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DEFENCE: THE ARMY
Changing Order
Faced with a greying profile
and frustration among officers at the lack of avenues for promotion, the
force considers restructuring and offering VRS
By Shishir
Gupta
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THE NEW LOOK
# Army should look younger and more upwardly mobile. This can
be done via VRS.
# Promotions should be based on merit rather than operational
risk and hardships faced.
# Brigadiers and above are to wear one uniform. No regimental
insignias will be allowed.
# End dominance of men. Intake of women officers in intelligence
and aviation to be increased.
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Post Tehelka, it
looked like corruption might just be the Indian Army's great and hidden
bane, the cancer that is eating into this fighting force of one million.
Not really, though. The army doesn't have one great ailment; it has many
little ones. Most of them have to do with its people. A serious shortage
of young officers has been affecting the world's third-largest army for
some time now. Add to this the frustration among serving officers owing
to lack of avenues for promotion and you get the picture in management
terms: a human resource nightmare. The words would have been alien to
the army till not long ago, but now Army Headquarters (AH) appears to
have woken up-and worked itself into proactive mode with a bang.
Last week, AH circulated to the brass a classified
paper. "Review of Policy: Management of Officer Cadre" by Lt-
General Pankaj Joshi, central army commander, has the potential to change
the face of the Indian Army. It was commissioned soon after General S.
Padmanabhan took over as chief of army staff last October. Since the proposals
involve internal changes, AH does not require Defence Ministry clearance
to implement them. This gives Joshi's report tremendous weight.
Unveiled during the Army Commanders' Conference
last fortnight, the Joshi Committee report's recommendations include introduction
of a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in the army to improve promotion
prospects for ranks Lt- colonel and above. The chapter titled "Up
Or Out Policy" suggest that officers of the rank of colonel and above
be offered a VRS package in case they do not make the next rank within
four years. Under the proposed scheme, officers will have the option of
taking the lower of 60 months, salary or residual service pay. This means
on average a colonel, brigadier and general could take home Rs 18 lakh,
Rs 14 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.
The army is serious about the VRS as the average
age of a battalion commander is well over 40 years now. During the Kargil
conflict two commanders came down with heart ailments. "Battalion
commanders should be young and not frustrated and superseded colonels,"
says former army chief General (retd) V.N. Sharma. "We are one of
the few armies in the world where a full colonel is commanding a battalion.
With only 48 per cent majors making Lt-colonel, and 48 per cent of these
making it to the rank of colonel, there is bound to be frustration,"
he says. If the VRS scheme is implemented, rough calculations indicate
that 1158 Lt-colonels will have to put in their papers. To open promotional
prospects at senior levels, as many as 841 colonels, 206 brigadiers and
nearly 40 major-generals need to retire.
In a bid to end the inter-regiment rivalry,
the Joshi Committee report has also advocated removing "casteism"
between regiments in the army. Traditionally, the infantry, armoured corps
and mechanised infantry officers were considered frontline troops or the
"combat arms" till the Kargil war. The high-altitude war showed
the importance of artillery as more than 80 per cent of casualties on
both sides were due to artillery fire. However, artillery is not considered
a combat arm. On the other hand, an artillery officer's colleague in the
infantry automatically came under the general cadre and got comparatively
faster promotions for they have what is called the "combat edge".
The support arms such as artillery, engineers, signals and others have
10 per cent fewer vacancies open to them so that combat arms officers
can move up the ladder.
The combat arms have had career advantages since
1989, when the then deputy army chief Lt-General Sushil Pillai came up
with a "0-1-2 formula". This meant that a support arms officer
would be promoted a year and other services officer two years after a
combat arms officer of the same batch and rank. In 1996, a committee under
the then director general (Air Defence Artillery) Lt-General Amit Mukherjee
ratified the formula. In a significant decision, the Joshi Committee has
decided to do away with the combat edge principle. While agreeing that
certain branches operate under harsh conditions, the report suggests that
allowance, better family accommodation and other benefits rather than
promotions should compensate these officers. This means instead of getting
promotions, the combat arms would now get more allowances and preference
in accommodation allotment during the period they are in the field.
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