Strict action expected against those involved in Samba mutiny

In the aftermath of a Court of Inquiry (CoI) report into the incidents of suicide of a soldier of an Army unit near the border town of Samba in J&K in August, 2012, and resultant tension between officers and soldiers of that unit, strong action is expected against those found guilty of dereliction of duty and negligence. Sources said action is expected to be taken against several personnel in the case. It could be either administrative action or disciplinary action that could lead to a court martial. As per rules, personnel can be dismissed from service even through administrative action. Action could be taken against both officers and soldiers in the matter.

The court of inquiry (CoI) is understood to have examined several aspects, including deterioration of officer-soldier ties in the unit and the circumstances that led to the suicide of the soldier. Any tension between officers and soldiers could trigger a breakdown in discipline and hierarchy besides severely damaging the morale of troops. In fact, officer-soldier ties are seen as extremely crucial and inherent in an Army unit and ensuring healthy ties constitutes part of the responsibilities of the officer commanding the unit.

Action is also expected soon against several other personnel in another incident that took place in 2012 involving a clash between Army officers and soldiers at Nyoma, located in the Ladakh sector of J&K just 23 km from the Line of Actual Control.

via The Asian Age.

Face-off in the Army, Soldiers refuse ‘menial jobs’

In yet another face-off between Army officers and soldiers, ten men refused to carry out alleged ‘menial jobs’ ordered by their superiors in Patiala in Punjab and returned to their regimental centre in protest.

The incident occurred last week when soldiers of the 56 Armoured Regiment returned to Armoured Regimental Centre in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra protesting against alleged ‘menial jobs’ assigned to them by the officers of the unit.

Taking a serious view of the incident, the Army is now planning to take strict disciplinary action in the case and a Court of Inquiry (CoI) has been ordered, Army sources said here.

The CoI is expected to take a holistic view of the whole episode and ascertain the reasons which led to the situation, they said.

The soldiers, who are clerks, refused to carry out their military duty of cleaning rifles and weapons and when the commanding officer (CO) asked them to perform Battlefield Physical Efficiency Tests (BPET) as form of a punishment, they protested and left for their regimental centre, they said.

This is the fourth such incident in the Army in last one year during which jawans have protested against their officers and three of them have taken place in tank regiments.

The last such incident took place in Samba in Jammu and Kashmir at the 16 Cavalry Unit where jawans and officers were engaged in a stand-off after the suicide of a jawan.

Prior to that, several officers and jawans including the CO of the regiment in Nyoma were injured after a fight between them.

Another incident took place at 45 Cavalry Unit in Gurdaspur in Punjab where officers and jawans clashed with each other after a training session.

CoIs in all these incidents have been ordered but they are yet to be completed.

-via NDTV

Army itself has to solve officer-jawan face offs: Raju

Against the backdrop of recent face-offs between jawans and army officers, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju today said it was a major “in-house” issue in military which needs to be tackled by its leadership.

“This is a major in-house issue of the military that has to be tackled. Nothing can be accomplished by the military if in any role the leadership is weak,” Raju said delivering the Field Marshal K M Kariappa Memorial Lecture here.

In recent times, there have been three cases of face-offs between officers and jawans including one in Nyoma (J&K) in May and the other one took place in an armoured unit deployed in Samba sector (J&K) in August.

Raju later told reporters that officers “have to be more sensitive and more guiding” in handling their personnel.

The minister, while dwelling on issue of civil-military relations in his speech, said, “problems of civil-military relations have and still exist in the country.”

“This calls for a mature military leadership to ensure these matters do not prove detrimental to bigger cause. The civilian leadership should realise the need to leverage and integrate rich experience of military leadership in nation’s management, governance and diplomacy,” he said, stressing on the need to “iron out” the difference through greater integration.

On the role of military in India, Raju said armed forces have remained apolitical and this has helped in strengthening democracy in the country. “The military forces have remained loyal to the elected government and have been its obedient servant,” Raju said.

-via Business Standard.

Comrades in arms no more

Rift within: A jawan recently climbed atop a mobile tower in Delhi, alleging harassment from superiors

There is something rotten in the state of the Indian Army. Brijesh Pandey decodes why jawans are turning against their superiors and why soldiers are leaving in droves.

VISHWAMOHANAN PILLAI was looking forward to welcoming his son home for Onam. Instead, what arrived at his doorstep was his son’s coffin. On 8 August, Arun V, a jawan of the 16th Light Cavalry regiment in Samba district of Jammu & Kashmir, committed suicide with his service weapon. Arun, 30, wanted to visit his family in Thiruvananthapuram during the holiday season, but his leave application was denied approval by his superiors. A frustrated Arun ended up taking his own life.

As soon as the news of his suicide broke, angry jawans protested against the officers concerned. The stand-off lasted for several hours. Additional troops had to be rushed to the spot to keep a lid on the situation and all the officers were moved out of their living quarters. The army ordered two courts of inquiry to probe the incident.

This incident came close on the heels of what happened at Nyoma sub-station at Leh involving the 226 Field Artillery regiment on 11-12 May. An orderly allegedly misbehaved with the wife of a Major, who beat him up. Despite the jawan being in a critical condition, the Major refused to let him get any medical treatment. This led to outrage among the fellow jawans. When the news reached the Commanding Officer (CO), he rushed to the spot and took the Major to task. Infuriated with the public dressing down, the Major and his colleagues beat up the CO. Seeing this, the jawans went berserk and thrashed the officers. Later, the General Officer Commanding in-charge was rushed to Leh to defuse the situation. The army downplayed the incident, calling it a “minor scuffle”, adding that a court of inquiry had been ordered.

When Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh was asked about the Samba incident, he termed the incident as an isolated one in the 1.13 million-strong Indian Army. He added that there was no connection between the suicide and the stand-off. “We are looking into the problems and trying to fix them,” he said.

The army chief was being economical with the truth. On 3 September, Defence Minister AK Antony told Parliament that Pillai’s suicide had led to “unrest” among the troops deployed in the Samba sector and that the suicide and the stand-off were not two different incidents. That was not all. Figures released by the defence minister revealed a scary picture, illustrating the level of disenchantment among the jawans and the officers.

According to Antony, more than 25,000 soldiers have opted for voluntary retirement in the past three years (10,315 in 2011, 7,249 in 2010 and 7,499 in 2009). He added that during the same period, more than 1,600 officers have either sought voluntary retirement or have resigned (this when the army is already reeling under a massive shortage of close to 12,000 officers). He also revealed that since 2003, more than 1,000 jawans have committed suicide.

So, what’s ailing the Indian Army? Why are the jawans and officers treating each other like enemies? Some officers are blaming the shortage of officers coupled with the dwindling quality of the recruits.

“The army has expanded a lot and there is a lack of quality due to it,” says Maj Gen (retd) Afsir Karim. “There is a structural problem in the way officers are recruited. There is also a problem with the higher command. They indirectly affect things like how the men are treated, where they are deployed.”

Maj Gen (retd) GD Bakshi has a different take. He believes that strong bonds are rarely formed between jawans and officers in a peacetime army. “Combat is the biggest glue,” he says. “It is the combat stress that makes you face death together.”

According to officers, there is a lack of communication between the commanding officers and jawans. One of the reasons is that there are not enough officers and secondly, not enough responsibility is given to the Junior Commissioned Officer, the critical link between the jawans and the officers. There is also a class bias. All financial handlings, court of inquiry, etc. are handled by officers. While a combat battalion requires 21 officers, only one-third of posts are filled on the ground. So every officer is, in effect, doing the job of three officers. That does not give adequate time to an officer to interact with his men as it should have been.

According to Lt Gen (retd) Raj Kadyan, “In our time, we used to have a notebook that had the personal details of every jawan under us such as his likes, dislikes, eccentricities, family, etc. Now, that kind of activity needs a lot of time because of the lopsided men-officer ratio.”

Officers also blame the lack of promotion options. According to a former commander, “Only 25 percent of the officers become Colonels; and only 0.05 percent get the chance of becoming a General. My batch had 1,200 commissioned officers and I was the only one who became a commander. There is plenty of frustration among the officer corps. After spending many years, everybody wants a good rank.”

The bulk of the jawans who used to join the army earlier came from villages, with little exposure. In the past 15-20 years, most of the jawans have been coming from semi-urban and urban areas. They are more educated and highly aspirational. They are not keen on blindly following their superior’s orders.

IN 2007, Antony had asked the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR) to investigate suicides and fratricide in the army. The DIPR concluded that high workload, lack of adequate rest and leaves, nonabundance of basic amenities and domestic concerns coupled with inadequate and insufficient support from the civil administration were the most prevalent factors causing stress among troops.

According to Maj Gen (retd) GD Bakshi, “A lot has changed in the past 20 years. The reality is that there is lack of respect for the army. Earlier, it was a matter of pride to be in the army. People would look up to you with awe. Now, you are a fool, wasting your prime for nothing.”

Senior officers admit that the recent cases of corruption involving top generals have also not helped the cause.

After his statement in Parliament, Antony met the three service chiefs and discussed the issues of suicides, retirements and fratricide. He asked the chiefs to ensure that officers should be liberal while granting leaves to jawans. He also asked the defence ministry to get in touch with the railways to ensure that whenever a jawan goes on leave, he immediately gets a reservation.

While the ministry is making all the right noises, it is for the army to do some serious introspection about effective manmanagement skills that not only treats its jawans well, but also takes into account the society’s changing aspirations.

-via Tehelka

Why is officer-men relationship declining in the Army?

Nitin Gokhale.

Is the Indian Army feeling the heat of being in perpetual operations? Are our soldiers’ stress levels peaking dangerously? Making them prone to acts of indiscriminate violence? asks Nitin Gokhale.

Is the famed officer-men relationship in the Indian Army on the verge of a breakdown? How should one read recent incidents of indiscipline, rebellion/revolt, physical scuffles and suicides in the Army?

If you ask the top brass, most tend to brush aside the incidents as aberrations. Army Chief General Bikram Singh had in fact asserted that the suicide in an armoured unit in Samba and the subsequent fracas between officers and men was not related.

On Monday, September 3, Defence Minister A K Antony contradicted the army chief’s assertion. In a written answer to the Lok Sabha, Antony said: ‘The incident of suicide by an army personnel on 8th August 2012 in the Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir led to unrest.’

On the face of it, the development is a major worry since absolute trust between officers and men in the Indian Army is the bedrock on which the combat units are built.

Indeed, when a former vice-chief of the army Staff, Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi also says it’s a matter of concern, it’s time to take note.

In a recent article General Oberoi says: ‘Three incidents of collective indiscipline by jawans in the last few months, reflecting a breakdown in the traditionally close officer-man relationship, are a cause for concern, especially as all three of them are related to combat units, where a stable and healthy officer-man relationship is an article of faith.’

And yet, some of the breathless commentary in the media attributing the breakdown to ‘clash of class’ between officers and men is born out of incomplete understanding of the working of the Indian Army.

Yes, there is a problem. But the problem is an outcome of a combination of factors: Erosion in the soldiers’ status in the society, prolonged deployment in monotonous and thankless counter-insurgency jobs, crippling shortage of officers’ in combat units and ironically easier communication between families and soldiers!

The Samba incident compels me to ask: What is it that drives a jawan to desperation? Is it just the tension of operating in the counter-insurgency? Or is there something more to it than meets the eye?

There are no straight answers but figures available since 2003 clearly indicate that that the Indian Army is facing one of its biggest challenges in history. Consider the figures:
In 2003, 96 army men committed suicide.
In 2004, this number was exactly 100.
In 2005, 92 of them took their own lives.
In 2006, 131 army personnel committed suicide.
In 2007 and 2008 the recorded figures were 142 and 150 respectively.
Since then the numbers have come down, but still remain over 100.
2009: 111; 2010: 130; 2011: 102.

Given that India has an 11-lakh strong army, these numbers may not be huge but for a force that prides itself on its standards of training and discipline, it is certainly a matter of concern if not alarm.

One can also point out the fact that in the American army this year alone the rate of suicide (till June 8) was one-a-day. That’s hardly a consolation.

Therefore, it’s time to ask the question: Is the Indian Army feeling the heat of being in perpetual operations? Are our soldiers’ stress levels peaking dangerously? Making them prone to acts of indiscriminate violence?

There is no denying the fact that come summer, winter or rains, soldiers continue their daily patrols along the Line of Control in Kashmir. Every day and night at least a thousand foot patrols spread out in Jammu and Kashmir to try and corner terrorists. The job is risky and can even get monotonous. A bullet can come from anywhere any time. So one has to always be alert. But the chase is mostly futile. Nine out of ten times the patrols return empty-handed.

After nearly 14 years of counter-terrorism in Kashmir, the army has got used to the apparent hardship of uninterrupted operations. The fear of the enemy, claims each man that I have talked to, is nominal. ‘We have no tension in this respect (counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency), we had joined the army precisely for this kind of work,’ is the constant refrain from soldiers.

Officers say their biggest duty is to ensure that men are fully trained to face any situation in counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism.

‘A fully-trained soldier is a confident soldier and effective soldier,’ commanding officers say whenever one meets them.

But this practised auto-reply could cloak a very different reality.

A psychiatric study by army doctors a couple of years ago on ‘Evolving Medical Strategies for Low Intensity Conflicts’ revealed the huge range of issues soldiers in such situations have to confront, contradictions between war and low intensity conflict situations and particularly the concepts of ‘enemy’, ‘objective’ and ‘minimum force’. There are no clear-cut victories like in wars. Some other findings were:

In general war the nation looks upon the soldier as a saviour, but here he is at the receiving end of public hostility.
A hostile vernacular press keeps badgering the security forces, projecting them as perpetrators of oppression.
Continuous operations affect rest, sleep and body clocks, leading to mental and physical exhaustion.
Monotony, the lure of the number-game and low manning strength of units lead to over-use and fast burn-out.

Leading psychiatrists also feel that there is disconnect between what a soldier is trained for and what he ends up doing in low-intensity conflicts.

I remember that some years ago Dr Nimesh Desai, a psychiatrist, had told me: “There is a certain dissonance in what the soldier feels when he operates in low intensity conflict. He is trained for war, to go all out against an enemy but in insurgency, he is told to hold back. Plus there is no end in sight for such operations. It is the constant tension that gets him.”

Operating in a tension-ridden counter-insurgency environment does lead to certain stress among the jawans, but that is only one of the factors.

The main worry are the problems back home — land disputes — tensions within the family, rising aspirations, lack of good pay and allowances, and also the falling standards of supervision from some officers, all these factors have led to major stress.

Company commanders who lead field units in counter-insurgency situations also believe that tensions at home transmit themselves much quicker today. Since almost 80 per cent of India’s foot soldiers come from rural and semi-urban areas, most of them have strong links with the land.

For the ordinary soldier, the smallest patch of land back home is the most precious property. Again, I have frequently come across a common thread where soldiers say there is no tension in actual work of counter-insurgency. The main problem for the fauji comes from his domestic situation.

Very often land gets encroached in his native village or there is a dispute over even the smallest of property. “There is always a tension. The police don’t listen to us. My parents feel helpless, I become tense every time I go back home,” I remember a soldier telling me in the Kashmir valley.

One more common thread among soldiers from Rajasthan to UP, from Tamil Nadu to Haryana was how little respect they seem to command today in a society which devalues their work.

As a former army commander had once pointed out: “You see he comes from a society where he compares himself with others and when he realises that he is at a disadvantage since acceptance wise, the kind of respect that his predecessors had is no longer there.”

Very often insensitive civil administrations create tensions.

Senior officers point out that most suicide and fratricide cases take place after soldiers return from a spot of leave. The feeling of frustration can bring in helplessness which in turn leads to suicides and fratricide, it creates an impression that no one listens to the army. It is the system that sends the man in uniform into a depression.

It is precisely this concern that had prompted Defence Minister A K Antony to write to all chief ministers some years ago asking them to sensitise district administrations in their states to the needs of the soldiers. State governments were asked to set up a mechanism at district and state levels to address soldiers’ grievances.

The harsh reality is that men in uniform no longer command the respect they did in the early years after Independence. Today, they have to fight for getting equivalence with officers of Group A central government services!

And yet, the army must look within too.

Soldiers these days are better educated and consequently better aware of their rights. This, coupled with falling standards of command and control among some of the undeserving officers who have risen to command units, is becoming a major cause for worry.

An acute shortage of officers at the cutting edge level is the other big factor contributing to an increasing gap between soldiers and officers. Against an authorised strength of over 22 officers for a combat battalion, there are at best 8 or 9 officers available to the Commanding Officer these days.

Very often young officers with less than two years of service are commanding companies! Even in the battalion headquarters, one officer ends up doing the job of three given the shortage. There is no time to interact with soldiers. In the old days, a game of football or hockey was the best way to get to know each other. Not any longer.

Moreover, soldiers no longer accept a wrong or unjustified command blindly. The old attitudes among some of the COs, of lording over ORs and expecting them not to protest/revolt must change.

It is ironic that while there is a shortage of over 12,000 officers in the army, the majority of staff postings are fully subscribed, but combat units have to do with bare minimum strength!

While there is no single reason that can be cited as THE cause for suicides and recent standoffs that have happened in quick succession, the army leadership will have to take a hard look at the disturbing developments and come up with quick but effective solutions.

Apart from increasing the intake of officers, the army leadership will have to take a conscious decision to post more officers in combat units and make do with shortages in the staff.

Reportedly, the new Military Secretary, Lieutenant General Ata Hasnain, a compassionate soldier himself, has been tasked with formulating a new human resource policy for the army. One hopes, he comes up with innovative ideas to nix this new menace in the initial stage.

-via Rediff