The Indian Army - Reforms (PART 1)

 Hello my dear Readers. Welcome to Blogskypass..!!

    As already said, in today's blog we are going to look about the reforms that Indian Armed Forces are in need of. These need for reforms doesn't mean that they are working below their capacity. But we have ways to increase their productivity. It's an Universal truth that anything good, can be made even better.

Again due to excess amount of information to be covered this blog is being published as 2 parts.

Indian Soldiers don't fight in the name of Nationalism

    At first, let's understand the basic difference between Patriotism and Nationalism, which sound same but differ in meaning. Loyalty of a person to his/her country is Patriotism, whereas Nationalism is a political, social and economical system characterized by promotion of interest of a particular nation. Is PATRIOTISM or NATIONALISM the primary motivation for Soldiers and Officers fighting in a battle? Technically NO. Research suggest that soldiers don't fight for patriotism or nationalism. They fight because they don't want to see their soldier brothers die or feel coward Soldiers fight as they couldn't see their brothers die. This emotional bond/cohesion strengthens the unit. That way is the Army designed. 

    Then you may ask. What's the role of patriotism. Patriotism is an integral part of training in Army. It acts as an umbrella concept of motivation. They fight for their comrades, units and regiments, but the main objective is to ensure that tricolour flies high.

Politicization of the Military

    Politicization implies that armed forces find a political motive or though process. Politicized army would lead to situation like Pakistan, where military has most powers. But it haven't happened in India. At the same time we must ensure it's not happening in future too. This can be ensured by the questioning of Armed Forces and Government with regard to their preparedness for any mission assigned to them and their performance while executing it. But the journalists stopped questioning them on National Security and have gone along with the mood of the nation. At the same time, constitutionally it's ensured that Armed Forces don't have a political move. It is ludicrous for the government to advance the logic that the 'Armed Forces have been given complete freedom' and one cannot question them. It is given political direction with certain limitations and the freedom of action is restricted to execution.

Yelling panelists on  TV shows

    Here are a series of different events, which gained a lot of attention from the general public.

• On 13th April 2017, a man was tied to bumper of jeep and patrolled by army convoy vehicle. It was said to be done as instructed by their commander, Major Gogoi.

• On 8th of January 2017 Constable Bahadur Yadav of Border Security Force circulated a video on social media about the poor quality of ration. 

    These two incidents got multiple responses, both supporting and opposing. Let me first explain the scenario. 

First Case: It happened at Jammu and Kashmir. As we all know it's a state of violence. Armed Forces have guns and grenades to fight terrorists. But nothing to fight a 15 year old boy or a pregnant lady. Stone pelting are most common here. As the pettlers are civilians, Army couldn't fire. Simply wait for them to disperse. This event happened when Election Commission vehicle carrying EVMs were stone pelted by civilians. As the army must escort them safely, Major Gogoi tied up a man to bumper. Hence the stone pelting stopped and the Election Commission vehicle was safely escorted. In fact Major Gogoi was awarded a medal as a recognition of this work, when the case was open with Court of Inquiry. 

  

Second Case: The ration for soldiers are poor, especially at the remote areas. It may be due to the high altitude or remote areas, that food supplies couldn't reach. However, the soldier mustn't have taken it to social media. There is a system of addressing grievances of Army serving members with in the institution. They are solved at the Army Head Quarters, via the Ministry of Defense. 

    In both the cases, instead of finding a solution, there were lot of TV shows and debates in all the regions trying to find the guilty person. The incident is done. Instead of finding a way to avoid the same incident in another circumstance, TV panelists were doing something else.

That's all for this blog. There are yet more reforms we need to sucuss about, which will be done soon. Meet you all soon at my next blog.

Until then, it's KK signing off. Good Byeeee.

(P.S. All the idea here are a part of the book The Indian Army - Reminiscences, Reforms and Romance by H.S.Panag. Those idea are just briefed up here for normal understanding.)