya and K Sundarji, I will speak about them in a subsequent post on our Chiefs.)
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