Morale Of The Story

Army sources say troop morale was severely hit during the deployment. An internal assessment by army headquarters found there was almost a 100 per cent increase in stress-related cases among jawans in the frontline formations, particularly in the Jammu and Rajasthan sectors. Harsh weather conditions, inhospitable terrain and prolonged separation from home were debilitating factors.

The dipping morale was evident from the mails of jawans that were 'censored' and read. A captain from the EME unit in Rajasthan (May 2002) complained bitterly about poor amenities in the sector and thought the indefinite wait was exasperating. In another case, an officer posted in the Northern Command wrote cribbing he had "no peace of mind" and was waiting anxiously to go on leave as soon as the operation was called off. He was "depressed" and had "lost interest in serving in the army" after almost three years of separation from his family.

The army top brass admits that corrective action had to be taken. Incentives like upping allowances, especially for men of the three strike corps in the operational areas, was one way of keeping them sufficiently motivated. But sudden cancellation or curtailing of leave and the disruption of the field-peace posting cycle more than offset the monetary incentives.

At times, the situation resembled those in Joseph Heller's Catch 22—of soldiers inflicting wounds on themselves to escape the hostile desert and marshland in summer months. Though army headquarters refuses to confirm these, sources say there were cases of jawans in Rajasthan deliberately scalding themselves on the hot metal of tanks.

There were at least five or six recorded cases of troop indiscipline and insubordination, both along the LoC and in the Rajasthan and Punjab sectors. In August, Havaldar Subhash Chandra shot dead his company commander, Major Arjun Singh, and then committed suicide. Subhash was provoked because he had been deployed on the border just months before he was to retire. Colonel Sunil Kumar Padhi, in the Udhampur sector, was killed by a jawan who felt extremely frustrated to have been redeployed at the completion of his two-year counter-insurgency tenure.

Normally, a battalion is moved out after it serves for two years in insurgency-prone areas. And troops deployed in Siachen are allowed rest and recuperation after a period of three months. But Operation Parakram skewed this system, straining the jawans unbearably. It was only in August this year that the army allowed 15 per cent of troops in each formation to go on leave for 35 days.