ISI serious threat: army chief

"The security environment in the country requires us to be alert," General Shankar Roy Chaudhary said in Lucknow on Thursday.

The army chief was talking to the press during his last official visit to the Central Command headquarters in Lucknow before he retires later this month.

General Chaudhary admitted that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was posing a serious threat not only in the border areas, but also elsewhere in the country. Expressing his concern about the ISI's activities in India, the general hoped the menace would soon be contained, hinting at a "new strategy" evolved by the army.

Referring to Sino-Indian relations, General Chaudhary said, "I am sure the recent dialogue between our vice-chief and his counterpart on that side (the Chinese) have paved the way for better relations between the two countries." He refuted insistent claims of human rights violations by army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir and in the North-East.

"Let me make it clear to you that the term 'human rights' is not new for the Indian army; we have been practicing it for generations and do not require anybody to teach us what it means," he said in reply to a pointed query. "This is explicitly spelt out in our 'Rules for Aid to Civil Authorities' -- (to)... use minimum force, good faith and impartiality. And let me tell you there are being followed by our men under very difficult circumstances."

Asked about the declining response to the defence services as a career, the army chief observed, "This is not a problem of the army alone; it is a national problem and needs to be tackled in that spirit... Nevertheless we are taking various measures to promote the defence services in general, and army in particular, so that more and more young men come forward to take it up as a career."

He admitted that the "Indian army was short of some 12,000 officers (about 20 per cent of the officer strength), including the critical area of young officers, who actually fight the war." He felt there was a need to draw more young men, "at least into the short service commission. That could give them a good five-year exposure to the army life... And even if they choose to step out, they would still have learnt enough to qualify for the best jobs in the corporate world outside."

He did not deny that lack of upward mobility made the army a bad career option. "But, you see, ours is a strictly pyramidal structure, and we cannot make compromises at our various command levels. We cannot promise everyone a position at the highest level, as may be done in some other services," he said, adding, 'That's the reason we have sought compensation of such stagnation with a proportional increase in pay."