Soldiers aren't meant to run canteens: Panel

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Sir,
That is definitely the job of a trained person to accompany the officer, I agree to that...I am not trained for that Sir, :) and that is why I was talking about the situation all through out the country, what about the officers posted in the cities??...will the officer require a help in feeding him or polishing his boot or serving his drink on a tray?...there must be a difference there sir isn't it??
Let me give you an example.

Lt Gen HS Panag, (father of Gul Panag), who was a Bde Cdr when I was the Dy GOC, invited me for dinner in Bhopal when I had gone there.

He was the Corp Cdr.

He, his wife and his daughter, Gul was serving all of us who were having dinner at his place!

Army is not a 10 to 5 job.

Further, the army is very demanding in turnout and such things, which one can say are cosmetic. I believe a smartly turned out officer or a soldier instills pride that is demanding of the Army by the Nation.

It really does not matter if a person comes shabbily or in crisp uniform with shoes shining.

He could still be working at his job, even if he was shabby as the jawans on a railway station lying on the platform floor with rubber chappals on.

I am sure the sight of such slovenly attired jawans in crushed and filthy combat dress instills great pride in people of your ilk that the Armed Forces are fighting fit! And if officers too were dirty, slovenly attired and flithy, I think the country would rejoice!

Take up the case and demand that all should be filthy, dirty. slovenly and should wear rubber slippers!

I endorse the idea since upkeep of uniform and allied costs is too much of a burden mentally and financially!

You are right, why should a trained person offer a drink to the guest on a tray.

In fact, why not have a municipal sweeper, stinking to high heavens, and ofcourse on cash payment for the evening serve local brew in earthen ware discardable pot?

After all, it is not what one gives and who gives and instead what matter is the gesture of hospitality, right?

I also sometimes wonder why the President must live in such a Palace and with so many flunkeys bowing and cringing before him and so many fancily dressed ADCs from uniformed service.

Or why the VIPs whose lives are not even worth the cost of bullets that imagined terrorists would use to pump into them, have so many gun toting NSGs to pander to their imagined 'dangers'?

I also wonder why people like Katju say 'Sanjayji' using the honorific ji, when basically he is an overgrown, over indulged punk and a jailbird with little education, if indeed that is education!

It is like calling that Maoist who was killed as Kishenji.

I wonder what is this honorific 'ji' is all about?

Makes this honorific a wee bit cheap!
 
Last edited:

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
I felt really embarrassed to be served by a 'Jawan of the Indian Army', I didn't deserve that...the buddies go through the same tumultuous say as their officers do...even more maybe...shouldn't they be used to keep an officer able to perform his duties as an officer, performing only the duties you mentioned earlier?? I found them doing a lot more than that....
What is so embarrassing to be served by a Jawan?

If we visited you, would you have a self service counter?

The officer has to plan operations, exercise, get into details of each men's career, lives, his family and plan how best he can serve them, ensure their safety, their training and see that they get their entitlements.

When officers fail to do do because they do not find the time to do this, then you have the massive problems that has afflicted the Army wherein so many courtmartials are on the anvil!

You all see the cream and not the substance that goes in to make the cream!

If you feel being an officer is being Sonia Gandhi (for the want of a more appropriate example) all power and pomp and no accountability, you are sadly mistaken.

I know of a CO, whose career was over, just because one Jawan went and was alleged to have raped a person!

In the olden days, COs paid with their career because of VD cases!

The jawan screws and the CO gets screwed!

Journalists and many civilians are like Indians who go on a tour of a foreign country and returns as all knowing experts on that country they toured.........and it is lapped up by the gullible as the Gospel, since they have no clue of that country!

The Been There, Done That syndrome that is not even a cross between a jackall and a f...all!
 
Last edited:

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Let me give you an example of Journalists and their half baked knowledge and yet acting as 'knowalls'

They all write about the grand finale of the Republic Day celebrations as 'Beating the Retreat'

It is not Beating the Retreat as if someone is scampering away in defeat.

The ceremony is Beating Retreat and there is no 'the' in it.

Beating Retreat is a military ceremony dating back to 16th century England and was first used to recall nearby patrolling units to their castle.

Remember that fool Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta maharaj?

He created a sensation by reporting that two battalions moved to nearby Delhi to overthrow the Indian Govt.

Two battalions are adequate?

And when there was the cream of the Army with all modern weapons of the Army to be displayed for the Republic Day, two brigades in Delhi itself, one Division in Meerut, the Indian Army required two cockananny battalions to overthrow the Govt?

Only a damned fool, because he wields the pen, could have thought that out!

That that Gupta must have done it because he had an agenda given to him by his Masters, whoever they be.

And this tom fool is said to be a 'respected' editor!

All I can say is that a journalist must research his facts and have unimpeachable evidence before he put is pen to paper. Once his credibility is lost, he is a goner.

Shekhar Gupta has been proved to be a sensationalist, and Brakha Dutt and Vir Singhvi are tainted.

http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=1513

They are hardly the ones to be believed.

Arnab Goswami, is painful, but so far, his research is so perfect that many have had to eat crow and none can contest him!

Yesterday, he had Markanday Katju in circles over his championing Sanjay Dutt and his Gandhigiri having acted in that Gandhigiri film.

Katju thought that Dutt was sold to Gandhi because of this film and one should realise his worth.

Goswami asked him if it would be archtypal of the Dutt philosophy since Dutt has also acted in Khalnayak!
 
Last edited:

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
IN did away with this practice many years ago.
They have stewards!

And also the Admiral's staff!
 

Tronic

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Messages
1,915
Likes
1,282
but Sir, I felt really embarrassed to be served by a 'Jawan of the Indian Army', I didn't deserve that...the buddies go through the same tumultuous say as their officers do...even more maybe...shouldn't they be used to keep an officer able to perform his duties as an officer, performing only the duties you mentioned earlier?? I found them doing a lot more than that....
I completely understand where you're coming from. I went through the same thing when I was visiting my uncle, who at the time was the CO of his unit. It does feel awkward having soldiers open car doors for you, carry all your luggage, serve you refreshments during your leisure activities, etc, etc.

I believe it's just a difference in culture, that's all. In India, we are taught to very strictly revere and bow to authority. We are taught this starting from our teachers to our bosses. However, I think that with increasing globalization, this culture is very quickly changing, and the army needs to keep this in mind. The Indian youth today are much more self-conscious about themselves. Respect today cannot be taken for granted as it could be even a generation or two back. Respect today has to be earned by winning over the men with immaculate leadership, rather than expecting it as soon as you step out of the NDA or the IMA.

Now I'm not saying that the army needs to do away with this and that or any radical changes, but the crop of officers definitely needs to be more educated on how to exert their authority in a manner which they exude respect from the men they command. While I know that many officers already have learnt this through experience, but incidences like Nyomi show that there is still a large crop of officers who haven't earned their men's respect, nor trust, and don't deserve to be leading these soldiers.
 
Last edited:

Coalmine

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2013
Messages
4,220
Likes
14,949
Country flag
Earlier in CISF , there were mistreatment of low rank jawans(constables). They had to wash clothes,cook for officers etc etc.Then in one incident (i dont know properly. It's before 1980. i dont know the date.) in jharia(in jharkhand) CISF unit some jawans striked and captured the head quarter( where guns are kept) . Army was called but someone shot one army officer. Then firing strated between army and jawans holed up in quarter gaurd. The CISF jawans fought with great resistance but killed ultimately. Later there were reports of disbanding the entire CISF but not done. However after that no such mistreatment happened and CISF personnels were proper housing and other benefits.
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top