THE ARMY HAS BEEN CARICATURED
It was as a young major in 1978, while serving in an uncongenial and high altitude field area on the Indo – China border that; the Corps Commander* in his address to the participants on the conclusion of a War Game, expressed his deep concern and anguish at “the growing occurrence of spinelessness among officers”. Unctuous and ingratiating behavior has slowly but surely supplanted uprightness and courage of conviction in the emerging military leadership of the Army. Soldiering has most unfortunately yielded to the market forces of careerism and being good has most certainly lost out to becoming successful. The two have become mutually exclusive. It was only a matter of time when the Generalship in the Army would stoop to pitiable levels of conduct in the public perception. In an emerging era of media activeness and consequent public awareness, the prognosis could not have been truer, in the wake of the series of scams which came into public gaze in the past decade. The recent imbroglio concerning a serving Chief, most unfortunately dragged the reputation of two others into a tooth comb scrutiny by the media, for public consumption. Even the Army Head Quarter’s ineptitude to resolve an in house matter concerning an officer’s date of birth for over 36 years, is fatuous, to say the least. The junior, young and middle rung leadership of the Army is witness to a most bizarre display of rectitude and probity in the conduct of its superior ranked officers. In fact it has left most wondering about the very meaning of character driven leadership, the corner stone of an evolved paradigm of endowed authority as against positional.
While General V KSingh’s case is sub judice and will come up for hearing in the Delhi High Court on 10 th Feb 2012; the matter which must consume the attention of the public at large and the Army in particular, is the alleged communal motive implicitly imputed to an ex Chief to manipulate its line of succession. In doing so a grave wrong was initially perpetuated by One and subsequently underpinned by Another, for specious self serving reasons, respectively. These officers too were Institutions at that point in time and professionally represented the Army in the not too distant past. Even though we may continue to predicate that, a pliable Chief is desirable to the government; this position is not an explicit policy which enjoys official sanction. Therefore, is it to be now assumed that other than the principle of seniority which decides in favor of an Army Commander to be appointed as the Chief, the pliability index is the game changer? And, therefore by deduction, General VK Singh too was seen as pliable earlier, but now has bucked the System. This sort of an argument could go on and on, like wheel within wheels, to paint the Chiefs with the same brush and acknowledge in public gaze the caliber of our Generalship. Has the Indian Army, with its glorious and valorous history embellished by individual and collective deeds of sacrifice, patriotism, selflessness and service beyond the call of duty; been reduced to an object of raillery by the bureaucrats, who interface our organization with the political leadership of the Nation.
The fallout of the entire matter, which has hogged media limelight in the past months, has only brought the Machiavellian designs of our very own apex Institution into public domain and made the Army a laughing stock in people’s perception. It is not a case of tilting at the windmills and taking a resolute stand against a perceived injustice but instead, of understanding the responsibility which goes with a Position and Institution. When the matter is expounded into an argument for defending one’s honor and integrity, it sounds good to the ear and nothing more. Maturity and tolerance to ambiguity demands from one; the good sense to understand that, when one picks up one end of the stick, one also picks up the other. Therefore, irrespective of the outcome of the current controversy, which rests with the Courts of the land, the Army has been projected in very poor light and the Institution of the Chief largely undermined. Our fig leaf of rectitude and probity in our conduct and manner, as the moral icon of the Nation and the Youth of the Country has suffered a major set back. From what has been in the public domain on the current issue, the following has indisputably emerged-:
a) The Army Headquarters is inept and functions without commonsense
b) The Army Chiefs are pliable and therefore hold that position
c) An Army Chief was covertly communal and manipulated the truth to favor his own community
d) Army Chiefs could be as venal as others and can manipulate a line of succession for pecuniary gains
e) The Army has eroded its reputation in public perception
f) The next Army Chief will inherit an Institution with unwanted baggage, which could further contribute to greater control and authority over it by the bureaucracy
* The Officer later became the Chief of Army Staff
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal, VSM
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