Guest Column | Multiple Battlefronts

Lt Gen. Vinod Bhatia (retd)

‘Many changes have taken place but one change remains the same, that is your Task & Duty. You are required to ensure the security of this country against all odds’
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

The 1.2-million-strong Indian Army prepares to celebrate the 68th Army Day on 15 January 2016 with pride, parades, ceremonies and paying homage to the martyrs in cantonments across the country. The celebrations also include a connect between the soldiers and the veterans, who flock the cantonments displaying their well won medals, miniature though, on their chests proud of the service they have rendered to the army and the nation. Reminiscing the many battles fought and their contributions in ensuring the security of the nation and its people, each story is narrated to motivate the serving soldiers to live and die for the ‘nam namak and nishan’ of their units, regiments and the country.

The Army Day celebrations this year too will be similar in content, but in essence, there will be a major difference. Just a couple of kilometres from the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate where the Army Commanders in their full military medals pay homage to the martyrs who have made the supreme sacrifice in the defence of the nation, the veterans would be sitting on a relay hunger strike at Jantar Mantar for the 215th day. Their demand, a simple grant of One Rank One Pension (OROP) as defined and accepted in principle on the floor of the Parliament. While the soldiers, both past and present, are justifiably proud of the occasion and the great Indian Army and its traditions, but the veterans sitting on hunger strike, the first of its kind in the history of the nation, will definitely be a dampener to the celebrations. The bonding between the soldiers past and present is very robust and strong, based on unit, regimental, corps and family affiliations. More of this later.

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The Indian Army needs to be recognised for the sterling service to the nation with ‘Service before Self’ being its motto. Army Day is also the occasion for the soldiers to rededicate themselves to the defence and service of the nation, and for the top brass to audit the performance and preparedness of the army, introspect and chart out the roadmap to meet present and future challenges as also to ensure the wellbeing of the soldiers.

Though some experts from the strategic community do feel that India has not fought a war for over four decades now and given the international environment, need for development and a nuclear overhang in the region, a war in the future is unlikely, and hence the diminishing relevance and status of the army. There may be some merit in this narrative, but the nation needs to remember that it is the preparation for war and the ability and capability of the military to defend national interests which provides the requisite security and deters war. On the other hand, it will not be incorrect to say that the Indian Army has been constantly and continuously at war, albeit fighting small wars in the sub-conventional domain.

Ex-servicemen on protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar

The national aim is to ‘transform India to a modern, prosperous and secure nation’. As security is a precursor to long term peace, stability and development, securing India is a national imperative. The army is mandated to ensure a secure India. The primary role of the army is to ensure national security, territorial integrity and unity, defending the nation from external aggression and internal threats. India faces multiple and varied threats, a quick look at the security challenges is a must to comprehend the enormity of the tasks undertaken by the Indian Army.

China is a strong neighbour and the primary threat, whereas Pakistan is a troublesome neighbour and a constant threat and hence, there is an ever present danger of a conflict. India’s land borders extend 15,106.7 km with seven nations including 106 km border with Afghanistan, touching 17 states and 92 districts. India also shares the longest disputed borders in the world, the Sino-Indian border extends to 3,488 km, with China laying claim to over a 1,10,000 sqkm of Indian territory. The India-Pakistan Line of Control (LC) extends to 772.1 km and the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) along the Siachen glacier extends another 126.2 km. Pakistan also occupies 13,297 sqkm of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir and has been waging a proxy war for the last quarter of a century. India faces multiple and varied security threats and challenges across the full spectrum of conflict from small wars to collusive and hybrid wars to conventional and nuclear wars.

“India has to be prepared for a two-front war and build deterrence that ensures conflict is not an option for its adversaries,” national security advisor Ajit Doval said at the Hin