DANGEROUS IMBALANCE

NOT ANYMORE

Indian Armed Forces have been deeply shunned by the sixth pay commission. A largely ignorant society and the state have virtually remained mute in the entire setback. It is evident that the Armed Forces have never got their dues from pay commissions ever as the government remains trapped in the models prepared by bureaucrats. A continuous dominance of bureaucracy has sidelined this profession to such a low that even the best and the brightest officers of Armed Forces have refused to go for prestigious courses like the Senior Command, Higher Command or even the Staff Course. In most cases these officers are even opting for premature retirement from service. Statistics of pay and allowances after the sixth pay commission reveals that the difference of simple monetary returns between an IAS officer and an Armed Forces Officer to be over TWO CRORE RUPEES after their services. A services officer stands nowhere against his IAS counterpart in this respect; this is over and above the separation from his family which works out to be almost 70% of service. Such a turmoil within the Armed Forces, should be a cause of worry for any nation but India appears to be different.

State makes a sacred relations with her soldiers. While a soldier lays down his or her life, the state should ensure the safety of their family and pride for them. This is a very basis for the survival of a nation. A nation should look for a good bargain or else the implications could be disastrous.

Design: Maj Surender Singh, Graphics: Samson Robert, Photo: Lt Sandhu, Engineer & a part time army officer with Indian Territorial Army

JASWANT HAS PAID THE PRICE FOR BEING MODERATE

Recent expulsion of senior party leader Jaswant Singh by the BJP has once again reaffirmed its fundamentalist ideology. The party, widely considered as the face of RSS, began its march in the political corridors of India with the demolition of Babri Masjid. It was a high note to start, coupled with the raised religious expectations of Hindus; but fell miserably as the party failed in building the Ram Temple during its tenure at centre. Whatever might have been the political compulsions, it was aptly clear that India can not be ruled with religious hatred. Lost in the identity crises, the party tried to be moderate, but seemed, as almost impossible to give up the fundamentalist approach. The RSS had a say in that. This was again visible in the recent debacle of Lok Sabha elections.

An ugly face of party came out in public during the brainstorming sessions post parliamentary elections. Leaders like Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh were virtually sidelined for their independent and moderate thinking. It was more to do with their not so fundamental ethics. Again, it was RSS at its best. The sevaks could not tolerate the emergence of independent thinking. The selective sacking of Jaswant Singh followed by a ban on his book in Gujrat is perhaps, a warning to all those moderates. Jaswant Singh has called this ban, a ban on thinking. He has been sacked for having a point of view on Jinnah, whereas, similar was the case of L K Advani when he also praised Jinnah on a visit to Pakistan.

It may seem like an internal matter of BJP but the implications are grave for India's democratic structure. It has sent an open alarm that religious politics is here to stay.

Jaswant Singh , a Soldier and a Politician

Jaswant Singh, an alumnus of the India's National Defence Academy, passed out with the 11th course on 01 Dec 1956 and was later commissioned into the Indian Army's Central India Horse in 1957. He resigned his military commission to join politics. A six term Member of Parliament (of both houses), he was appointed Minister of External Affairs in Dec 1998. On 13 Oct 1999, he was reappointed as the Minister of External Affairs following the elections and formation of the new Government. In Government, he has held a variety of posts in the past, as Minister of Finance and Minister of Electronics and Surface Transport; has chaired several Govt of India Task Forces, including Telecom, IT and Infrastructure, thus preparing the policy framework subsequently adopted by the Govt. He has also been the Dy Chairman of the National Planning Commission. Suave diplomacy, excellent oratorical skills and a reputation for solidity characterise him as an outstanding and respected politician.

SHORTAGE OF GOOD LEADERS IN INDIA , A TAKE ON THE CITIZENS' ARMY

A TIMES OF INDIA editorial read as under :

Numbers Tell The Story
(Ajai Sahni18 August 2009, 12:00am IST)

"Our national leadership is constantly advocating 'out of the box solutions' to meet a rising tide of national crises. But it has persistently and obdurately ignored the quotidian and necessary tasks of governance and of maintaining minimum strength and standards in the institutions already 'in the box'. In India today, basic capacities for governance, enterprise and social action have been allowed to decline to such an extent that the most rudimentary tasks of nation-building, indeed, even of administrative maintenance, cannot be executed with a modicum of efficiency.

Ironically, this has happened over decades of a public and media discourse about 'bloated government', 'massive police force', 'gigantic expenditure on the bureaucracy', the need to 'downsize government', and other politically correct slogans based on extraordinary ignorance of fact. A look at the most rudimentary statistics may help pull some heads out of the sand.

After numberless terrorist attacks and years of hammering away at every possible forum with the basic data, India's abysmal police-population ratio appears to have found marginal registration in segments of the leadership, at least at the Centre. The ratio, at 125/1,00,000 in end-2007 (it is expected to have risen significantly thereafter, though nowhere approaching what is necessary) stands against western ratios that range between 200 (Australia: 209) and over 500 (Italy: 556). Western police forces, moreover, have tremendous qualitative advantages in manpower, technology, infrastructure, financial resources and conditions of work, and are rarely required to deal with proxy wars and insurgency.

The police are not the only organisation in crisis. Every government institution in the country has been hollowed out by political incompetence and ignorance. A look at the 'bloated bureaucracy' is instructive. The embedded principle in American democracy is that 'the best government is the least government'. Consequently, the state focuses as exclusively as possible on 'core functions' and minimises engagement in welfare and activities that can be taken over by the private sector. The administrative philosophy in India is the exact opposite, with government's fingers planted firmly in every possible pie.

That is why the ratio of government employees to population in the two countries is the more astonishing: the US federal government has a ratio of 889 employees per 1,00,000; India's Union government has just 295. State and local government employees in the US account for another 6,314 per 100,000; in sharp contrast, Uttar Pradesh has 352; Bihar, 472; Orissa, 1,007; Chhattisgarh, 1,067; Maharashtra, 1,223; Punjab, 1,383; Gujarat, 1,694. Worse, in India, the overwhelming proportion of government employees is in the lower cadres, class III and IV, as against the 'thinking' element of the state in higher echelons. Even in the latter category, qualitative profiles, including modern and administrative skills, training and technological competence, are severely limited.

Then, look at the 'second largest army in the world'. At about 1.4 million, the current strength of the armed forces appears large in absolute terms but is utterly inadequate in terms of India's population, territory and strategic projections as an 'emerging global power'. India's ratio of active duty uniformed troops to population works out to about 1:866. China's ratio is 1:591; UK's 1:295; Pakistan's 1:279; the US's 1:187. Again, the Indian armed forces' technological and resource capabilities compare adversely to those of the modernised western powers, and the army is way overstretched in conventional defence and counter-insurgency deployments. It can only be hoped that the navy chief's dark assessment of capacities relative to China will ring a few alarm bells.

Given the magnitude of delays that mar the judicial process, it is not surprising to find this institution is probably the worst off in terms of human assets. India has about 1.2 judges per 1,00,000 population. The Law Commission, in its 120th report, recommended a much-augmented ratio of 5 judges per 1,00,000 - a more than fourfold increase. But even this projected ratio would compare adversely with most countries that could be categorised as reasonably administered. The US has nearly 11 judges per 1,00,000 population; Sweden: 13; China: 17; and, at the top of the scale, Belgium: 23; Germany: 25; and Slovenia: 39!

The obvious 'solution', theoretically, would be to initiate massive recruitment to fill up these deficits. Government revenues have grown tremendously over the past decades, so that seems feasible. But it is here that the system hits a wall. Forget lack of political will, corruption, bureaucratic delays, interminable selection processes or absence of training capacities. India has an abysmal 9 per cent higher education participation rate, lower than the average for Africa at 10 per cent. An overwhelming majority of 'graduates' come out of third-rate institutions and are in fact unemployable, lacking essential language and reasoning skills. For all our boasting about the 'youth bulge', India simply does not have the manpower profile to fuel a modern nation and it will take decades before suitable profiles can be generated to meet the demands of modern governance, commerce and society."

The writer is executive director, Institute for Conflict Management.


Issue raised by the author is an alarming one, India lack the depth of good leaders in almost all stratas of her national mechanism. The statistics quoted can not be ignored as the stakes are too high. What is more important is to give a more logical thought to it. Now, when it comes to the army, the auther reccomends the rationalisation of strength, whereas, I feel the otherway round. Rather than raising more manpower, we can go in for the broader concept on CITIZENS' ARMY in India. It is prevalent all over the world, why cant in India? A huge part Time army with a strong nucleas of regular elements should be the option for india. In this way, we can ensure the supply of good leaders in society at a very minimal cost. These part time members of the CITIZENS' ARMY can fulfill the wide gap of all sections of our society along with serving in the army. To be more precise, almost 70% elements of the UNITED STATES ARMY belongs to the NATIONAL GUARDS in sharp contrast to 40000 TERRITORIAL ARMY personnel against a huge 1.4 million strong REGULAR ARMY in INDIA. The Americans have a great culture of national service, they never fall short of leaders, even their Presidents have served in this organisation. Similar is the case of all leading democracies all over the world. Unfortunatly, we in India dont even talk on this issue, we dont even know that we also have a CITIZENS' ARMY in India. What is worst is that our policy makers are almost ignorant of this fact.

Picture: Capt Jagdeesh, Chartered Accountant & an officer in the INDIAN TERRITORIAL ARMY

Design : Maj Surender Singh, Graphics : Samson Roberts