Selling soap and Army not the sameby Lt-Gen Harwant Singh (retd)
This desperate, perhaps ill-advised and expensive step, to hire an ad agency, had to be taken because few suitable candidates are opting for a career in the Army. This has led to paucity of officers though the Army has been accepting lower levels of performance at the selection centres.
Advertising agencies may deliver when it comes to promoting sale of soap, toothpaste and other consumer items. Promoters of housing schemes with fancy sketches are able to attract many a gullible buyer. But an informed consumer takes a number of other factors into consideration before making a choice. For him packaging, visibility, quality, cross-checking with friends, newspaper reports, other options and cost play an important part. All these issues come into play in varying degrees in arriving at the final decision. A prospective candidate would take all these issues into consideration before making a bid for a career in the Army.
There is no glamour left in a military career and this point is too obvious for any one to miss. Military officers no longer travel in uniform or wear it outside cantonments because the uniform has lost its glamour, charm, and regrettably, even the respect and deference due to it. No one ever visits a government office wearing a uniform, because he would be cold-shouldered and his work never done. As a military officer, one is loathe to grease palms and nothing gets done in a government office by clean hands.
Golf and polo will remain a distance dream for the vast majority. What the Army will provide are, ample opportunities to develop leadership skills, camaraderie, initiative and a competitive spirit. There would be clean, healthy and orderly environment of a cantonment life to enjoy. It will keep one physically fit and mentally alert. Playing robust games with troops will be compulsory. Army career provides an opportunity to see this great country, its nooks and corners. One will get to see and feel national integration at its best. But in a materialistic world, all this does not take one far, when a frugal lifestyle and a limited budget is the ultimate reward.
Long separation from families, not seeing children grow up and ensure good education for them, repeated tenures in high altitudes, postings to uncongenial and remote areas and a lonely life at the posts are all part of a military career. Risk, stress and pressures of counter-insurgency operations lead to a multitude of medical and related problems, which are integral to Army life. No advertising agency can whitewash these basic drawbacks of service in the Army.
A cardinal principle of military leadership is not to make false promises. Breaching this time-honoured adage has it own perils, especially in the military. What the advertising agency promises is neither true nor can be delivered. Those few, who are tempted by the rosy picture painted by an advertising agency, will soon be disenchanted and become a liability to the service.
As economies look up and job opportunities and choice of professions increase, the competition shifts from amongst the employee to the employer. It is absurd for government employees, to ask for parity (in terms of pay, perks etc) with those in the corporate world, as the bureaucracy in Delhi are busy preparing such a case to present to the Sixth Pay Commission.
The Army has to compete with the Civil Services in the job market. Since service in the Army has marked disadvantages, it has to be made more attractive than Civil Services in terms of pay, perks and pension to compensate for all the handicap of a military career.
What the Indian Army faces today has been the experience of other armies too. However, those armies did not lower intake standards nor resort to cheap gimmicks of advertising through ad-agencies. Instead, they have opted to live with shortages and insisted that the government make the service attractive by compensating for all the disadvantages a career in the Army suffers from. In Britain, the top brass simply dug its heels and made the government relent on making the military service more attractive than the civil service. After all there is no compromise possible on the issue of national security.
The military’s top brass has to get real, take heart and tell the government that a career in the military has to be made attractive to draw the right material into the officer cadre. Nothing short of that will work. Long separation from families, education of children, running of two establishments, extremely limited promotion avenues, early retirement and stress and risk factors have to be adequately compensated.
The issue of “running pay band” for the Army officers, to compensate for lack of promotion avenues was taken up with the Fourth Pay Commission. In this case, the officer who misses on promotion continues to get increments in his pay and allowances, based on the length of service. General K. Sundarji, during his visits to my division prior to Operation Brass Tacks, told me that he had given his resignation to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee to use it, in case, “running pay band” was not accepted. Another Army Chief had to take a similar step to get free rations for the officers.
The Fifth Pay Commission took away the provision of “running pay band” and there was not a whimper from the Service Chiefs. Unless they impress upon the government the need for a substantial compensation in terms of pay, allowances and pension for their officers, for all the disadvantages a career in the Army suffers from, the Army will not be able to attract officers. The nation will either have to live with the shortages or accept lower standards and in both cases will have to accept the related fallout on the country’s security. No country can aspire to be a world power with a second-rate military.
The writer is a former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20061126/edit.htm#1
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