WHY THIS GOOF-UP IN HARYANA? M.G. Devasahayam

The haste with which the Army was deployed in Haryana by airlifting troops to Rohtak is a serious matter. The Army is the last resort for quelling civilian riots, not the first one. What Haryana did is akin to using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

In the midst of military operation to quell the Jat protest in Haryana there was an innocuous media report suggesting that Army personnel had been put under the command of BS Sandhu, Additional DGP (Law and Order). The report also said that the state government has asked the Army to be called in eight districts. In this matter the “Chief Secretary had spoken to the Army Chief and the Chief Minister to the Defence Minister”. The effort was to deploy the Army as soon as possible to control the situation.  

This report went viral on the veteran’s email circuit with some senior officers, including former Generals, venting their spleen at the humiliation meted out to the Army by placing its men under the command of the police. Lt Gen (retd) SK Bahri shot off an angry letter to the Union Home Minister.

Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, GOC, 1 Corps quickly intervened and clarified the position in an email: “The troops in Haryana are from 1 Corps, which I command and there is no question about they being under anyone’s command other than mine… I visited them yesterday and today the Army Commander was with them. We have a commander in each district commanding his troops. The police assist us in identifying local people, tracks and disturbed areas.” 

This assuaged the veterans and the anger faded away. But the bitter fact is that there is a huge trust deficit between the government and the veterans, which is also has a ripple effect on serving soldiers. 

This is not in national interest. The Haryana government seems to have goofed up the entire handling of the situation.

The provision of the Army in aid of civil authority is governed by Section 130 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). This legal clause states that decision to requisition “armed forces” to disperse “violent assembly of people,” which cannot otherwise be dispersed by the police or other forces available, should be taken by the “Executive Magistrate of the highest rank,” which is the District Magistrate, called the Deputy Commissioner in Haryana. Such Magistrate “may require any officer in command of any group of persons belonging to the armed forces to disperse the assembly with the help of the armed forces under his command, and to arrest and confine such persons forming part of it as the Magistrate may direct, or as it may be necessary to arrest and confine in order to disperse the assembly or to have them punished according to law.” 

Law also says that “every such officer of the armed forces shall obey such requisition in such manner as he thinks fit, but in so doing he shall use as little force and do as little injury to person and property, as may be consistent with dispersing the assembly and arresting and detaining such persons.” 

Law and the standard operating procedure are clear. District Magistrates are the competent authority to requisition the Army as the local situation demands. After requisition, when the situation is handed over to the Army by a written order from the Magistrate, the Army is entirely in control with the officer-in-command in charge. Only that the Army is expected to bring the situation under control quickly and hand it back to the civil authorities and exit the scene.  

The Army presence, at best, should be just about for a week. 

Under no circumstance can the Army be placed under the command of the police. This is an essential part of fair civil administration because the Army is expected to be totally impartial and unprejudiced while dealing with an explosive law and order situation, which might have arisen because of excess committed by the police resulting in a head-on confrontation with the rioting public.

Neither is there any provision for “bulk requisitioning” of the Army by the Chief Secretary or the Chief Minister directly dealing with the Army Chief or the Defence Minister. These are serious distortions that have crept into basic governance over a period of time due to civil servants pandering to the whims of politicians.  

The haste with which Army was deployed in Haryana by airlifting troops to Rohtak is another serious matter. 

Army is the last resort for quelling civilian riots, not the first one. What Haryana did is akin to using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

What is strange is that Army Chief, General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who belongs to Haryana, appears to have taken personal interest in this “show of extreme force.” As the Eastern Army Commander, he had taken more than four days to move the Army when Kokrajhar and a few other districts of Assam were burning from communal violence and the death toll had crossed 100. 

District Magistrates there had requisitioned the force directly and the Army was already in deployment near district towns. Yet Suhag had cited procedures for the delay, which is contrary to the mandate of Section 130 CrPC. 

There is a lurking suspicion that he may have become an unwitting accomplice to a well-manipulated plan to silence democratic dissent sweeping all over the country.

This has happened despite the presence of nearly 50 companies, or around 5,000 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the state, in addition to over 60,000 Haryana policemen, including Special Armed Police based in Madhuban near Karnal. In addition, there are several other paramilitary forces with huge strength whose services could have been requisitioned. 

The Army Doctrine-2004 clearly defines its role in national security and maintenance of law and order. The primary role is to preserve national interests and safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity and the unity of India against any external threats by deterrence or by waging war. 

The secondary role is to assist Government agencies to cope with “proxy war” and other internal threats and provide aid to civil authority when requisitioned for the purpose. 

Relegating the Army to its secondary role by constant troop deployment on internal security duties, dilutes the Army’s authority, corrupts ranks and compromises efficiency through lack of training. 

Besides, over time soldiers of the Army are looked upon merely as riot controllers in olive green, losing the respect and mystique they traditionally enjoyed. 

This also lulls the bloated civil police and paramilitary forces that continue to grow, but remain incapable of maintaining law and order. 

Haryana’s proud Jat community reducing themselves to seek charity from the government in the form of quota is bad enough. But resorting to such violence and rioting is a permanent blur on this martial community. There must very strong socio-economic compulsions for Jats to take to this inglorious path. Powers that be in Haryana must learn one lesson from this royal goof-up. 

That is, to properly diagnose the causes for this flare-up and take remedial steps before it is too late. 

Letting loose the Army’s might is certainly not the answer.

The writer is a former IAS officer of the Haryana cadre - (who served a stint in the Army).

(Source- via e-mail from Carl Gomes Vet)

SOME DISTURBING HOME TRUTHS

1. The cheapest commodity in India is the soldier's life

2. The only item which doesn't freeze in sub zero temperatures and continues working - the Indian soldier

3. The only item which doesn't get fried in 50 degrees centigrade heat & continues to work perfectly - the Indian soldier 

4. The fastest, the fiercest, the best & also the lowest paid Indian in the sky - the IAF pilot

5. Protectors of the Indian shoreline at the lowest cost - the Indian Navy

6. Always at your service when you are in trouble - floods, earthquake, riots, agitations - Indian Armed Forces

7. Immediately forgotten after your job is done - Indian Armed Forces

8. The most downgraded item for every successive Pay Commission - Indian Armed Forces

(Source- Via e-mail from  Brig V A Subramanyam (Retd)

THE THREE MAGIC WORDS - 'THANK YOU', 'SORRY' and 'PLEASE' : Some one in the civil penned his feelings about the man in uniform

Dear Soldier of the Indian Armed Forces,

While the whole nation today is busy debating the contours of nationalism, I’m writing to you – whom I believe to be the best example of someone who works unconditionally for the good of the nation. I’m writing to say those three magic words they taught us as kids – thank you, sorry and please. And because I know you prefer straight talking to needless drama, I’ll keep it direct.

The Indian flag

First and foremost, I’m shouting out a heartfelt “THANK YOU” for all you have done and continue to do for me and my countrymen and our country. Over the past many years, I have witnessed your unflinching resolve to do what is right, your willingness to go the extra mile and your constant putting of others before self. I have marveled at your readiness to venture into deadly territory because it’s the only way to protect this motherland and her citizens, despite the fact that many of them stay indifferent to her and to you.

Next, I’m offering an equally deep apology and saying, “SORRY.”

I’m sorry for the fact that you and your near and dear ones have to undergo such hardships to ensure people like me wake up secure every morning. 

I’m sorry that people who know nothing of your tribulations and have not experienced even a minute of your life, sit in judgment on your eligibility to qualify for a pension that you’ve earned a thousand times over.

I’m sorry on behalf of all the armchair analysts and media dimwits who think they have the aptitude to pronounce your actions inept and careless and question if you deserve to be honored when you fall in the line of duty. 

I’m sorry that there exist some people who are the anti-thesis of what you are and what you stand for – people who advocate separatism and shout slogans of chopping our country to pieces and say every day in a nation is a plebiscite and yet, complain of their freedom of speech being snatched when someone so much as counters their insinuations with hard facts.

I’m sorry that one among you has to cry on national television to make us common citizens, the beneficiaries of your sacrifices, aware of what the National Flag should mean to us. And mixed in with this grief is anger at some media persons who ask what the drama is all about when they are the ones who don’t hesitate to milk every distressing incident in the country for their TRPs.

And I’m even sorrier that a few members of my so-called noble profession choose to misguide young minds onto paths that advocate an anti-national mindset.

And now, finally, I’ll tell you why I decided to write this letter.

When I was young and studying in college, I attended a leadership seminar and that was my first brush with the Indian Armed Forces. No, the Indian Navy did not host or sponsor the seminar. It did not put up a stall to sell the idea of a glorious future which – in every sense – it does provide. All It did was send a cadet, a chap still a little green behind the ears, still a work-in-progress, to attend that eminently forgettable seminar. There’s not much I learned about leadership during those two days at the seminar.

But a chance meeting with that cadet has meant a learning of a lifetime.

I watched the journey he made in the Indian Navy over the last two decades in bits and parts from the outside of the arena he chose to inhabit. Perhaps because my interactions with him were sporadic over the years, I’ve been able to appreciate the spectacular unfolding of an exceptional individual, a maturing of the intellect and the heart, under the tutelage of the Indian Navy. And this experience, along with all the other things I mentioned at the beginning of the letter, leads me to view the armed forces with utmost veneration.

Over the past few months, I have watched a rare cynicism begin to tinge the comments of this exemplary soldier towards us civilians. What he finds infinitely hurtful is the apathy of the silent, indifferent majority. He tells me we are a jingoistic nation, not a patriotic one. And I’m inclined to agree. And I’m also afraid that if the scenario today can do this to someone like my friend, imagine what it must be like for someone sailing in the middle of the vast open sea or patrolling the Siachen glacier or toiling in the Thar desert  to guard his country’s borders?

But “PLEASE”, please do not let these people make you cynical about your countrymen. I agree, many of us are slumbering, lost in our own petty problems of day to day living, with nary a thought to spare for our country and you, her guardians, and for whom, Lance Naik Hanumanthappa is nothing more than another statistic.

Some of us are a shade better – we are armchair patriots who put up few Facebook posts and send out a few Tweets when we’re episodically moved by the exploits of our Armed Forces. Standing for the national anthem in the comfortable environs of a multiplex or cheering loudly when India beats Pakistan in a cricket match is the outer limit of our patriotism.

But dear soldier, let me also tell you that there are some of us who try very hard to serve our country in whatever way we know best. We try to stretch out of our comfort zone and reach out to the needy in society and try to fulfill that need, or empower them to grow out of that need. We work to educate our people about the greatness of this nation and what she stands for. We want India to forge ahead and take her rightful place in the global order and we cherish the vital role your sacrifices play in letting us dream on. We are the people who are doers in million small ways, but you won’t find our stories on any national news channel or in any newspaper. We have not much time to spend on self-marketing on social media either – in fact, some of us don’t even know of its existence. We don’t form part of the condescending elite who view India indulgently as if she were a unique specimen worth chuckling over or ridiculing for her apparent contradictions.

We only know that it is a great fortune to be born in this land that gives us such freedom of thought and action. And we know also of the pain that comes when someone is indifferent to our cause or sits in biased judgment over us.

We are ever grateful to you and moved and touched by the way you perform your duty unflinchingly. If ever you look at happenings in our country and wonder what you are struggling for, remember this letter, dear soldier. And know that there are others too working for India’s good albeit in an understated way that can never match your heroism. We too are working without any reward or recognition, together with you, but by different methods and levels of effort towards the same goal.

Today, every single member of the Indian Armed Forces is prepared to give up his life for the nation. The day each and every citizen of this country shows this same willingness to sacrifice everything for the motherland, that will be the beginning of her glorious future.

I thank you for reading this through to the end, dear soldier. God bless.

—A patriotic Indian

(Source- Via e-mail from Col NK Balakrishnan (Retd)

OROP ANAMOLIES - MR. RAJIV CHANDRASEKHAR MP WRITES A LETTER TO RAKSHA MANTRI

 Defense Personnel have been further degraded in 7CPC.

1. 
   

I hope all the elected politician /parties/armchair activists etc who used martyred army soldiers  in recent incidents will stand up and support OROP. we need each one of you to show your solidarity to the armed forces when they need it........not when we need it..

JAI HIND

(Source- via e-mail from Chander Prakash, Vet) 

Aims to achieve the goal of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’ :: Govt proposes to strike down several “irrelevant” laws: Dr Jitendra Singh

Addressing a meeting of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to review the action plan for the year 2016, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that Government plans to strike down “irrelevant” laws by repealing or revoking more than thousand existing ones as a part of its mission to achieve the goal of minimum government and maximum governance.

Reiterating the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call to do away with avoidable laws and rules, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Government will abolish several of the existing laws which have ceased to be relevant in the present date and time. Disclosing that as many as 1053 laws are pending for Parliament approval to be repealed, Dr Jitendra Singh said about 649 laws have been sent and circulated among Ministries and States for comments and the process of repealing or revoking them will be carried forward after obtaining the comments of the concerned Ministries and Departments.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the DoPT proposes to reduce the number of tribunals from 36 to 17 and at the same time, reduce or restructure as many as 685 autonomous bodies/institutions during the year 2016. In the times to come, the DoPT will also chalk out a possible plan for exit of Government sectors from hospitals, air services etc and a sunset clause will also be attached to every new scheme.

In a bid to ensure ease of governance, Dr Jitendra Singh said that a mechanism will be worked out wherein the information already available on the official websites or official portals is not to be asked for through RTIs etc, in order to reduce the pendency and workload accruing from such queries. While the work on simplified one-page form and self-attestation of certificates has already begun, the DoPT is also working out the feasibility of issuing the Residence/Domicile certificates as well as SCs/STs/OBCs certificate at primary age to every child by class 5, he added.

Shri Sanjay Kothari, Secretary DoPT and senior officers of the Department were present at the meeting.

(Source- PIB, via Govt employees diary)

Downgrading the military is bad for nation's health - By: Nitin A. Gokhale

Sunday, 21 February 2016 

In the last 48 hours, the Indian army is once again in the news. One, for its deployment in Haryana to control the Jat agitation in the state which spiraled out of control, thanks to inept political and administrative handling. And two, losing a young officer, a para-commando officer—who incidentally was a graduate from the Jawaharlal Nehru University—in an on-going operation in Kashmir. It is not clear if the para-military forces—CRPF and BSF—were deployed in Haryana after the police lost control over the situation but what is evident is that increasingly, the Army is being called in to deal with what essentially are law and order situations. The decision to deploy the Army in Haryana at the first indication of trouble instead of using it as the last resort is debatable but given that the agitators were hell bent on destruction of public property and indiscriminate violence, perhaps the decision was unavoidable.

The Army has in the past done whatever job it has been assigned to do and will continue to do so in the future too, its reservations on certain aspects of decision-making notwithstanding but what hurts the men in olive green is the continuing attempts to downgrade the Army’s status and constantly downplay its contribution to the national effort. The award of the 7^th Central Pay Commission (CPC)—thankfully only a recommendation so far not accepted by the government–is a case in point. It seeks to place the Army at par or below the central armed police forces (CAPFs) through granting lower grade pay and lesser allowances. This is harmful to the Army–and the nation in the process–in the long run for several reasons.

Progressive degradation of status of Armed Forces personnel has had alarming adverse impact on self esteem of personnel and hence their operational effectiveness. International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) in its issue of 12 Dec 2013 listed the findings of its research stating that only eight per cent of youth surveyed opted to join Armed Forces as against 58 per cent choosing to join other Central government services although Armed Forces Officers cadre constitutes 72 per cent of all Group A and All India Services strength. Though not being spoken formally, the following facts are undeniable if the current trend continues.

• Shortage of officers in Armed Forces will be extremely difficult to be fully mitigated.
• 
  
• Self Esteem of those joining as officers, is taking a hit quickly after joining. This, despite many in-house measures, is reflected in relatively lower morale and less than desired level of commitment of younger generation officers.
• 
  
• Owing to large scale unemployment, intake of recruits (as Jawans) has not declined yet, their quality and amenability to discipline and of being shaped into combatants with high degree of commitment and sacrifice, has been declining by the day. So far significant numbers have been responding positively to the quality of leadership by the officer cadre. However, with declining self esteem of officer cadre itself, their collective capacity at stemming the rot and keep jawans motivated, is eroding. Increasing numbers have already begun displaying unwillingness to serve beyond initial period of engagement. This trend is already affecting retention of skilled manpower, adversely.

And this despite the fact that personnel of Armed Forces, on an average, incur Least Lifetime Cost to the Government on account of the following:-

• Largest numbers serve for shortest period and retire early (between ages of 35 yrs to 54 yrs). Hence, draw least per capita government salary.
• During entire career, they serve maximum time in junior ranks and least time in senior ranks hence, draw lower salaries for maximum portion of career.
• 
  
• Owing to combination of both of above (largest numbers retiring early and in lower ranks), their last pay drawn is much lower than civilian counterparts. Pension, though being 50 per cent of Last Pay Drawn as applicable to all, pension amount of Armed Forces personnel is much lower.

And yet, as an Instrument of last resort, the demands on the armed forces are significantly higher in terms of proficiency, commitment and sense of sacrifice. Armed forces being ‘Instrument of Last Resort’ do not have the luxury of ‘failing’ or handing over adverse situation to any other government agency. This singular fact demands of its personnel much higher degrees of commitment, leadership, risk taking, proficiency in multiple technological and tactical skills and willingness to sacrifice.

It is therefore imperative that armed forces should at least be considered ‘First amongst Uniformed Services’. Unfortunately, the 7^th CPC has not considered this and placed Defence Personnel even below the Indian Police Service (IPS) by awarding them two additional increments at 4, 9 & 13 years Service (now at par with IAS) while military personnel continue to get only one increment each at 2, 6 & 13 years Service. Overall, taking pay and allowances cumulatively, the 7^th CPC has further placed Armed Forces either at par or below CAPF.

This faulty award is because of faulty assumptions and inadequate Appreciation of Actual Roles and Required Degree of Proficiency & Risks. For instance, equating of CoBRA unit of CRPF with ‘Special Forces’ and assuming their hardship & risk as more severe than ‘Airborne Forces – Para units,’ reflects gross ignorance of roles, desired proficiency levels & attendant risks of various components of Armed Forces and the CAPF. Consider 7^th CPC recommending ‘Risk & Hardship Allowance’ for National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) personnel when employed in disaster relief. Since Disaster Relief is the only role assigned to the NDRF, how can the organization seek extra allowance over & above their salary for doing their primary and only task? By this logic, ask the armed forces personnel, why shouldn’t the military be awarded special allowance when called out to aid civil authority during disasters which is not its primary task?

It’s time a thorough review is done in the way we as a nation compensate our soldiers. Otherwise, one of our most admired institutions is bound to face decay that will come at the cost of nation’s security.

(Source- ABP Live) 

General G D Bakshi Gets Emotional Over Tricolor Issue On The Newshour Debate (18th Feb 2016) & Smriti Irani calls Times Now to console crying Maj Gen GD Bakshi

General G D Bakshi Gets Emotional Over Tricolor Issue On The Newshour Debate (18th Feb 2016)

Smriti Irani calls Times Now to console crying Maj Gen GD Bakshi

(Source- Youtube)