Degradation of ranks & lower pay scales in Indian armed forces..?Army quashing the rank of Brigadier

The discontent among defense forces regarding their promotions, salary and power when compared to the civil servants has been perennially hovering in the minds of the defense think tanks of the country. So last month, Army Chief Bipin Rawat had called a high-level committee meeting to study various aspects of officer cadre restructuring. He also sought to address the three main issues plaguing the armed forces for more than 30 years: degradation of ranks, lower pay scales, and warrant of precedence.

The committee, which was headed by the Military Secretary and a Lieutenant General Rank officer, will submit a report by the end of November this year. The committee has proposed several changes to bring a balance and a 21^st century suitable structure for the Indian army. It has proposed to reduce the number of ranks from the preexisting nine to six or seven which is in concordance with the present IAS and IPS rank structure. This is sought to be done by abolishing the rank of brigadier which would mean that colonels who are promoted will directly become Major Generals. And also another point stated by the committee is that gentlemen cadets in IMA (Indian Military academy) would be given the rank of lieutenants and they would be commissioned into the army as Captains.  

If we talk about the facts. It takes an officer in the civil services 18 years of service to reach the rank of Joint Secretary. Meanwhile, in the military, it takes 32-33 years for an officer to reach the equivalent rank of a Major General due to the steeply pyramidical promotion structure of the armed forces. “Almost 80 out of 100 IAS officers become Joint Secretaries. But only five to six military officers out of 100 become Major Generals­­

When two officers of the same age join IAS and Indian army respectively, the IAS officers starts climbing the ranks more quickly and thus say after 10 years with same amount of service the IAS officer would be more senior than the Army officer.

In my opinion the reason why this happens is because the number of officers getting commissioned into the armed forces is way more than the number of civil servants appointed every year. So it is obvious that it would be difficult to climb the ranks in army than in the civil services.

Another reason for the huge imbalance in the middle of the pyramidical structure in the Indian army can be attributed to the One rank one pension scheme. According to this scheme if an officer takes an early retirement than he wouldn’t be eligible for this scheme. This has also made many of the officers who would have retired and chosen for a civil job to stay till the time they retire to avail the benefits of One Rank One Pension.

I also think that a better solution to the disparity of ranks between the civil servants and the army officers would be to form a joint committee for all the three forces and come up with feasible solutions. Because even if the army abolishes the brigadier rank, such equivalent ranks would still be existing in navy and air force and this would create administrative and other difficulties in the smooth functioning of the armed forces.

I am of the belief that Army should not compare itself with the civil services at the first instance because both the organizations are completely different from each other in terms of functioning, structure and historical value. By comparing itself with the services like IAS and IPS it is degrading its value from the viewpoint of the society. So the best option would be to better its standards and improve its cadre and morale of the officers without comparing itself with the IAS or IPS for that matter. Because we all know that the work that Indian army does is supreme and is above all the professions in our country.

As our former prime minister Lalbahadur Shashtri said “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”. The same stands true even today. So to conclude a joint committee should be formed to restructure and form a new order of ranks if it’s a good move by undertaking proper studies.