Part 2

The Day of the babu

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The fight between the men in uniform and civilians has now turned uglier, with institutional stand-offs turning into personal diatribes.

"Things can only get worse," says an armed forces officer. "In several instances the services have noticed individual targeting of men in uniform by civilian officers."

The biggest casualty of these feuds is Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, chief of the naval staff dismissed in December 1998. That, defence sources say, was the culmination of a series of battles that senior defence officials waged with civilian administrators.

It would appear that bureaucrats routinely overrule complaints or objections from the forces. And there have been several instances when civilian decisions were ugly and reeked of nepotism.

During H D Deve Gowda's tenure as prime minister, naval headquarters had reported that one of its civilian directors had developed intimate relations with a lady while on an official visit abroad. Despite repeated reminders that this could compromise national secrets, the government did not take any action. All that the naval headquarters got was an intimation that the file concerned was missing!

THERE are more instances, mostly during the tenures of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen and General V P Malik.

D Lahiri, additional financial advisor to the ministry dealing with the Pay Commission matters of armed forces, reportedly told Rear Admiral B Ghosh that the defence chiefs's stand on the revised pay scales was an act of 'treason.' He is said to have criticised senior officials, dubbing them 'ill-disciplined.'

This was put on record by naval headquarters. But no action followed.

Points out Vishnu Bhagwat in his book Betrayal of the Defence Forces: "Times have changed. Vice-Admiral Soman had Harish Sarin, ICS, transferred out of the ministry on an oral complaint to the Defence Minister. So did General S F Rodrigues's complaint result in the transfer of Shri N N Vohra in 1993."

While Bhagwat's tiffs were part of several media reports, there have been instances of the other two chiefs also locking horns with the ministry.

Air Chief Marshal Sareen offered his resignation after an Uttar Pradesh police officer searched his ancestral home on the orders of 'someone from the Prime Minister's Office.' The bureaucrats refused to even acknowledge the incident.

In a letter leaked to the press, the Chiefs of Staff Committee, then comprising General Malik, Air Chief Marshal Sareen and Admiral Bhagwat, wrote to Fernandes that Ajit Kumar, who was the defence secretary, had a 'negative and un-supportive attitude in several matters.'

During the Kargil war, on several occasions senior army officers complained openly about the apathy of civilian officials to their needs. When war hysteria gripped the nation, there was swift movement of files, yes -- but only when that mood gripped the nation.

"That has all died down. We are back to where we were," complains a senior officer.

Says Air Chief Marshal (retired) Arjun Singh, "During my time I got full co-operation from the bureaucracy. But I don't know what all is happening now."

What is happening now, according to Lieutenant General (retired) V K Sood, is plain, unpalatable babugiri. "We are so used to babus lording over our ministry," he says. "That has to end if the armed forces are to adapt to the changing demands of modern-day battlefields."

WHILE some stand-offs at the higher level have been publicised in the media, the tales of lower rung officers mostly remain unheard.

A senior Air Force officer, now an air marshal, had to approach the Delhi high court to get his due. The court ordered the MoD to promote him. But the ministry sat on the order. After repeated reminders, the officer was forced to move a contempt case to get his promotion.

A serving lieutenant general, presently posted in Delhi, too, had to seek legal help when he was a major general -- the ministry promoted him a few days before his case came up for hearing.

These are the happier stories. There have been failures too, when the bureaucracy has sucked up some of India's brightest men in uniform.

No case is more glaring than that of Rear Admiral S V Purohit, arguably the Indian Navy's best logistician. In February he went on a month's leave after he was removed from the promotion list.

Rear Admiral Purohit is not just another senior man in uniform. An upright officer, he has a large number of admirers in the Navy, and is credited with seeing it through its most difficult period when the Soviet Union collapsed and its defence industry was paralysed.

Read on... The story of Rear Admiral Purohit

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