Rajat Pandit.
The Army has been jolted by yet another shocking breach of discipline with a grim stand-off erupting between officers and jawans of an armoured unit after a soldier committed suicide at a military camp in the border district of Samba in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday morning.
This comes close after officers and jawans of an artillery regiment deployed in the Nyoma sub-district of eastern Ladakh had violently clashed with each other – which left the unit commanding officer, two majors and two jawans grievously injured — in May.
The incident on Wednesday was triggered when the jawan, Arun V, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram, shot himself with his service rifle in the camp of the 16th Light Cavalry at Samba in the morning. He died on the spot.
Sources said “tension” between the officers and jawans of the 16th Cavalry had been “simmering for quite some time” without any corrective steps being taken. The suicide proved to be the tipping point. “Angry jawans then ganged up to surround the officers and their residences in protest, leading to a prolonged face-off,” said a source.
The gravity of the situation and the “complete failure of command and control” was such that senior officers, including the commander of the Yol-based 9 Corps, Lt-General A K Bhalla, rushed to the spot to calm down inflamed tempers. All officers of the 16th Cavalry were subsequently moved out of their residences and attached to different messes as a precautionary move to prevent the trouble from escalating further.
There were even indications that two Army units had been rushed to Samba, which houses a brigade and the armoured regiment, to control the situation. The Army HQ in New Delhi, on being contacted, said a court of inquiry had been ordered into the incident but denied that there was any violent brawl between the officers and jawans.
“There was a suicide but no clash. Yes, the unit officers have been moved to different messes to ensure an impartial probe. The corps commander (Lt-Gen Bhalla) is camping in the area and the situation is under control,” said an officer.
All this does not happen if the case is of a simple suicide. Incidentally, defence minister A K Antony on Wednesday told Parliament that as many as 1,018 soldiers had committed suicide since 2003, with the yearly toll regularly climbing over 100. Incidents of fragging (to kill or wound a fellow soldier) have also become a regular phenomenon in the 1.13-million strong Army.
A report by the Defence Institute of Psychological Research had earlier held that “perceived humiliation and harassment, over and above occupational and familial causes”, at the hands of their superiors often serves as the final “trigger” for jawans in stress-related cases in the armed forces.
-via The Times of India.
Except Col Lamba, all are saying without knowing the complete matter and basing their views on what they have heard from interested persons or partly experienced. If the top civilian boss in democracy is honest nationalist then only we will get what we want from our army/navy/airforce. to day what we see happening in army/defence forces is what the so called leaders wants from society and army men/women are from the same society. nehru was the starting point of downfall of our defence forces. its the babus/leaders who put a Col below a DIG when the Colonel has since independence been above a DIG. similarly a Lt gen made equal to DG when Lt Gen was always higher than a DG. its deliberately done to make these people fight for their rights by begging the leaders/babus. after 1971 leaders do not want real true soldiers hence beyond Col/Brig. to head the army. the govt. do not select the real soldier to become general.
Well the Armed Forces over the last two decades have been ridden with corruption, scandals and serious cases of gender gender related crimes.I have been never convinced on the need of sahayaks for Army Officers-a complete social evil.In the Navy the Topasses branch still survives 65 years of democratization and social upliftment.
The top brass of the Armed Forces seem increasingly unwilling to lead from the front.All evils in the Armed Forces is placed conveniently in the lap of bureaucrats and the MOD.
Generals, Admirals and Air Marshals come and go with no serious efforts to improvement of the morale , discipline and operational training of the forces.
In the 65 years of freedom the Armed forces have not had it better than now-pay, perks and facilities.Pensions have risen by almost 400 % for officers.The ratings still suffer, this is because by and large the Armed Forces themselves are unable to clear the paper work in their Record Offices and the jawan comes from villages where he has less contact with the organisation.
We had an Army Chief who spent last year of his tenure in building his own political turf post retirement , while the Army’s reputation plummeted with controversies galore.Even before the polish had dried from his combat boots, he was out in the open sharing dais with some political mavericks and half naked Sadhus, doing Govt bashing, of which he was part of for 40 plus years.
Another number of Chiefs have been named in all sorts of housing grab and land grab cases.Then of course there is this plethora of officers up to Lt Gen/Eqt involved in any number of scams across the Armed forces.
I really do not agree with the notion that officers should only come from the Elite classes and so called martial races.The best Armies in the world draw its officer corps from the general populace.I see no reason why it should be different in India.
I think the excuses have run out in 65 years of Indian democratic rule.It is not only the bureaucrats and the Govt alone who are responsible-agreed they are partly to blame-rest is leadership from within.
By and large we still are running an archaic colonial Armed Forces in many ways-at same time we seem to have dropped the rigid discipline, honesty, ethics,honor and ‘service before self’ that was part of the colonial Armed forces.We seem to have ‘Indianised’ the wrong value systems!
This incident cannot be ignored as a one off incident and swept under the carpet-it is an index of increasing discontentment within the Forces particularly the ever increasing chasm between the jawan and their officers.
Getting rid of the ‘sahayak’ system is a first step-it is an anachronism in modern civilisational context and the spin off is of 90,000 troops released to combat related duties which their primary role anyway.
zach the greatest flaw in our system is to allow a civilian NSA to advise the government on military affairs.In the same breath its ridiculous to have a technical officer comment on tactical situations.
It is very sad thing. If such incidents are happening time and again nation will pay more for it. The differences between jawans and officers are mainly due to reasons that I know most of the jawans although well qualified yet came from rural and poor population, whereas most of the officers now serving in our Army are selected right from the families of officers of the Army so serving or retired. This is aggrieved selection system and should be looked into carefully by our national leaders as well as Assembly of the Nation. I am really very much in shock to note why this facts are not being noticed by our very intelligent leaders. If you compare the bodies of our Defence officers with anyother nation’s officers one can assessed their physical standard. Thus Govt should initiate action on these facts so that jawans should get justice and prepared themselves ready to fight without any tension.
Indian Soldiers Plight- Suicide Cases, fragging,psychatric wards, desertation
The recent browl of indian Army at Srinagar again visibly pointed out the plight of indian soldiers. it is indeed a questionmark what kind of Medical treatment soldier Mr Ghosh would recieve from Army hospital that is controlled by Army Doctors who are again officers.
wherein the suicide rate in defence force is increasing year on year other factors of torture like referring the soldiers to Defence Psychatirc wards, stopping their leaves, putting them on hard duties, and last but not the least hitting them bruatally as in the recent case of Kashmir.
Sodiers seems to have no options as all the grievances machnism is controlled by officers and literally run by officers recommendation. hence soldiers are left with no options than commit suicide or moving to psychiatric ward of defence Hospital. unfortunately some of the soldiers get into fragging that is highly immoral.
Few of the soldiers finally desert the defence force and suffer all their lives as they cannot live a dignified life. though the lose their job after 3 years but they can never lead a normal life.
Few of them stand up and get beaten up very badly so that nobody ever stand up aginst the officers of defence forces.
Since there is no representation of solidiers they are always unheard and eventaully have to take up the extreme steps of commiting suicide, fragging, nervous breakdown or desertion.
There is a huge gap between the soldiers and army officers and this can be compared with caste system of ancient india. where soldiers are turned into the lower strata of society and Officers are Brahmins and exploitations of solidiers happened from his 1st day of enrollement into defence by the upper strata of defence that is officers.
fortunately caste sytem is India is diminishing and unfortunately into the defence forces the caste system is deepening with no signs of improvement and same is evident by the increaisng no of suicide, desertion, fragging and frequest browl.
Most unfortunate things attached to the plight of indian soldiers is they cannot get support from any NGO, goverment, beaurecrats etc, no media support. hence they are left out all alone. how long we would leave the defence as Sacred-cows with no interferance.
Let us request the most powerful Pillar of Indian Democracy to take up the cause of Indian solidiers suicide cases, desertion, psychiatric cases etc. we indian must stand up with our soldiers to save many more lives and ensure them dignity. Time has come when gap between soldiers and officers are reduced and somebody must ask tough questions like why only soldiers are suiciding, why only soldiers are into fragging, why only psychaitric ward of defence forces is filled with soldiers, why only soldiers deserts…. why there is no participation of officers into all this phase……
The incident is an indication of prevailing atmosphere of complete mistrust and command failure in the Regiment. It required a jawan’s suicide for erruption into an ugly situation.The present day jawan is much more educated and sensitive to his right to welfare and respect. He is very sensitive to the abrasive method of command and wishes to be treated as brother-in-arms.
I WOULD HAVE SENT SECTION COMMANDER UPWARDS UP TO CO TO HOME WITHOUT PENSION WITH PROPER TRIAL. A JAWAN COMMITTING SUICIDE FOR JUSTICE NEVER HEARD DISBAND FORTH WITH NO PROMOTION TO ANY ONE IN BALANCE OF SERVICE WEED OUR BAD ELEMENT WITH PROPER PHYSCO TESTS
The gravity of the situation and the “complete failure of command and control”
This is what i was trying to tell. It is not a failure of command and control but a total lack of competence in managing men and materials.
Mohanlal
DEAR SAD PART IS BABU WHO CONTROL HELM OF AFFAIRS ARE NEITHER KNOWING GRAVITY NOR THEY WILL UNDER STAND CAUSE IT IS BEYOND THEIR BRAINS BEING A SPECIAL JOB . THEY HAVE ALREADY CRIPPLED CIVIL LAW & MACHINERY NOW THE LAST STRAW ALSO THEY WILL DESTROY & WRATH WILL FALL ON THEM. THEY ARE NOT JAGO TYPE
many more such incidents are likely in future ……
Unless MOD act in haste. Army bosses are unlikely to accept the ground realities and might even claim after the inquiry that nothing like this has happened !
There is a total lack of man management skills as far as today’s officer class is concerned. As an officer who has served with the men in these hard terrains and now being with the civil one can really understands the difference. The men in the forces have changed but the managing systems in the forces nor those managing them are inculcated with the necessary competence. A high level thought process need to go into it and quick action lest we don’t want a demoralized force.
THE ARMY ETHOS HAVE CHANGED RIGHT TYPE OF OFFICER ARE NOT AVAILABLE. I WAS PRESIDING OFFICER FOR CAMPUS SELECTION IN HARYANA RAJSTHAN & DELHI ENGINEERING COLLEGES[UPSC LEVEL EXAM] . IN SPITE OF REDUCTION IN QUALIFY NORMS I COULD NOT GET MORE THAN 10 PER YEAR & I KNOW FINAL SELECTION ONLY ONE MAY BE THERE .THE NATIONALISM PART LOYALTY EXTRA ARE AT LOW LEVEL .CONCENTRATION ON SELF IS MORE.SIMILARLY MEN STANDARD HAS GONE DOWN NO DEDICATION NO LOYALTY NO RISK TAKING AS USE TO BE TWO DECADES EARLIER .EACH ON IS MORE MONEY MINDED .INITIAL PEOPLE USE TO COME FOR SERVE TO NATION MORE EVEN FROM ELITE FAMILIES NOW NO ONE FROM ELITE FAMILIES & LESSER OFFICER CHILDREN [CREAMY LAYER ABSENCE] HAS LOWERED THE STANDARD. REGIMENTATION IS ALL TIME LOW . WELFARE BY GENERAL IS ON PAPER NOW. IN FIRST 10 DAYS OF WAR THERE WILL BE VERY HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE. LATER ON MEN & OFFICER REGIMENTATION WILL AUTOMATICALLY DEVELOP FOR SURVIVAL. IN NEXT ONE YEAR SUCH MUTINY RATE MAY CROSS ONE PER MONTH. A VERY SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS. I FEEL SORRY AS I TOO HAVE SERVED ALTHOUGH LEFT LONG BACK GOD GIVE WISDOM TO BOTH MEN & OFFICER
It is a shame on the Officers of the unit that an incident of this sort was allowed to happen. All the jawans who took part in the ruckus should be demoblised forthwith and no mercy should be shown, lest it is going to set a precedent.The unit commander should be court martialled for not having any control over his officers and men. It looks like the officers were having a ball,with the commander not excercising his control ! All the guilty junior officers should be exemplarily punished. It is high time Army changes it’s colonial styles and I am sad to say that the present officer corps mostly comprises cheap charlies who join up to make or save money and not for a honourable career !
this will happen and going to be very serius for nation and forces as the officers are misusing their powrs which were given to them for war times only they behave like kings and treat their soldiers like slaves all welfare conceren thing are benificial for officers only and for jawans it is only ashqw buisiness