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ARTICLE |
 The Tribune 12 July 2012
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Corruption in military
The malady requires an effective remedy
by Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd)
A
TV channel recently showed a
sting operation in which a junior commissioned officer is caught on
camera handling wads of currency notes allegedly obtained from
prospective candidates for various jobs in the military with a
colonel-rank officer operating in the background. A maj-general is
caught red-handed taking money from a contractor. These two are the more
recent incidents of corruption in the Army. One is from down South,
near Pune (National Defence Academy), and the other from up North in J
and K. Earlier we had the case of Sukna land scam in the East where a
few Lt-Generals were involved and were duly court-martialled. The DG,
Supply Corps, a Lt-General rank officer, is court-martialled on charges
of corruption.
A few from
very high echelons of the Army are involved in the Adarsh housing
society scam. The Supreme Commander of the armed forces, forsaking the
very propriety of the act, reportedly made a desperate attempt to grab
the military’s land in Pune. A more recent development is that of the
nudging by the Supreme Court to hold court-martial of a number of
officers involved in fake encounters at Pathribal in J and K, though the
military should have done so on its own. Colonel Purohit is alleged to
have been associated with a terrorist group. If all this is not enough, a
second incidence of gross indiscipline in a unit at Nyoma in Ladakh
leads one to infer that it is not only probity and integrity that are
under assault but discipline also is on the wane. Corruption,
malfeasance, fake encounters, ill-discipline, etc, from one end of the
country to the other and right across the rank structure, give the
impression that all is not well with our military.
During
the last few decades the composition of manpower intake, both of
officer class and the rank and file, has undergone a sea change. The
military is simply not able to get suitable material, not only in the
officer cadre, but in recruitment of soldiers too. With the opening of
the economy and expansion in civil services, a number of lucrative
options are on offer for the youth. Those likely to join the military as
soldiers find the state and central police forces as a better option.
Faced with these constraints, has the military lowered its intake
standards?
In the early
1980s, army headquarters ordered a study to review the system of
recruitment and selection for entry into the officer cadre. I headed the
committee constituted to examine and review the officer selection
system. Though the selection process had stood the test of time,
military career as such had become least attractive and, as a result of
that, a fewer number of suitable candidates had been opting to join the
officer cadre. Consequent to this development, there was discernible
tinkering with the selection process. Since then there has possibly been
further lowering of intake standards!
The
officer selection process is based on a triad system of evaluation. In
this system three different techniques are applied over a period of four
to five days to assess a candidate’s ability. When these three
techniques are applied correctly, they are expected to produce the same
result, thus reinforcing the selection process three times over. It
also eliminates the possibility of fudging the result by an operator of
any of the three techniques without being found out. When applied
correctly, it is the most comprehensive and authentic selection process
devised so far anywhere, in any army. Of late, the DRDO has managed to
bring in some changes in the selection process, perhaps for the worse.
During the eighties the DRDO, working on the recruitment intake
standards, had projected that weight carrying capacity had no bearing on
the height of a person and other physical attributes and, as such, the
requirement of a minimum height for recruitment be done away with. One
was constrained to observe that the Army wanted to recruit soldiers and
not coolies.
It may be argued
that the military is a mere reflection of society — where corruption
is rampant, right across the national spectrum, and is accepted and even
respected. When cheating and lack of discipline are all-pervasive, the
military could not remain unaffected. After all, the Army draws its
manpower from the same stock. Even so in this climate of loot and
plunder, malfeasance and state of lawlessness, the military has strived
hard to maintain its core value system by creating a sort of rampart of
“do’s and don’ts” to isolate it from outside influence.
Of
late, this rampart has been under attack, both from outside and within
and breaches have appeared, but the military has made brave attempts at
repairing this wall of core values. Cases of corruption, misconduct,
false encounters and cheating have often manifested from within, cutting
right across the rank structure. But the military has been quick to
deal firmly with all such aberrations. Though a more recent
development, venality threatens to engulf the very top echelons of the
Army.
Some may contend that
the level of corruption in the military is not even a minuscule of what
prevails in the government machinery and civil society, and, therefore,
there is no need to worry about it. Military service is quite apart from
all other callings and it demands the highest standards in probity,
integrity and personal conduct from its officers. Any shortfall in these
will render the force ineffective, and national security will stand
imperilled.
Even with the
lowering of intake standards, the Army continues to remain short of over
12000 officers, thus reinforcing the fact that over time military
career has been turned into the least attractive option. The officer
cadre has seen an influx of not so suitable leadership material and, as
such, the profile of the officer cadre has been undergoing a change for
the worse. Though the military does strive to develop leadership skills
in its young officers and instil in them an appropriate value system, in
many cases it does not succeed.
However,
individual aspirations, careerism, personal gain and dilution of
leadership traits do sometimes get the better of some individuals, but
where failings in character qualities surface, or discipline is lacking,
action to correct the fault-lines is both stern and swift. It is
essential to detect fault-lines in character at early stages of an
officer’s career and apply correctives, which could even be weeding
out.
The senior leadership
in the military no more insists on setting good and enviable standards
of conduct for juniors to follow. A few, at the very top, have faltered
and fallen prey to greed. As the higher rank officers climbed into what
is called “five star culture”, quite distinct from what fits in the
military’s way of life, lower down the ladder some junior rank officers
slid down to levels unacceptable for the officer class.
Finally,
the officer cadre is the very soul of an army and mainspring of the
whole mechanism. Any fall in its standards will surely lead to failures
during a war.
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