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My Army Life (1977 to 2006) By Gopal Karunakaran
>
> PL DO READ THIS FULLY .....
>
>
>
> Here is an article written from the heart of a soldier. I wish that each of
> our citizens and more so men in positions of power - whether politicians,
> bureaucrats , mediamughals and other opinion leaders ( hell of a phrase ! )
> - get to read this. And, more importantly, act proactively for the sake of
> our nation.
> I Love the Indian Army – but I must leave Now!
> I stumbled into the Indian Army in the late seventies. The School which
> admitted us mid-session, when we returned from Singapore, where my father
> had a brief teaching stint at the Singapore University, was The Army Public
> School, Dhaula Kuan. With teenage sons of Army officers as friends, it was
> natural to apply to join the National Defence Academy. A friend filled my
> form and even paid the application fee. I wasn't serious at all of pursuing
> a career in the military – much like Hrithik Roshan in Lakshya. I saw a
> movie with my friends, after each of the four NDA entrance papers, and
> argued with my father when he questioned me on my lack of commitment to the
> exam.
> Surprisingly, I qualified on the Service Selection Board standing 19th in
> the Army all India merit list. I then chose to join the National Defence
> Academy, as a career was assured at such an early age.
> Astonishingly, within a few days of joining the NDA, at pristine
> Khadakwasala, I began my life long affection and admiration for the Indian
> Army. The NDA was awesome and I took to it as if the place was always meant
> for me. It was, and probably still is, a remarkable institution where
> everything works like clockwork, and boys transform into enthusiastic, self
> confident young men with fire in their belly and an idealistic vision to
> contribute meaningfully to the security challenges that India would face in
> the future.
> Three years later at the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun, I learnt that
> toughness and fitness was not just about well developed physical abilities,
> but also as much about mental strength, and that the IMA motto of 'Service
> before Self' was not some Gandhian mumbo-jumbo, but the very edifice of life
> in uniform as an officer.
> The many years in my Infantry battalion were even more memorable. Not a day
> was spent as "work". Every day was enjoyable with a huge family of 800 men;
> the love, respect and camaraderie was astonishing especially in this day and
> age. A life of great honesty of purpose; lived simply and with great pride,
> respect and honour.
>
>
> I had a tour of duty in Kashmir in every rank I have held. As a Lieutenant
> in Baramulla before the militancy, as a Captain in the Siachen Glacier at
> 20,000 feet, as a Major and company commander in Kupwara fighting
> terrorists, and as Lt Col as second-in-command of my unit in Badgam in a
> counter insurgency deployment on the outskirts of the Srinagar airport.
> Finally as a Colonel and Battalion commander, I had three different innings
> in the Kashmir Valley, first as part of the offensive plans during OP
> PARAKRAM in 2001, then fighting militants in Anantnag during the 2002
> Amarnath Yatra and during the state elections, and finally on the Line of
> Control in high altitude in the majestic Gurez Valley.
>
> Interspersed between these challenging times was an opportunity to serve
> with the United Nations in Iraq-Kuwait as a Military Observer where I saw
> closely officers from 34 different nations from around the globe and learnt
> from them about their militaries and the relationship between the State and
> the soldier in other countries.
>
>
>
> I also had instructional assignments at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra
> Dun and at the Infantry School teaching young infantry officers. I then had
> an enriching year at the Army War College at Mhow during the Higher Command
> course in 2004-5, learning the art of higher command in the military and
> traveling to every corner of the country, expanding knowledge, visiting not
> just our various military headquarters, but also the citadels of economic
> power of our nation.
>
>
> After the one year sabbatical at Mhow, I moved, in Apr 2005 to a dream job,
> to the seat of power of the Army in Delhi – the Army Headquarters with an
> office in South Block and an appointment in the personnel Branch of the Army
> dealing with postings and promotions of officers of our Army.
>
>
> After three years at Delhi, a Brigadiers rank was round the corner in mid
> 2008. The sixth Pay commission too was promising salaries to meet with the
> aspirations of soldiers and government officials who had been made to feel
> like poor cousins to their corporate friends in the galloping India of the
> 21st century.
>
>
> Inspite of such a bright future, I felt I must I leave the Indian Army.
>
>
> The three years in the nation's capital left me with a strange emptiness
> which refused to go away. All the years, I felt that the many years I spent
> away from my immediate family, in remote corners of India, were for a cause
> which was noble and worthwhile. I always felt huge pride for my soldiers and
> brother officers. I felt there is a grateful nation behind all of us
> stationed so far away, battling the vagaries of weather and the uncertainty
> of life.
> I remember in SIACHEN, in 1988, just before we started our deployment on the
> main Glacier, the shy 17 year old soldier, no more than a kid, who met me,
> then the Adjutant, and requested me to be posted to the transport platoon
> after this tenure, as he was very fond of motor vehicles. Four days later,
> he was violently taken ill at KUMAR our Headquarters at 16000 feet. We
> tended to him the whole night, as the helicopter could come to rescue him
> away only in the morning. Sadly, the High Altitude Pulmonary Odema which
> afflicted him was faster. He was dead before the copter arrived at the crack
> of dawn. It was a sad loss so soon after our induction on to the Glacier,
> but we took it on our chin as the accepted dangers of a soldier's life. We
> shed not a tear, and proceeded to do our duty for the next six months,
> battling the odds and the enemy, in incredibly difficult conditions.
> I recall when a soldier, who had slipped and fallen towards the enemy side
> was rescued at Bana top, at 20,000 feet by a brave and courageous officer
> who went across single handedly at grave risk to his life, to get him back.
> The soldier spent four hours exposed to temperatures of below minus 40
> degrees C, (later both his arms were amputated). When I met him in the
> hospital a month later he said he knew that his company commander would come
> to rescue him. It taught me a lesson in trust, faith, camaraderie and
> leadership which I shall never forget for the rest of my life.
> I also recall the young soldier who bravely jumped into a building,
> unrelentingly chasing three dreaded terrorists who had hidden there. We were
> on the outskirts of Srinagar airfield and fighting a fierce gun battle
> through the cold winter night in Dec 2000. He killed two of them but in the
> process was hit by a bullet through the head. He died in my arms. What was
> even more poignant was the gesture by his father when we honoured him on our
> battalions Raising day, the following year. In an age where money means
> everything, the old man broken by his young son's loss, refused the money we
> as a unit of 800 had collected as a gesture of our sympathy and concern. He
> said he had no need for the money and the unit could put it to better use by
> honouring his brave son in any appropriate way.
>
> What I observed over these three years at Delhi, unfortunately have been a
> sad revelation of the nature of the relationship between the Indian soldier,
> the State and the people of India. Like RK Laxmans common man, I have
> observed silently the ignorance and apathy of the establishment towards all
> issues military.
> As our expectations from our cricket team, we expect the very best from our
> military in critical moments of our history, like the 71 War or the Kargil
> conflict.
> If we were to build our home, we shall obviously get the best builders and
> architects we can afford, if our mother was taken ill, we would look for the
> very best hospital and doctor that we can afford. The critical question is;
> do we do enough as a nation to ensure that we have the best military India
> can afford?
> Are we as a nation doing enough to ensure that we have the best men and
> systems in place to guard our sovereignty and security interests? Do we do
> enough to recruit and retain the brightest men and do we have the structures
> in place to meet the security challenges within and across our borders in
> the coming years?
> For a start, the inability to put in place an integrated Chief of Defence
> Staff is the foremost of our weaknesses and is symptomatic of the apathy and
> ignorance of military matters in modern India. It is often dismissed as a
> peripheral issue, one that can wait till the services themselves resolve it.
> The hard truth is that without true integration of the Army, the Air Force
> and the Navy, a modern military will be grossly inept and incapable of
> prosecuting a modern day war. To use the cricketing analogy a bit further,
> the Kargil war was T 20 cricket and can hide a few fatal flaws, but a full
> scale war will be like a Test match, only synergy; balance, close
> integration and team spirit will ensure success.
> You cannot blame the Defence Secretary or the civilian staff in the Ministry
> of Defence for the lack of awareness of these issues – very often the
> Defence Secretary would not have a days experience in the ministry till he
> joins as the head of the Ministry of Defence. He may have arrived from the
> commerce, railways or whichever ministry, the senior most bureaucrat is
> available at that time. The Defence Minister too often has no experience on
> defence matters till he becomes the Defence Minister. It is like appointing
> a CEO in a telecom company who had spent all his life in the cement
> industry!
> We cannot quite expect them to understand the vital need for integration of
> the Services. As a comparison to our system, the United States has a long
> tradition of appointing secretaries of Defence and Presidents who have spent
> years soldiering or they choose from retired Generals with vision and an
> impeccable record of service for these assignments. In fact, even in India
> it would be inconceivable for the Foreign Secretary to be appointed from
> amongst the bureaucrats in say the coal ministry, so this assumption that
> the defence ministry can be managed by amateurs is an insult and an affront
> to the security needs of India.
> To cite another example, we have no clearly enunciated and documented
> national counter-terrorism policy. In a nation where the threat of terrorism
> looms larger with every passing day, it is a matter of shame that we haven't
> formulated one yet. With the best minds in the Army, with years of
> experience in counter terrorism retiring every year, it is a pity we have
> failed to capitalize on their experience and set out a clearly laid out
> document. The alarming growth of the Maoists in the Red Corridor, will test
> the ability of the Indian state to respond to this challenge in the coming
> years. Policing being a State subject and internal threats being the
> concerns of the Home Ministry, there is an urgent need to look at counter
> terrorism holistically outside the confines of individual perceptions of
> States and various ministries. We must radically alter the narrow confines
> of each ministry when we define the policy for internal threats. There is
> apparently a > visible lack of statesmanship and professionalism on any macro issue
> concerning national security.
> An oblique pointer to India's concerns on national security and how embedded
> the military leader is in the psyche of the educated Indian is the
> representation at various Leadership summits and Conclaves. The 'who is who'
> of India and other countries are invariable present. There will be national
> political figures, corporate leaders, media barons, and of course movie
> moughals. So while we have the likes of Aiswarya Rai and Sharukh Khan
> telling us their take on leadership – the practicing military leader,
> whether a senior General or the young Major who is an Ashok Chakra winner –
> shining examples of leadership in its many hues – are conspicuous by their
> absence.
> From our fiercely independent and vibrant media, one would have expected
> greater maturity in their coverage of security affairs. It is revealing that
> a study in the USA suggests that the gradual erosion of coverage of
> international issues by their media networks was possibly a reason for their
> flawed international security interventions as the American public was not
> capable or knowledgeable enough to question their leadership. The Indian
> media must ask itself – do they exhibit enough concern on the larger
> dimensions of national security and do they have enough knowledge of
> military affairs to fulfill their role as the watchdogs of the nation? Will
> the increasing trivialization and localization of news affect our security?
> There are many concerns that we must address as a military, as a society
> and as a nation. There are individual and collective responsibilities that
> we must fulfill. Will India and Indians meet the challenge of the future?
> Time, and the collective will of the nation, will tell.
> NOW THAT IS THE TRUTH ... WHAT CAN WE DO? FOR OUR SAFETY AND SECURITY, IF
> NOT TO BE GRATEFUL FOR THE SOLDIER WHO IS PUTTING HIS LIFE ON THE BLOCK FOR
> US.
let this not be another mail we read and forget....
>
> PL DO READ THIS FULLY .....
>
>
>
> Here is an article written from the heart of a soldier. I wish that each of
> our citizens and more so men in positions of power - whether politicians,
> bureaucrats , mediamughals and other opinion leaders ( hell of a phrase ! )
> - get to read this. And, more importantly, act proactively for the sake of
> our nation.
> I Love the Indian Army – but I must leave Now!
> I stumbled into the Indian Army in the late seventies. The School which
> admitted us mid-session, when we returned from Singapore, where my father
> had a brief teaching stint at the Singapore University, was The Army Public
> School, Dhaula Kuan. With teenage sons of Army officers as friends, it was
> natural to apply to join the National Defence Academy. A friend filled my
> form and even paid the application fee. I wasn't serious at all of pursuing
> a career in the military – much like Hrithik Roshan in Lakshya. I saw a
> movie with my friends, after each of the four NDA entrance papers, and
> argued with my father when he questioned me on my lack of commitment to the
> exam.
> Surprisingly, I qualified on the Service Selection Board standing 19th in
> the Army all India merit list. I then chose to join the National Defence
> Academy, as a career was assured at such an early age.
> Astonishingly, within a few days of joining the NDA, at pristine
> Khadakwasala, I began my life long affection and admiration for the Indian
> Army. The NDA was awesome and I took to it as if the place was always meant
> for me. It was, and probably still is, a remarkable institution where
> everything works like clockwork, and boys transform into enthusiastic, self
> confident young men with fire in their belly and an idealistic vision to
> contribute meaningfully to the security challenges that India would face in
> the future.
> Three years later at the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun, I learnt that
> toughness and fitness was not just about well developed physical abilities,
> but also as much about mental strength, and that the IMA motto of 'Service
> before Self' was not some Gandhian mumbo-jumbo, but the very edifice of life
> in uniform as an officer.
> The many years in my Infantry battalion were even more memorable. Not a day
> was spent as "work". Every day was enjoyable with a huge family of 800 men;
> the love, respect and camaraderie was astonishing especially in this day and
> age. A life of great honesty of purpose; lived simply and with great pride,
> respect and honour.
>
>
> I had a tour of duty in Kashmir in every rank I have held. As a Lieutenant
> in Baramulla before the militancy, as a Captain in the Siachen Glacier at
> 20,000 feet, as a Major and company commander in Kupwara fighting
> terrorists, and as Lt Col as second-in-command of my unit in Badgam in a
> counter insurgency deployment on the outskirts of the Srinagar airport.
> Finally as a Colonel and Battalion commander, I had three different innings
> in the Kashmir Valley, first as part of the offensive plans during OP
> PARAKRAM in 2001, then fighting militants in Anantnag during the 2002
> Amarnath Yatra and during the state elections, and finally on the Line of
> Control in high altitude in the majestic Gurez Valley.
>
> Interspersed between these challenging times was an opportunity to serve
> with the United Nations in Iraq-Kuwait as a Military Observer where I saw
> closely officers from 34 different nations from around the globe and learnt
> from them about their militaries and the relationship between the State and
> the soldier in other countries.
>
>
>
> I also had instructional assignments at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra
> Dun and at the Infantry School teaching young infantry officers. I then had
> an enriching year at the Army War College at Mhow during the Higher Command
> course in 2004-5, learning the art of higher command in the military and
> traveling to every corner of the country, expanding knowledge, visiting not
> just our various military headquarters, but also the citadels of economic
> power of our nation.
>
>
> After the one year sabbatical at Mhow, I moved, in Apr 2005 to a dream job,
> to the seat of power of the Army in Delhi – the Army Headquarters with an
> office in South Block and an appointment in the personnel Branch of the Army
> dealing with postings and promotions of officers of our Army.
>
>
> After three years at Delhi, a Brigadiers rank was round the corner in mid
> 2008. The sixth Pay commission too was promising salaries to meet with the
> aspirations of soldiers and government officials who had been made to feel
> like poor cousins to their corporate friends in the galloping India of the
> 21st century.
>
>
> Inspite of such a bright future, I felt I must I leave the Indian Army.
>
>
> The three years in the nation's capital left me with a strange emptiness
> which refused to go away. All the years, I felt that the many years I spent
> away from my immediate family, in remote corners of India, were for a cause
> which was noble and worthwhile. I always felt huge pride for my soldiers and
> brother officers. I felt there is a grateful nation behind all of us
> stationed so far away, battling the vagaries of weather and the uncertainty
> of life.
> I remember in SIACHEN, in 1988, just before we started our deployment on the
> main Glacier, the shy 17 year old soldier, no more than a kid, who met me,
> then the Adjutant, and requested me to be posted to the transport platoon
> after this tenure, as he was very fond of motor vehicles. Four days later,
> he was violently taken ill at KUMAR our Headquarters at 16000 feet. We
> tended to him the whole night, as the helicopter could come to rescue him
> away only in the morning. Sadly, the High Altitude Pulmonary Odema which
> afflicted him was faster. He was dead before the copter arrived at the crack
> of dawn. It was a sad loss so soon after our induction on to the Glacier,
> but we took it on our chin as the accepted dangers of a soldier's life. We
> shed not a tear, and proceeded to do our duty for the next six months,
> battling the odds and the enemy, in incredibly difficult conditions.
> I recall when a soldier, who had slipped and fallen towards the enemy side
> was rescued at Bana top, at 20,000 feet by a brave and courageous officer
> who went across single handedly at grave risk to his life, to get him back.
> The soldier spent four hours exposed to temperatures of below minus 40
> degrees C, (later both his arms were amputated). When I met him in the
> hospital a month later he said he knew that his company commander would come
> to rescue him. It taught me a lesson in trust, faith, camaraderie and
> leadership which I shall never forget for the rest of my life.
> I also recall the young soldier who bravely jumped into a building,
> unrelentingly chasing three dreaded terrorists who had hidden there. We were
> on the outskirts of Srinagar airfield and fighting a fierce gun battle
> through the cold winter night in Dec 2000. He killed two of them but in the
> process was hit by a bullet through the head. He died in my arms. What was
> even more poignant was the gesture by his father when we honoured him on our
> battalions Raising day, the following year. In an age where money means
> everything, the old man broken by his young son's loss, refused the money we
> as a unit of 800 had collected as a gesture of our sympathy and concern. He
> said he had no need for the money and the unit could put it to better use by
> honouring his brave son in any appropriate way.
>
> What I observed over these three years at Delhi, unfortunately have been a
> sad revelation of the nature of the relationship between the Indian soldier,
> the State and the people of India. Like RK Laxmans common man, I have
> observed silently the ignorance and apathy of the establishment towards all
> issues military.
> As our expectations from our cricket team, we expect the very best from our
> military in critical moments of our history, like the 71 War or the Kargil
> conflict.
> If we were to build our home, we shall obviously get the best builders and
> architects we can afford, if our mother was taken ill, we would look for the
> very best hospital and doctor that we can afford. The critical question is;
> do we do enough as a nation to ensure that we have the best military India
> can afford?
> Are we as a nation doing enough to ensure that we have the best men and
> systems in place to guard our sovereignty and security interests? Do we do
> enough to recruit and retain the brightest men and do we have the structures
> in place to meet the security challenges within and across our borders in
> the coming years?
> For a start, the inability to put in place an integrated Chief of Defence
> Staff is the foremost of our weaknesses and is symptomatic of the apathy and
> ignorance of military matters in modern India. It is often dismissed as a
> peripheral issue, one that can wait till the services themselves resolve it.
> The hard truth is that without true integration of the Army, the Air Force
> and the Navy, a modern military will be grossly inept and incapable of
> prosecuting a modern day war. To use the cricketing analogy a bit further,
> the Kargil war was T 20 cricket and can hide a few fatal flaws, but a full
> scale war will be like a Test match, only synergy; balance, close
> integration and team spirit will ensure success.
> You cannot blame the Defence Secretary or the civilian staff in the Ministry
> of Defence for the lack of awareness of these issues – very often the
> Defence Secretary would not have a days experience in the ministry till he
> joins as the head of the Ministry of Defence. He may have arrived from the
> commerce, railways or whichever ministry, the senior most bureaucrat is
> available at that time. The Defence Minister too often has no experience on
> defence matters till he becomes the Defence Minister. It is like appointing
> a CEO in a telecom company who had spent all his life in the cement
> industry!
> We cannot quite expect them to understand the vital need for integration of
> the Services. As a comparison to our system, the United States has a long
> tradition of appointing secretaries of Defence and Presidents who have spent
> years soldiering or they choose from retired Generals with vision and an
> impeccable record of service for these assignments. In fact, even in India
> it would be inconceivable for the Foreign Secretary to be appointed from
> amongst the bureaucrats in say the coal ministry, so this assumption that
> the defence ministry can be managed by amateurs is an insult and an affront
> to the security needs of India.
> To cite another example, we have no clearly enunciated and documented
> national counter-terrorism policy. In a nation where the threat of terrorism
> looms larger with every passing day, it is a matter of shame that we haven't
> formulated one yet. With the best minds in the Army, with years of
> experience in counter terrorism retiring every year, it is a pity we have
> failed to capitalize on their experience and set out a clearly laid out
> document. The alarming growth of the Maoists in the Red Corridor, will test
> the ability of the Indian state to respond to this challenge in the coming
> years. Policing being a State subject and internal threats being the
> concerns of the Home Ministry, there is an urgent need to look at counter
> terrorism holistically outside the confines of individual perceptions of
> States and various ministries. We must radically alter the narrow confines
> of each ministry when we define the policy for internal threats. There is
> apparently a > visible lack of statesmanship and professionalism on any macro issue
> concerning national security.
> An oblique pointer to India's concerns on national security and how embedded
> the military leader is in the psyche of the educated Indian is the
> representation at various Leadership summits and Conclaves. The 'who is who'
> of India and other countries are invariable present. There will be national
> political figures, corporate leaders, media barons, and of course movie
> moughals. So while we have the likes of Aiswarya Rai and Sharukh Khan
> telling us their take on leadership – the practicing military leader,
> whether a senior General or the young Major who is an Ashok Chakra winner –
> shining examples of leadership in its many hues – are conspicuous by their
> absence.
> From our fiercely independent and vibrant media, one would have expected
> greater maturity in their coverage of security affairs. It is revealing that
> a study in the USA suggests that the gradual erosion of coverage of
> international issues by their media networks was possibly a reason for their
> flawed international security interventions as the American public was not
> capable or knowledgeable enough to question their leadership. The Indian
> media must ask itself – do they exhibit enough concern on the larger
> dimensions of national security and do they have enough knowledge of
> military affairs to fulfill their role as the watchdogs of the nation? Will
> the increasing trivialization and localization of news affect our security?
> There are many concerns that we must address as a military, as a society
> and as a nation. There are individual and collective responsibilities that
> we must fulfill. Will India and Indians meet the challenge of the future?
> Time, and the collective will of the nation, will tell.
> NOW THAT IS THE TRUTH ... WHAT CAN WE DO? FOR OUR SAFETY AND SECURITY, IF
> NOT TO BE GRATEFUL FOR THE SOLDIER WHO IS PUTTING HIS LIFE ON THE BLOCK FOR
> US.
let this not be another mail we read and forget....
Last edited: