02 December 2012, 12:14 PM IST
In response to my previous post "Our courts reflect the efficiency and attitude of the government towards the common man", an angry reader retorted "this Brigadier got this experience for the first time in his life time and the Times of India that is cut off from the hassles of hardships of common men just published it .This Brigadier should also reveal the corruption that is rampant in the defense system. We commoners are used to all such things." I don't blame the gentleman for his angry outburst. Though the article was about governance and improving the functioning of various departments especially those dealing with general public, he chose to speak about corruption in the defence services. Obviously he is brimming with anger and has been brainwashed into believing that the entire Indian Army is one big corrupt organization.
Has Army done anything wrong by protecting its soldiers from suffering the hassles of the corrupt and the disorganized administration in the country? Yes I am indeed proud and grateful to the Army for taking care of its soldiers unlike the way the government and some of the organisations treat people and their workers. Shouldn't the rest of the country too seek a better administration which can provide an honest and dignified way of life for themselves and the future generation? Do we care for human dignity at all?
I am not for a moment suggesting that everything is hunky-dory in the defence services but it is definitely the most methodical and organized, when compared to the other services in the country. It cares of its soldiers.
Fighting units and formations constitute the bulk of the Army. These outfits hardly have any interaction with the general public or with the business community. They live in isolated cantonments away from general public. They don't make any worthwhile purchases as most of their stores, equipment and supplies are procured and supplied to them through the services units. Their own budget is negligible and their purchases are limited to small quantities of stationery and training stores. They make no policies and have nothing to dole out. They can do no favours to anyone. They have no control over a common man's needs or work to be able to either delay or expedite something which can get him some money under the table. That being the case, who will bribe them and what for?
People may not know that the commanding officers of units and the formation commanders are constantly under watch by thousands of eyes 24 x 7. It is quite possible that the work environment is preventing the fighting troops from following the footsteps of the rest of the country in the business of money making. The quick and stringent action initiated in all cases of wrong doings in the form of administrative actions, summary trials, General Court Martials, and the power of the pen to abruptly put an end to the officer's career through the system of Annual Confidential Reports may also have contributed to the relative honesty of the fighting forces. But the fact remains that they are not basically corrupt as some people seem to think. The scope for corruption in the fighting units is negligible.
Who then in the defence services are likely to be corrupt? If at all someone has a chance to indulge in corrupt practices, it is the senior officers in the services, who are in the procurement side of supplies, ordnance stores, military hardware, repair and maintenance of equipment, accommodation and construction. Even in the procurement of military hardware where the financial implications are huge, the role of military is limited to specifying the qualitative requirements of the equipment concerned and their field trial evaluation. The technical evaluation, price negotiations and the final decision to procure the equipment which are the primary money spinners are handled by the Ministry of defence. If at all some defence services personnel are found involved in corrupt practices in this area, he would be a fringe beneficiary roped in to facilitate the process of a major principal deal. Similarly, most assume that military lands, a very valuable asset, are under the control of defence services officers which is far from the truth. A department consisting of civilian officers called the Department of Military Lands and Cantonments under the Ministry of defence control these assets. The military's involvement in land deals would be limited to giving their opinion with regard to the security implications of selling or transferring the land to civilian establishment. The final decision on the deal rests with the Ministry of defence. There are any numbers of honest officers in the services units of the Army. It would be rather immature and irresponsible for people to assume that every officer in the services side of the military is corrupt.
As one can discern from the Adarsh, General VK Singh's age row and other multiple scams related to procurement of military hardware, the Army becomes corrupt when they have to deal directly with the public, bureaucracy or the politicians. The Army and national security are used as a cover to hide wrong doings for the benefit of a few individuals. In the bargain some of the greedy army officers are trapped and drawn into the web of corruption.
The seeds of manipulation in military promotions were sowed fifteen years ago by a politician who went out of the way to promote a Brigadier for political considerations even though he had been rejected by the Army Promotion Board based on reports of corrupt practices. No one was prepared to hear the military at that time. The results were there to see in General VK Singh's age row. The manipulation of promotions and postings in the Army are unlikely to end until and unless very clear orders are laid down specifying, the criteria for promotion not easily amendable or maneuverable by individuals. The procedure for holding promotion boards, the timeframe for submitting the board proceedings and its approval by the Ministry of defence needs to be spelt out unambiguously. Since the dates of commissioning of every batch of officers are known, the dates for promotion boards for various ranks must be specified at least ten years in advance. The line of succession theory must be buried immediately. Individuals for promotions to various ranks and appointments must emerge out of a system and not at the pleasure, whims and fancies of a few select individuals.
Though every common man experiences corrupt practices in their dealings with the bureaucracy, business community and the other services and organisations, do we come to hear of all their misdeeds as loudly as that of the Army? Is it because complaining about them may become a spoilsport in the game of deriving advantages from these agencies? For some reason, the defence services become the darling of the media when it comes to corruption and misdeeds only to be dropped like a ton of bricks when it is their turn to listen to their grievances of neglect by the government. Why is it that every single act of misdemeanor by a soldier gets exaggerated and publicized? Why is it that the military's name is dragged even when the defence Ministry or its other wings are involved? Are we not trying to mislead people?
Anyone who knows about the working of the Army will never say that corruption is rampant in the defence services. Of course my statement is relative compared to the level and magnitude of corruption in the rest of the country. It is ignorance combined with motivated false propaganda that is bringing bad name to the defence services, a noble and an honest profession by any standards. Unfortunately we do not realize the adverse effects of portraying the Army as a corrupt organization when corruption and misdeeds in the Army are perpetrated by a few greedy individuals in isolation. Such false propaganda adversely affects command, control and motivation in the fighting units. It has major fallout on the relationship between the leader and the led affecting their war fighting capability. Such portrayal of the defence services is not in the long term interests of the country.
Corruption in the Army is nothing more than an aberration and is not an embedded virus afflicting the armed forces. A couple of court martials to send home the right message would clean up the system but what about the rest immersed in diabolical depravity?
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