- Doing away with selection standards to fill up the shortage. The method was tried once after the Sino-Indian conflict with disastrous consequences.
- Service headquarters opposes it since it will impact quality
- MoD wants review of premature retirement to stop the exodus of officers
- The services say the review will affect morale since it will amount to forcing "reluctant officers" to continue serving
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Outlook has a copy of Rastogi's detailed note (D.O No. 1108/08-D(AG) dated April 3, '08) to Air Marshal V.R. Iyer, the then Air Officer Personnel (AOP) in Air HQ. It contains 10 suggestions, some of which do have merit. But it's the one pertaining to dropping QRs which seems most most damaging; for over the years there have been a set of carefully laid down standards to ascertain a young officer's ability to lead men into battle.
Copy of Rastogi's detailed note ClickHere For Large Picture
Stringent standards are of the essence because the forces now need officers who can not just lead men into battle, but also fly multi-million-dollar combat jets, man ships and command battle-tanks, all in high-tech environments. Each of the three services has its own QRs. "The soldier being recruited today is more educated and more aware. It's an enormous challenge...our young officers are our cutting edge in battle. This was amply demonstrated in Kargil and any compromise, let alone doing away with QRs even as a one-time dispensation, will have terrible repercussions," an ex-vice chief of army staff told Outlook.
Meanwhile, Rastogi contends his "suggestions" are based on the experience of the military in 1965 when QRs were waived in the aftermath of the 1962 war with China. "We are looking at ways and means to address this issue because the shortage in the three services continues. It's a part of our internal deliberations."
Following the humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chinese, the Indian military went in for a rapid expansion which led to higher officer intakes. However, the experience proved to be an unhappy one and most emergency commission officers moved to the IAS, IPS or other central government jobs. What Rastogi also seems to have forgotten is the price the services had to pay because of the post-'62 QR waiver. The army had to contend with scores of disciplinary issues, excess manpower, a severe resource crunch and choked avenues for promotions. In the end, the services did away with emergency commissions altogether.
Another suggestion from Rastogi is also bound to create some heartburn. He wants the parameters for premature retirement revisited. Presently, a "permanent commission" means at least 26 years of service but many officers exercise the premature retirement option. This exit policy has helped officers who are unhappy with their military career to opt out and has proved to be a great morale-booster, since it also opens up vacancies for those who choose to continue in service. All three services have expressed reservations with the suggestion. A senior iaf officer points out: "There's little sense in forcing people to serve when they want to quit. Worse, by not granting premature retirement the MoD would be flouting the international conventions on labour ratified by India decades ago."
Incidentally, Rastogi's observations also read like an admission of the MoD's utter failure in tackling the shortage issue. His note says: "The measures undertaken in the past like re-employment of retired officers, image projection campaigns since 1997, as also recent implementation of the Ajai Vikram Singh committee recommendations have not made any difference to the situation."
A senior MoD official puts things in perspective, "If you look at the responses of several defence ministers to parliamentary queries on officer shortage, it clearly shows that these were mere cut-and-paste jobs. It shows a lack of imagination in approaching the subject."
While the three services have been lamenting the shortfall of officers, it has rarely concentrated on arriving at a judicious mix of deployment for staff duties and field operations. For example, army HQ in Delhi continues to have a large number of officers serving in staff appointments while combat formations struggle with vacancies.
Instead of focusing on better manpower policies and improving service conditions, bureaucrats and politicians often look for quickfix solutions. Dispensing with QRs to plug the officers shortage is a prime example of this. The services need officers who have the mettle and calibre. The MoD, though, obviously prefers quantity over quality.
