Army shocked as govt cuts 50,000 jobs
R R Nair in New Delhi
The Indian army is already reeling under a severe manpower crisis. And the government has decided to add to its woes by downsizing the force by 50,000.
Though the government promises to pump the money saved into modernising the army, several officers are sceptical.
Former army chief General Vishwanath Sharma and other senior serving officers have strongly criticised the Cabinet decision.
General Sharma told Rediff On The NeT that the unilateral manpower reduction would be dangerous for the
country.
"Reduction is feasible but not in the manner in which they have done it. They should have first of all held talks with China and Pakistan, and then gone in for a mutual manpower reduction. Russia had earlier done this, but only after an agreement with China," he said.
General Sharma was chief of army staff when the Indian Peace Keeping Force was pulled out of Sri Lanka and had then suggested manpower reduction.
"Any economist would tell you that governmental expenditure
should be reduced. But it doesn't mean that you cut the army manpower without touching the flab in the civil services or the police or the public sector. There should be a five to 10 per cent manpower cut in all the sectors, " General Sharma asserted.
The reduction in manpower does not mean that 50,000 soldiers and officers would be retrenched from the army. But the army will not go in for more recruitments. It has been reported that the move will result in savings of Rs 6 billion.
General Sharma, however, expressed his doubts as to whether the army would get the money. "I am rather suspicious about what they intend to do with the amount. Now they say that the army would get the amount for modernisation. What they would do is cut the defence budget again next year. Thus the amount saved would make no difference."
"Our country's defence is not just the responsibility of the armed forces. If the government does not make friends with our traditional enemies or diplomatically neutralise them, it is the army which would have to face their threat. So the country has to spend on its armed forces. The reduction in manpower is going to hit the army if there is a war," a serving lieutenant general told Rediff On The NeT.
The 1,05,00,00-strong army will not be immediately affected by the manpower reduction. But, according to the lieutenant general, units which are stationed in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, where the army fights insurgency, would suffer in peace time as a lesser number of men and officers would have to take the burden of the unfilled vacancies.
The only silver lining army officers see in the whole exercise is that the Pakistan defence budget was also reduced by 3 per cent recently. "If it is in tandem with the Pakistani move, then it is a step in the right direction," said an officer.
The Indian defence budget was 3.5 per cent of the GDP 20 years ago; it is now around 2.2 per cent. So the threat of the defence budget being cut again looms large over the army fraternity.
The army is already short of 60,000 men and 13,000 to 15,000 officers. It has been pointed out frequently that the service conditions of the men have become worse and that the facilities provided to them have become unattractive.
These and the drastic cut in manpower would send wrong signals to the Indian youth who already consider army a not-so-great job option.
The army has even run an advertisement campaign to attract the youth into the services.
General Sharma said the only way of keeping the army 'young' is to ensure that it has a better exit policy which would ensure that its staff gets government jobs after early retirement.
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