Boy, does the Army top brass have a lot to discuss! The financial year’s first Army Commander’s Conference takes place from April 28 till May 2, and there’s going to be a lot on everyone’s plate. For starters, it’s going to be interesting to see Lt Gen HS Panag coming in from the Central Command. Remember, at the last Commander’s Conference, he was the one who stood up and vociferously talked about how not enough institutional support existed for eliminating corruption. Shortly after, he was shunted off from the Northern Command under a blitz of media attention.
According to an army press release, the on-agenda topics include cyber security and improvement of communication systems. “Detailed discussions will also be carried out on Sixth Pay Commission Report, steps for mitigation of shortage of officers and improving quality of individual combat kit issued to all soldiers,” the release added.
Senior MoD bureaucrats will also sit in one some of the conference sessions, particularly the ones dealing with “improvement of welfare measures for serving soldiers and ex-servicemen, policy on conditions of service of women officers, streamlining procurement procedure, developing infrastructure in remote areas along border areas and payment of rentals for land occupied by Army in Jammu & Kashmir and the North East”.
The conference will also apparently examine the reports submitted by study groups on the merger of Regimental Centres, review of Army uniforms and review of study leave policy for officers in the Army.
Photo Copyright The Tribune
critical issues. glad they are coming up. what’s this about the army uniform though!?
would be interesting to note any personality clashes this time around. i hear that the top ranks are extremely irritated with deepak kapoor and his whimsical, inscure ways of dealing with hr problems. at this rate, nobody will even aspire to be a senior general in the army. what a sad shame. the sheen is really gone. people must be more desperate than ever to get out of delhi. my brother is a major in assam, and he wishes he never has to ever come to delhi on a staff posting. stay in the field, die in the field is the chorus.
nonsense. panag is an upstart, and he got what was coming to him. i have been told by folks in j&k that the general was so idiosyncratically inclined towards digging up corruption, that he was failing to the real job he’s there for, which is command india’s most sensitive and crucial land forces formation. tent scam i believe.
sorry i meant, he was failing to do the job he “was” there for. good thing that antony didnt embarass himself and the army by shooting down deepak kapoor’s marching orders to panag. that would have been perceived by the ranks as interference by the civilian leadership, and could have sparked off something ugly. add to that the shitty news brought by the sixth pay commission, and brother, you’ve got a bloody mutiny on your hands. when is this country going to come to its senses i wonder. i hear general raj kadyan (yes the guy who got effed over for promotion to army commander in the 1990s by messrs kalkat and ved malik) led a protest in gurgaon today against the pay commission recos. i guess he’s gotten over the obsession of looking for justice. someone should have told him early on, there’s none to be had when at that time, the army was run by a punjabi brigade bent on screwing everyone’s lives but their own. no bloody wonder the porkis knifed us into kargil.
What they all are afraid to discuss are how to weed out corruption, nepotism, favouristism, shams in awarding honours and citations, mockery of a promotion policy which is not fool proof, loopholes in processing financial documents and no transparent expencidture etc.
All those issues which have been mentioned are recyled issues since British times.
They should address real issues plaguing the system.
I guess somewhere in this shit we all are losing out and conveniently forgetting several of the main issues. Some how all are subscribing to the idea that by asking the pay commission to increase the pay scales we will find the solution to the problems! However, very soon we all will realize that when the arrears of the pay will get over we will be back to square one! The need is to address the main agendas such as uplifting the status of defense forces, making the working environment within the organization more conducive towards growth and productive output, eliminating corruption, possibilities of lateral growth, tackling administrative problems in a time bound manner, and most important of all giving the actual due that one should get keeping in mind the service to the nation. There has to be a change in the mind set of the Army top brass as well as the Indian polity and the people as a whole otherwise one can actually see the results cascading into dangerous proportions. The downfall has already begun……the once prestigious institutes of NDA, IMA and the OTA are seeing unbelievable shortfall in the number of cadets reporting for training. This indicates the thoughts in the budding minds of the cream of the nation as well as their parents that there is no use in joining this so called ‘erstwhile noble’ profession as in the end it will only be despair that will be left in one’s hand.
These Army buggers don’t deserve a pay rise. Just increase the Jawan’s salary. Army Oficers should have something called pay for performance commissions.
Indian Army is now slowly becoming like Indian Politics with corruption and its brother ills spreading its root deep, which will be difficult to eradicate in times to come. Where do we go from here….????????