There was this excellent essay written by
Major Divik Kandpal about the need to revamp the training structure of young Officers in the Indian army. Coming from a Major, who himself went through this process should be proof enough that the officers are no more at par with their job requirements.
The following are excerpts from the essay....Please note that they may not be consequtive paragraphs.
Unfortunately, as we come close to the end of the first ten years of the service of the first batch of YO's commissioned in the 21st Century, the environment can easily discern that slowly somehow the above training continuum is getting disrupted. The results of this trend may not be visible in a flash.
Nevertheless, the slowly declining sheen of the officer corps can be attributed to 'erosion of values amid their quest for easy success'.
After a few months in his parent unit, he goes for his first structured career course – the YOs course. It is followed by Commandos' and Weapons' courses. During the service bracket of five to eight years, he is detailed for Junior Command (JC) course. Interspersed between these courses are Part B and D Promotion examinations and a string of miscellaneous courses like Regimental Signal Officers (RSO), Mechanical Transport Officers (MTO), Quarter Master (QM), Military Law, Mountain / Jungle Warfare, Computer and Information Technology (IT) courses, to name a few.
These are generally vacancy based.
Unfortunately, due to a variety of internal and environmental factors the above mentioned continuum of educating and grooming YOs stands disrupted and has led to a 'start-stop' necessity based approach.
The 'shortage of officers' is the single biggest reason for the above problem .The inadequacy of officers at the unit level leads to lack of mentoring at all levels. Add to it, the ever 'increasing commitments' which take away from them the traditional growing up period.
They are pushed into operations straightway after commissioning. This at times leads to picking up wrong practices and values, which at later stages, become difficult to rectify.
The present day training curricula, right from the OTA / IMA upto JC course is sufficiently covering the 'tactical' aspects of conventional environment. However, the challenges that the Country faces in the form of Asymmetric Warfare (AW) requires review of the basics of our training, especially at the YO's level. Add to it, the quantum leap in technology that our Army is making to prepare itself for Network Centric Warfare (NCW) and the demands of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).
Thus, the environment expects our YOs to be 'technocrat wizards', with requisite adaptability to imbibe and implement rapidly changing technological concepts that are getting introduced endlessly, and also 'intellectual understanding' to comprehend the subtleties of humanities oriented subjects like Perception Management, Human Rights, Media Management, International Relations and Diplomacy.
On top of all this is the challenge of 'leading' and 'managing' an increasingly awakened and educated PBOR, who most often would not question your decisions and
actions but would also not submit meekly 'always' without expressing reasonable doubts or seeking premature exit from Military service.
This is just a small set of extracts from the essay. But it clearly defines where the IA as an institution are going wrong. A good number of new intakes are not adequate to the task.
And if one reads the last 2 paragraphs keenly, he clearly mentions out that the officers may be out of sync with his subordinates. Bear in mind this article was written in 2009, and we have already seen the brawl in Ladakh between army jawans and officers.
I'm linking the whole essay here. Its a must read for those who wish to understand why there exists so many tactical errors in SOPs...
USI of India | An article by USI
**Major Divik Kandpal-was commissioned into Corps of the Electrical and Mechanical Engineers on 11 Dec 1999 and did his initial attachment with 14 Battalion, the Maratha Light Infantry. He is presently posted in 636 EME Battalion.
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