Pause, reflect on ‘Tour of Duty’

THE clarion call for Atmanirbharta, first pronounced by the Prime Minister, has been gathering momentum for some very good reasons. It has acquired salience and the Prime Minister and Raksha Mantri have expressed its relevance and need in Parliament, at national and international fora and given it the traction that such a vision deserves. That it could have found expression with past dispensations but did not is irrelevant, because it is now moving with the force of ‘an idea whose time has come’.

Besides its original purpose of raising the bar in defence hardware, Atmanirbharta has also gathered steam by the Covid-19 experience and more recently, with sanctions on Russia due to her actions against Ukraine.

Two years ago, a think tank, in all innocence, understood that while Atmanirbharta was a good thing, it was the exploding defence pension bill that was preventing it from marshalling resources. In all earnestness, they proposed a model of ‘volunteer conscription’ under a catchy ‘Tour of Duty’ (TOD) nom de plume. Since the proposal indicated a reduction in pension budgets, cuts being the flavour of the season, it struck root. What such a proposal would do to a myriad of interlinked but less understood facets at the Apex was of little consequence, and much less the understanding that you can’t cut your nose to spite your face.

Briefly, the proposal implied that under-graduate males immediately after 10+2 (18-21 year age group) could be inducted into the Infantry, because it is supposedly a ‘non-technical’ arm (a fallacy considering what modern infantry does). Using exacting selection norms and trained cursorily for six months, the selected volunteers would enter the war zone for two successive three-year tenures and thereafter, be disposed of with minimal severance and nil attendant terminal benefits such as medical, education, employment facilities or job reservation.

This was the original formulation. I am not aware if this has undergone any course-correction or if there are changes related to years in service, pan-India representation (we are already practising a recruitable male population criteria for enrolment on a pan-India basis); however, the time it takes to prepare a person to imbibe the warrior code seems to have been overlooked.

The proposal applied the ‘use and discard’ model, originally derived for the logistics life cycle — replace and not repair, just in time; and the inventory control model — to make their case. Life cycle makes huge sense in the corporate world of manufacturing. It displays insensitivity to flesh and blood callings. Soldiering is about flesh and blood.

Be that as it may, the question that begs an answer is, at what cost? Soldiers are not ‘use and discard’ objects and ‘volunteer conscription’ is an oxymoron. The proposal applies corporate manufacturing assembly line norms to those who live, breathe and are impregnated with ‘my country, right or wrong’ credo of national service. They sign unlimited liability bonds, and for them, the ultimate sacrifice with a smile is sine qua non.

At the national defence level, Atmanirbharta is a triangle of safety. It has three sides. At the top is an Atmanirbhar soldier and at the bottom on two sides, we have (a) the affordable state-of-art weapons with which the soldier is equipped, and (b) indigenous manufacturing and research capability. We have a long distance to travel to achieve (a) and (b). Collectively, the three contribute towards national defence. All three are interminably linked, all three have a cost, yet, it is the Atmanirbhar soldier, ‘the man behind the gun’, who determines the value of the others. The call for Atmanirbharta was meant to signal the need for strengthening the two weak supporting arms of the triad, and not to weaken the Apex.

Independent India has, through all the challenges thrown at it by our two hostile neighbours, witnessed the Apex — the Atmanirbhar soldier — standing firm, irrespective of the status of the other two legs. This is a story that has been repeatedly played out in the 1948, 1962, 1965, 1971 wars, Op Pawan, Op Cactus Lily (Maldives), the Kargil war, Op Parakram, Doklam, Surgical Strikes, Balakot, and quite recently, the LAC stand-off with China in eastern Ladakh.

The soldier who represents the Apex in the triad has through untold sacrifice, imagination and resolve made up for the incongruities and inadequacies of the other two legs, and thus earned the respect of his countrymen. The Apex occupies a revered position in the hearts and minds of citizens and is a badge of honour for those who have served with no strings attached.

Our unique model of continuity in training embeds in the soldier the attributes of Naam, Namak and Nishan, achieved by a judicious mix of experienced and young soldiers to attain the war-winning attributes needed to make this ethic work. It is a disservice to soldiers to disturb this reality by linking it to mathematical calculations of pay and pension.

During my service, when interacting with the armies of many countries, my foreign peers wondered how the Indian soldier recaptured the icy hills of Kargil, attacking them frontally (crossing the Line of Control was forbidden) at heights where mere breathing was a survival exercise.

Observe what we are witnessing in Ukraine. In my understanding, Russians are avoiding contact engagement with the Ukrainians, and it is reported that they have attacked civilian emplacements in Kiev, Mariupol, Lviv, Kharkov with missiles, all this to get a toe-hold in the Donbas. The below-par performance attributed to conscripts initially denied by Russia got substantiated by international agencies after Ukrainian TV showed some conscripts as prisoners of war. President Putin thereafter had all conscripts withdrawn.

Of course, we can only pay what we can. That is a given. As a volunteer entrant, our soldier knows that. Yet, in all these years, the soldier never flinched. He stood still and tall. It seems strange to measure a calling with a legal tender. In fact, callings are immeasurable. Can you measure the contribution of a soldier who gives up his life? Or that of a doctor who saves a life? Or that of a teacher who teaches the young? In each case, self-esteem and societal recognition make them deliver optimally. The ‘use and discard’ model cannot qualify as a calling. It may serve the limited purpose of self-development, but when the chips are down, there is enough happening around the world to remind us that our prevailing model is incomparable. Bringing down a citadel may thus have unintended adverse consequences.

Amongst the enormous challenges that face the country, division of the resource pie is a formidable one. We cannot get into a spiral of imbalance. The call for Atmanirbharta and the need to streamline the other two triad legs is sound and irrefutable and will doubtlessly provide savings. The service hierarchy has to commit itself to make it work, relook doctrine in light of the recent and ongoing experiences and arrive at cost-effective and workable solutions.

TOD is out of sync with the Apex chemistry. Unpolished, the soldier knowingly volunteers for the rough and tumble. He imbibes the best of the environment which he is privileged to join. He learns every day that there is no place for runners-up in his calling. Soon enough, he becomes a mentor, and then the ‘go-to’ comrade for the most daunting of challenges such as surgical strikes, Balakot, etc. He does not reason why, but dares to do or die.

Yet, there will be some who would want proof beyond what the soldier has always delivered. If proof is indeed required, the world is full of it. In Atmanirbhar US, both legs were as strong as they can get, yet they had Vietnam, and recently Afghanistan. As I write this, the Atmanirbhar Russian example stares us in the face. Then there is Galwan. Swamped and deceived by the Chinese, our soldiers stood like the Rock of Gibraltar. The standoff is today somewhat recessed, but not withdrawn. If the adversary ups the ante, the nation knows that a punitive Indian riposte will follow.

With such a track record, the decision-makers will do well to pause and reflect on TOD. The characteristics of warfare are changing. Battlefields have more battle-space than before. There is a case for a joint doctrine which will usher in cost-effective and efficient teeth-to-tail ratios, and bring in the non-kinetic force multipliers. Theaterisation, which is a work in progress, is one such initiative.

Atmanirbharta is only complete when the triad is in place. Within the triad, the Atmanirbhar soldier is king. We are blessed with the farsightedness of our leadership at the national and military level to develop and mature this asset. Military soldiering needs to be recognised, not put through a valuation crucible. The citizen must always sleep with the comfort that the security provided by the Apex parameter — the Atmanirbhar soldier — is cast in titanium.

THE PROPOSAL

• The ‘Tour of Duty’ model of ‘volunteer conscription’ aims at reducing the huge annual defence pension and pay bills.
• Under it, under-graduate males after 10+2 (18-21 year age group) can be inducted into Infantry.
• After exacting selection norms and training for six months, the volunteers would enter the war zone for two successive three-year tenures.
• They will thereafter be disposed of with minimal severance and nil attendant terminal benefits such as medical, education facilities or job reservation.

THE PITFALLS

• Proposal applies the ‘use and discard’ model, displaying insensitivity to the flesh and blood calling that soldiering is.
• The Indian soldier through untold sacrifice and resolve occupies a revered position. It is a disservice to disturb this reality by linking it to mathematical calculations of pay and pension.
• In Ukraine, the below-par performance attributed to conscripts was initially denied by Russia, till President Putin had all conscripts withdrawn. In Atmanirbhar US, even best of weapons systems could not prevent a Vietnam, or Afghanistan.

— The writer served as the Western Army Commander