Dishonouring the Armed Forces

The government has failed the armed forces, writes Shashi Tharoor in his most recent book. An extract.

Besides the three formal arms of the government, the load-bearing pillars of our democracy, there is a fourth institution that is responsible for ensuring the safety, integrity and well-being of our country, our armed forces. Our soldiers give their all in the service of the nation — up to and including their own lives — something that is not expected of the rest of us. This is one of the reasons why it angers me to see the army treated shabbily.

The BJP government came to power talking big about its commitment to the defence of our country and the armed forces, but it has fallen short of providing one of the country’s most important institutions the support and honour it deserves. To go through all the ways in which the army, navy and air force have been short-changed by Narendra Modi’s government would require a book to itself — a revolving door of ineffectual defence ministers, shortage of equipment, outdated ammunition and technology, confused signals and dangerous war talk, a dysfunctional procurement process and much more. I will therefore limit myself to just two issues in this chapter on which the government could have done a great deal more than it has done.

(Editor’s Note: The first issue that the writer deals with is OROP, which is not included in this extract)

II

With all the understandable (and justified) focus on OROP, the media appears to have missed another major development in the Ministry of Defence — a decision to extend Short Service Commissions for fourteen years.

The issue of recruitment and the shortage of officers in our country is widely known. But the army appears to be addressing this by extending the duration of Short Service Commissions in a way that is doing an injustice to the officers concerned. In the old days, you would have a five-year commission. You would then leave and you would still be in the prime of your life; you would be able to find a job and move on. Today, they are making these Short Service Commission officers stay for ten years, eleven years, even fourteen years. These are people who have no pensions; they have no benefits. They leave the army late and, as a result, they are not in a position thereafter to actually resume life in the civilian sector. In December 2014, I had raised the question in Parliament, asking the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, to explain what the government’s policy was on Short Service Commissions. If they were going to do extend them for so long, would it not be fairer to give them all the benefits that a normal officer would be entitled to, pensions included?

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Parrikar replied as follows (this is a verbatim transcript from the parliamentary proceedings):

Madam, I entirely agree with the Hon. Member. Whatever was the original concept of the Short Service Commission is being totally put upside down by extending it to fourteen years. In fact, I had a discussion on this issue. We are trying to address this issue very shortly. We will definitely take care of this concept. There was 17 pe