THE ARMY NEEDS PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFRS, NOT POOR RELATIONS OFFICERS

The Army, for some reason or the other, has been saddled with rather a unfortunate choice of PROs in the Ministry of Defence for the past several years. Apart from some notable exceptions where the person holding the office really did try to establish a rapport with the media and get the Army's point of view across, the average PRO has miserably failed to perform his task.
Yet again now, the Army has a PRO, who seems to have no inclination in getting about and performing his duties as per the parameters required by them. He has had an honourable career as an infantry officer and he must have been a very good officer and a soldier in the OGs, but he has unfortunately failed to get a grasp on the situation in the South Block.
While this blog is not against an individual, per se, iI would rather keep it that way, but still there are some examples which need to be cited as to how the mismatch between Army PRO and media can create bad vibes. This gentleman, holding the office right now, has been averse to the very presence of the media in his office. The first thing he did was to close the door to his office that remained open like those of PRO-Navy and IAF! I, fortunately, did not have to deal with him for long, but even in my short interaction, I realised that he was distinctly uncomfortable in the surroundings where journalists milled about in his office, which he shares with the APRO and the clerical staff.
Why have such an officer as the PRO in the first place who is uncomfortable with civilians? It is not his fault that he cannot mix-up with them. After spending a lifetime in the uniform, there are very few career soldiers who would be comfortable talking in an unrestricted manner with journalists. But then why did he volunteer for this job? Did he want a last posting in Delhi? Is that the only criteria left for appointing officers as PRO-Army in MoD? That you have got to be on the last leg posting after your career has come to a stand still? Why so? This appointment had officers who were promoted to the rank of Brigadier while holding this appointment, so what's wrong in getting someone who is still in reckoning for his next rank?
This way at least he will have his heart in the job and will not go about halfheartedly handling the media, as if this was the biggest punishment inflicted on him ever since he got commissioned in the Army.
This PRO, now, does not even want journalists to grab a bite in his office. The basic chit chats which take place over such informalities and which breed good relations and foster friendliness have been tossed out of the window. Had it not been for the good humour and affection of the DG (M&C) and the APRO, the Army would have been getting a lot of flak in print just because it is trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
It is hoped that the new COAS will take stock of this problem and do something about it. The Army needs to project its image in a positive mannr in the media and for that it needs a positive individual as the PRO. Not someone who is sour-faced and laced with a dour attitude.

Photograph of Western Army Cdrs self-styled badge

Here is a photograph of the Western Army Commander wearing his self styled badge on his beret. Note the difference when you compare it with the beret badge of the COAS. Eccentricities in uniform are common in defence services but only when those who practice them are of sufficient fame and prowess.

Lt Gen SR Ghosh can hardly put himself in category of Field Marshal Montogomery or Sam Maneckshaw when it comes to designing his own headgear accoutrement. And he wears it in the presence of the Chief! What affront!

MNS OFFICERS FINALLY GET THEIR DUE

After the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, which told the Army to give the same pay and perks to MNS officers as regular officers, the AFT too has spoken in their defence. The order giving them the same priviledges of rank as regular officers must have pleased the MNS officers and driven a stake in the heart of the AMC officers who were behind the entire unsavoury episode which forced an MNS General officer to go to court.These same AMC officers were behind the move to change the uniform of MNS officers from OG to the creamish coloured stuff they wear now, and they were behind the hideous 'safari suit' design of uniform which the MNS officers now wear. They could not bear the sight of MNS officers going around as equals.

A bunch of them said that wearing the OG uniform had given a superiority complex to the nurses and that they were not "behaving" properly. There may well have been some instances of such behaviour. But this view was propogated privately. Officially, a ridiculous explanation was forwarded that the patients were confused with the same colour uniform of doctors and nurses and that there was a a lack of empathy while dealing with patients. There were ways of dealing with these "facts" instead of treating MNS cadre like second grade citizens.

The superiority complex of AMC officers stems from a societal problem and is an affliction gathered from the civvy street. They cannot accept the changing dynamics of the society; nursing is no longer the kind of profession that they associate with through the years. They are better trained, better motivated and better paid all over the world. And they volunteer to serve in the Army in the most difficult areas as do the AMC doctors. So why deny them the perks and priveledges of the rank once it has been bestowed on them?

I have also heard the argument that the MNS officers have been going around getting married to PBORs and therefore lower the dignity of rank. This happened because often they came from the same social strata. And for this the Army has to think out a policy. You cannot stop any legal marriage. If you wish to put some restrictions for men and women in uniform getting married to ORs, then spell it out clearly in the regulations. Whisper campaigns are not a substitute for law.

Ultimately, it is all about being aware of your rights and asking for them. Maj Gen Usha Sikdar did not give up when she was not allowed to fly a flag and display a star plate on her car by a zealous Rear Admiral. She is an educated lady and an officer so she did so. Let us not forget that more and more well educated men are joining the Army as PBORs. Very soon they will be asserting for their rights too. It is better that the Army evolves with the time and comes out of its second-world-war-administrative-mindset and wakes up to the reality of the day. As Lt Gen Arjun Ray used to quote Bob Dylan when he was GOC 14 Corps, "The times, they are a changin".

A self-styled cap badge (and other stories)

The other day I saw the Western Army Commander for the first time, ever since I joined my new assignment in Chandigarh. He was attending the function of War Decorated India and gave a typical patronising speech which serving senior officers give to retired personnel, completely forgetting that in a couple of years they too would be out of OG and into the civvy street.
But what struck me immediately as the fact that the Army Cdr, Lt Gen SR Ghosh, of the Brigade of Guards, had styled a completely new cap badge of General officers. He was wearing a metallic crossed swords and baton with the Ashoka lions on top without the oak leave crossed underneath.
Now, there have been examples of many eccentricities of Generals who wished to wear uniform patterns of their own kind, but Lt Gen Ghosh can certainly not claim to be in the same league as them and therefore take the liberty wich they took many many years ago.
Field Marshal Maneckshaw wore a side cap for the best part of his tenure as the Army Chief but then he was SAM and could do it and get away with it. As he told one officer whom he spotted wearing a sidecap in South Block, "Sweetie, I'm the chief and I can wear this cap, not you".
There is another celebrated General of the armoured corps who refused to wear campaign medals on his uniform (he liked to copy the Israelis) till he came before General Sundarji, the then COAS, who despatched him to wear the ribands before appearing before him again.
Again there was a corps commander from the Corps of Signals, who stopped wearing his corps belt and lanyard after being appointed to the general cadre. This, in any case, was laudable as there was a tradition in the past to do away with regimental symbols after assuming the staff rank of a Colonel.
But Sundarji did away with all that after he became the Chief. But it was Sam who insisted in wearing his badges of rank in the rifle regiment colour of black even after he became a
Field Marshal.
However, let me come back to the Western Army Commander's fetish for a unique cap badge. He, unfortunately, does not have the depth or the standing of the famous officers who made changes into their uniform, to fashion a cap badge of his own sort. The sooner he loses it the better or the media will have a new issue to come up with once it notices the lapse on a "lean day."

SAHAYAKS IN LIMELIGHT AGAIN

So once again the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has trained its gun on the good old Batman, Sahayak, Orderly, whatever you my like to call him. I suspect the sister services have a hand in it. Since they don't have one, they do not want the Army wallahs to have one either.
My stand in the entire affair is biased. I was born and brought up in the Army with Sahayaks playing a major role in my upbringing, so try as I might, I cannot be a dispassionate journalist in this debate. And in any case there is no such entity as the unbiased journalist.
I think, the newspapers need to stop putting this news on the front pages. For once, lets thank the television channels for not raking it up on their news bulletins just because the news had hit the front pages of the newspapers.
I am quite sure the Army needs to revamp its PR set-up. The public information guys sitting in the basement of South Block need to be more accountable. Planting news is part of their job, I accept, but so is making sure that inconsequential pieces like the Sahayak one need not hit the front pages too. And all these stories are by those journalists who drink endless cups of tea and smoke unending number of ciggarettes in the offices of the public information wallahs.
I hope the COAS designate revamps this set-up. Sooner than later. There is more to media management than Sainik Samachar and Baatcheet.

Bravo Justice Mathur

Just a short post this time. Justice Mathur, the man hearing the petition by Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash in the AFT has made a statement which will echo throughout the ages. Commenting on the assertions of the counsel of the former MS that "this is the reward he has got for his VSMs and AVSMs", the good judge said, "these AVSMs, VSMs do not make you a holy cow". How true Justice Mathur. The problem is that too many bad eggs have got these so-called distinguished service medals, and the moment they get it, they think they are holy cows. Thank God he did not get a PVSM. But there is another medal which can be instituted given the number of corrupt Generals popping out of the wood: Param Bhrasht Seva Medal !

The General Doth Protest Too Much

The Chandigarh edition of Hindustan Times has been quite charitable to Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd), former Vice Chief of Army Staff. In that it has devoted nearly a quarter page to his article castigating the media and the defence minister....and oops, lest I forget....busybody bureaucrats in South Block who have nothing better to do than give juicy leaks to the media.
I have immense respect for the General with whom I have had the priviledge of interacting many-a-times when I was with Hindustan Times in Chandigarh. But unfortunately, I do not agree with what he has written today in defence of the Army Chief.
The questions which begs to be asked is....who brought things to this pass? Certainly not the media. It was not the media which prompted a cold war between the Army Chief and the Eastern Army Commander with the Military Secretary acting as a catalyst for the former. And it was certainly not the bureaucracy which asked the GOC 33 Corps to get influenced by the MS and agree to sign the NOC.
And aren't we....the horrible journalists sick and tired of the oft repeated assertions..... look how much money the politicians make, look how the IAS and IPS officers amass ill-gotten gains and look at our poor little scams which pale in comparision to Satyam, Harshad Mehta etc etc.
My take is.....either do not act like holy cows or accept the veneration and the consequent fall from grace which comes after being put on a pedestal by the nation. The simple fact is the Army, or rather, the defence services are the last bastions of propriety left in the mind of the citizens of this country....and that includes irresponsible journalists too. But with the Army officers increasingly falling prey to pleasures of easy money, especially the General cadre, alas, this gloss is fading.
As any informed person who has intimate knowledge of the Sukna affair knows, it is a war of the Generals. The one who was hunted earlier has now become the hunter...and he has struck back with a vengeance. Lt Gen Oberoi is right when he questions the monetary cost of the scam....virtually nil. No one would have bothered whether the NOC was given under duress from the MS or if a private builder was setting up a school based on fake papers had there not been icy relations between the Army Chief and the now COAS-designate.
And because of this, the actions of Army Chief, in recommending administrative action against the MS instead of the outright dismissal recommended by the Army Commander, must have seemed as a step to save the accused.
Frankly, I would love to read an equally voluminous piece by a retired three-star General, any General, on why the Army has not had a DG Ordnance Services for the past nearly two years. Why is it that scores of Major Generals of Ordnance are mired in one scam after another resulting in their non-empanellment for futher promotion? Why the ASC was emboilled in a similar situation in a couple of years earlier resulting in no officer occupying the appointment of DGST?
And lastly, in defence of the defence minister. Is he not the same person who stood by the Army Chief when he moved out the Northen Army Commander to Central Command despite the fact that there were very distrubing allegations levelled against the COAS? Wasn't he the one who turned a blind eye when virually all officers indicted in the tent and egg scam in Northern Command were given lesser punishments than what had been recommended?
I cannot and will not accuse the Army Chief of not telling the complete truth in this entire affair. But, to quote 'Yes Prime Minister'......"There's a lot of difference between not telling lies and not telling the truth".