Daedalus

There are many good things about the Indian Army but this aspect is an exception. Let me elaborate this be coz improvement will come from acceptance of the problems. The promotion system: The Indian Army has a very steep promotion pyramid. The promotion is decided overwhelmingly on CRs. The CRs are written on personal loyalties. Merit alone doesn’t help but merit with submissiveness and compliance helps. As a result the submissive and the compliant rise to the top and they in turn reward similar traits down below. 2014 and Modi Raj. The Modi Government decided to control all institutions. The Armed forces were no exception. The political control was quite easy. The strict command structure ensures total control over the forces by control of merely few top brasses. The govt came up with the “ Deep selection model” for promotion to the highest ranks, overriding the extant “Seniority principle”. The Messaging! Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi an exceptional General was superseded to promote the compliant and supine Gen Bipin Rawat, who incidentally was also related to the NSA. The message reverberated thru the entire hierarchy. Later, in order to promote Lt-General Ranbir Singh, who was the DGMO during the “surgical strikes”, rules for mandatory residual service for promotion to Army Commanders were amended and reduced to 18 months from the extant 24 months. Then later Gen Bipin Rawat was rewarded with CDS appointment. The messaging - Carrot vs Stick - was complete. A top rank pool of ultra submissive personally ambitious officers was ready to toe the government line. The loyalty to govt and loyalty to constitution overlapped. The Solution ! The promotion funnel of the Army should be at par with IPS. If every officer is assured of an IG rank he will dare to be bold and exploratory. He will carry and communicate an authoritative military personality and perspective respectively. However the top brass somehow prioritizes superiority over own juniors rather than parity with peers outside. Thats why it killed NFU. The Top Brass fail to see that the outsiders see them as part of the same cadre where most retire as Lt Colonel/ Colonel. By becoming a General one doesn’t cease to belong to the cadre from which he rose. The Army brass lacks vision, in that it competes within, whereas the civil agencies compete outside.