As of date Indian defence
Forces are over a million plus serving and large number of retirees
between the age of forty and above. Over a period of time the forces
have built massive infrastructure in terms of facilities. Some of
these are legacy of the colonial times and an undeveloped market.
However like a good house wife it refuses to shed the colonial past
and fully grabbing the future. This mindset is in its thought,
traditions and culture. Staying aloof was a colonial requirement but
not of free democratic nation.
Such a huge trained manpower
is available for any contingency that may arise on our borders. With
major wars being uncommon- last war was fought in 71 and there is no
likelihood for any thing in the foreseeable future. Pakistan, one of
the major irritant can not fight a conventional war and hope for a
modicum of success. Therefore it will continue the proxy war. China,
the other neighbour has established such a massive edge in-terms of
conventional/nuclear capability that India can not win either of the
wars. Deterrence is the aim and that should be doable.
Disaster management and
CI/LWE has been given to central/state police forces and border
management less Line of Control with Pakistan and some portion with
China too has been given to force other than the army.
The CRPF/ITBP have raised
forces for all the additional tasks of disaster and border management
therefore corresponding decrease should have been done by the army,
which apparently has not happened. Rashtriya Rifles raised for CI in
J&K need to be reviewed.
With the reduced
responsibility why should the defence forces not get involved in
Nation Building?
What
can be done without compromising the war preparedness
Component of the defence
forces deployed in peace stations train for three months and three
months go towards leave. Remainder time is available for activities
of nation building.
To ensure that the nation is
not caught off guard, the slack/spare time would need to be
harmonised with likely operational season which depends on various
factors well known to military.
Specific Activities
Talent hunt and train youth
in sports
Make available sports infra
to selected promising youth.
Skill building- army can
facilitate building skills at par or superior to ITIs. Training
cooks; mechanics; drivers; electricians; English speaking; computer
learning and host of other vocational skills from its
existing/augmented facilities.
Awareness of
hygiene/sanitation; introducing solar; non conventional energy in
remote areas
Training village youth in E
monitoring of government schemes and other e-learning options.
Defence forces have a system
of adopting villages in difficult areas in J&k and NE to aid
those areas where reach of government is weak. This can be extended
to areas in the mainland and help catch up on the last time thereby
ensuring inclusive growth.
Defence forces can
contribute in higher learning by opening more institutes of
excellence in conjunction with HRD ministry.
Self
Evolution
In the history of warfare
the leader with best application of mind has been Krishna. His
capability to influence the outcome by proper manoeuvring is well
known. His name is “Ranchhor”- run away from battle are great
traditions which unfortunately we do not follow. Its the Israeli army
which believes in survive to fight another day rather than the
colonial way of last man last round. Chankya too needs to be
understood and incorporated in military thought.
Facilitate R&D in
military fields. Web and hosts of others were developed by US for
military use. There are many bright minds – MSc from IITs and some
from foreign countries. These minds must facilitate research and
design formulation in conjunction with other brains working in
DRDOs/IITs/Pvt sect R&D.
Conclusion
Army has a bitter experience
of pre 62 war when it got involved in residential accommodation
building at the cost of operational preparedness. That must not come
in the way of seeing afresh the need of the nation to develop and
defence being big consumer of budget has a moral obligation to, pitch
in towards this onerous task.
No comments:
Post a Comment