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Indian Army Officers are a
class apart. Why do lakhs of young boys barely in their teens aspire
and compete to join the National Defence Academy and the Cadets
Training Wing (CTW), for but 500 odd vacancies? Could this be just a
mundane desire to seek an occupation or is it a calling! The
profession of arms has traditionally been looked upon reverentially
as ‘a calling’ – a term that denotes a kind of strong inner impulse
to face formidable challenges, a fascination for uniform and a
strong feel of nationalism - which propels the youngsters towards
travails of Army life. This calling transcends self interest and
remains associated with self sacrifice, dedication as well as
subunit/unit and organizational bonding. The spirit of this calling
always was, is and will forever remain a way of army life –hence is
prone to jealousies from other governmental jobs. In the Army, this
calling has retained its original glory the noble values of
upholding “Naam, (honour), Namak) (consummate dedication) Nishan
(unflinching organisational loyalty).” The army as an institution
always took care of its own, albeit with the generous support of
society.
Two pointers need addressal. First, has the idea of devotion to
service waned and a primary occupational model or intensive
careerism taken primacy, with ‘what’s in it for me’ thought? Second,
is there a sociological transition underway among the Army officers
taken as a society? The first is grossly untrue. Young officers have
performed and continue to do so, unmindful of personal risk, in
total devotion to the call of duty and the service to the nation for
a very long time. The Generals of today had as young officers of
yesteryears seen intense counter terrorist operations in the 80s and
the 90s, faced the brunt of the bullet fired in anger of
multi-fronts – including a very hot Line of Control and the Kargil
War. The young professional officer of today heroically faces a
different and difficult operational environment and unmindful of
personal risk continues to lead troops and subunits by personal
example. Indeed, the Army life hones the strong emotions of loyalty,
nationalistic and regimental fervour among officers. This
distinctive nature of military life – as a calling – inherent or
honed in post joining the Army has not changed substantially over a
long period.
The second pointer needs deliberation. As the saying goes, ‘… man
without ambition is like a bird flying without direction’. Ambition
of any officer is that strong desire, a dream to do or achieve
certain aims, objectives, goals and targets in service life. It
would give him a sense of direction and motivation, something to
live for. That’s why ambition must not be snuffed too early in one’s
career. Ambition in service life also enables the officer to be more
absorbed, focused and motivated to struggle, strive hard and focus
on self-improvement. Understandably, ambitions can differ from an
individual to individual, though in the Army these have finite and
tangible considerations. However, as is oft repeated, since service
in the Indian Army is voluntary and aspirants are aware that
promotional avenues not as promising as in other government
services, an officer joining the service should be mentally prepared
for inevitable supersession.
The Army career is a steep pyramid, with only 0.8% rising to be a
Major General (equivalent of a Joint Secretary). But that is faraway
for a young officer – though there may be a few who would dream of
becoming Chief on day one of joining the service – and why not!
However, a young officer in his formative years would most certainly
aspire to become a Colonel – the first select rank, one that bestows
the finest of appointments in service – that of a Commanding Officer
of a unit. This would happen in say 15 to 18 years in the Army, when
an officer is in his mid or late thirties. The ratio of officers
considered for this select rank each year, and those who get
selected to become a Colonel, is a paltry 30 percent or so! Given
this pyramidal nature of the rank structure, all officers who rise
in the profession to attain higher ranks do so in a highly
competitive environment. This anomaly was sought to be corrected in
the last ten years by increasing the Short Service Commission (SSC)
intake. Unfortunately, some very elementary and easily achievable
proposals to make SSC more attractive remain unimplemented thanks to
some inexplicable rationale and characteristic apathy that is the
hallmark of our bureaucracy! What’s disturbing is that just within
the first ten years of service (actually when one misses nomination
on the Defence Services Staff College), reality dawns on officers
that in face of stiff competition, the likelihood of crossing the
first threshold of promotional ladder to the select rank of Colonel
may not be possible for 70% of them! Ideally speaking, this should
not in adversely impact an officer’s performance and continual
devotion to duty, yet there can be a difference due to the human
factor.
India, at large, has become increasingly an all-round aspirational
society and as such Army officers who are part and parcel of society
cannot remain divorced from such aspirations. With extrinsic
motivation driven by promotional avenues on the wane among 70% of
officers within ten years of service, intrinsic motivation that
originates from within the officer – like the calling to join the
Army, may also be affected. The unit life – its izzat (honour) and
the bonding, which is its raison de etre, may facilitate intrinsic
motivation to last till the consideration for the first select rank.
Subsequent twenty odd years, an officer is managed in a series of
varied assignments, some of which may be deeply disconcerting and
demoralizing. Resultantly, what would occur is a fundamental shift
in the motivational basis, from a calling at the time of joining, to
a mere necessity of an occupation—‘just another job, just another
posting’.
As an aside it is necessary to refer to Non Functional Financial
Upgradation (NFU) that came in for the Government Officers in 2008.
This was basically a raise in salary and perks of an officer who
reaches a seniority level that makes him eligible for promotion but
cannot be promoted because of lack of vacancies. By virtue of its
very premise, NFU was a Godsend policy for the Army officers who
face extremely rapid stagnation. Accordingly, the Chairmen of Chiefs
of Staff Committee (COSC), Chiefs of the Services and the Adjutant
Generals (AG) and equivalent, from 2011 onwards, have continually
and strongly represented to the Government, to the 7th CPC and to
the empowered committees on the prime necessity of allowing NFU to
the Armed Forces Officers. As a measure to offset the lack of
promotional opportunities, NFU would also be recompense for early
retirement as compared to other government officials of equivalent
rank.
Making Short Service Commission attractive and adjusting their
imbalance with Permanent Commission Officers would have singularly
addressed the adverse promotional ratio at Colonel rank. The grant
of NFU would have cumulated the gain. However, those in the realm of
Governmental decision making have been hanging fire for too long,
with NFU pending decision in the Honourable Supreme Court. However,
besides governmental support to make military service conditions
more attractive, there is a need to explore alternatives within the
Army itself. But is it feasible to provide honour, respect and
commensurate work environment to officers unlikely to make through
in the first select promotion? That must become the key question for
in-house policy makers. Adaptation and innovation are particularly
relevant to today’s Army given the challenge faced. Though the issue
requires in depth analysis with requisite data and prognostications,
three pathways are considered.
First, though welfare is germane to motivation and would certainly
spur efficiency in peace and war but the Army is certainly not a
welfare fixated organisation. It is essential to ensure that every
officer feels that he is ‘wanted ’in the assignment and that it
provides him requisite professional challenges. While inspiration is
something that an officer must seek to ingest from outside,
aspiration is something that must be cultivated within by himself. A
bouquet of tasks performed by generalist staff, having learnt on the
job, could be specialized by focused training of officers who could
not make into the empanelled lot, as per aptitude. Though there are
departments that handle such issues, it will be advantageous to
train and post officers to handle law, land, works, finance and
procurement, in various headquarters. It will feasible to
re-orientate faculties of officers to such specialist fields,
provide elongated tenures where essential, and hence create
repository of such expertise with durable memory. Such an expert job
would satisfy an officer’s dignity, keep him mentally stimulated and
fulfill expectations in a respectful and wanted assignment.
Secondly, there are operational domains that are expanding in
warfare that do not have expertise currently in their entirety,
which is the next pathway. Information warfare in its manifestations
transcends existing expertise. These can be like perception
management, psychological operations and counter propaganda, social
engineering, disinformation and ‘weaponization’ of social media.
There are also realms of back-end (or stand-off) workers in modern
warfare, like those in cyber stream, operating weaponized drones and
satellites. These spheres are opening up in newer and newer vistas
that require modern militaries to be on top. Officers of caliber and
prowess can select domains of interest, and can be of great value in
contemplating and in the execution chain of future warfare.
The third pathway is the vista of professional military education.
In professional grooming, there are shortfall in studies on social
sciences like war and peace, strategy, International relations (IR)
theory and practice, area studies, and even military history. These
would provide avenues to officers to study in Universities and
impart knowledge, direct growth and groom senior officers to be
better all round professionals.
There will be naysayers, citing paucity of officers and many other
routine and mundane objections to such proposals. The existence of
such large numbers of non-empanelled officers, and those seeing the
writing on the wall even prior to the first select rank
consideration, have to be propelled towards more productive
pastures. Largely, this may be achievable in-house without the
mandatory Governmental sanctions. However, it will mandate a
re-think on Officer Human Resource Policies. Study leave should be
on subjects that the officer has aptitude for, and the organization
can best avail services subsequently. Study leave also should not be
restricted to non-empanelled officers. The officer posting
management hence must not be stuck into two to three year mode. As
an example, IR professional officers could have a much longer
tenures in National Defence College, Army War College and Defence
Services Staff College – which will provide him stability in
personal life and imparting knowledge.
Being aspirational is one of the most positive qualities an officer
can possess because it pushes him forward to become a better
equipped individual, and his utility to the organization,
respectfully, is assured. As the Army looks forward to an uncertain
future, it must adapt, innovate, and institutionalize both past
experiences and future opportunities to better prepare us for the
next war in whatever context that conflict will emerge. Innovation
has to take place in periods of peace when there is time to think
through problems. Management of officers stuck up the awfully steep
pyramid, requires serious innovation, soonest!
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