Thursday, April 2, 2009

High-handedness of senior officers

Often some senior officers in the defence services feel that they can get away with anything. And more often than not, they do get away. And this emboldens them.
Take for example, the case of a Lt General who is serving as Chief of Staff in one of the commands of the Army. He, under the influence of pliable officers, who have compromised his position as well, has posted an officer of the Judge Advocate General's branch to the Quartermaster General's branch in the Command HQs. Now, all of us who are familiar with the way the Army functions know that this is absolutely ridiculous. Can, for example, an officer of the Army Medical Corps be posted to command a supply battalion? JAG branch officers can only be posted to appointments which are contiguous with their legal qualifications. But then, the less said about the JAG branch and the influence it generates over officers of the other arms and services, the better. It is a vice-like grip which gets its nourishment from the illegal acts and rampant corruption on part of senior officers.
There has been an ongoing battle between the direct-entry JAG branch officers and those who get side-stepped in the branch from other arms. The present instance of the JAG officer being side-stepped is one of the symptoms of this disease which has now all the signs of consuming this branch. Not that the Army HQs does not know about the happenings in this particular command and the high-handedness of the three star general. But the rot is too wide-spread to be contained.

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