Recently, the constable Tej Bahadur of Border Security Force and Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh of 42 Infantry have took over the social networking sites like Facebook to air their grievances against the neglect of welfare issues and poor service conditions in Paramilitary Forces and Army respectively. This has subsequently been followed by the series of copy cat videos from other soldiers airing the similar grievances.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said that an "army marches on its stomach". And this adage best suits to the issue of bad good highlighted by the constable Tej Bahadur in his video. He highlighted the fact that the soldiers posted on disturbed and sensitive areas are made to eat burnt chapatis and watery dal. Though the higher officials of the BSF seems to be in state of denial, this issue should not be neglected.
A soldier protects the border and key infrastructure of the country and keeps an active vigil on any suspicious activities in these areas. So it is utmost essential that his health, welfare and service conditions be given superior priority. In addition to this the uniformed personnel of paramilitary forces also faces another set of problems which are very specific to them.
The paramilitary forces since its inception has been facing stepmotherly treatment with respect to Army. The wage disparities, poor service conditions, deployment to forward areas and other are some form of discriminations that are been faced by the forces. However, the most important issue that need to be highlighted out here is concerns related to system of military justice.
Paramilitary forces, and also Assam Rifles, falls outside the purview of the 'Armed Forces Tribunal' and the 'Security Force Court' which operates a court martial like system lack adequate legal safeguards. Thus the only recourse left for the personnel of these forces to communicate their grievances is an expensive and time consuming process of writ petitions. Perhaps this is the reason why constable Tej Bahadur used Facebook to disseminate his grievance to wider public.
However, on the other side the Army in the country is facing a different set of problems which include lop-sided promotion policies, neglect of welfare issues, denial of leaves for months, controversial appointment of 'Chief of Army Staff' and the like. These issues have national security implications as these tend to lower down the morale of the armed personnel and weakens the social cohesion among soldiers. No wonder from 2003-2013, 1666 cases of suicides and 109 cases of fratricides have been reported within the armed forces.
But here, there is one issue that is need to be focussed further. Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh has specifically highlighted the contentious Sahayak or buddy system in the army. Under this system a professional soldier is deputed to be with an officer and made to do his personal chores like washing clothes, polishing boots and walking dogs. The series of videos should act as wake up call now, and such systems should be revoked on priority basis.
Having said that there are arguments against the use of social networking websites by the uniformed personnel to air their grievances. The armed forces in India are governed by a set of norms, organisational values, and warrior ethics that involve virtues like courage, discipline, honesty, loyalty and hierarchy. In no way there should be any breach in these values. In armed forces duties and warrior ethics of a personnel holds primacy and is a part of uncompromising creed of a soldier.
There is thus a need to strike a balance between values and virtues in the armed forces and the proper mechanism of addressing grievances of the soldiers. There is a further need to have serious deliberations and discussions on the welfare measures of the armed personnel by the senior leadership of executive and security establishments.
Rationalizing policies, operational control of paramilitary forces by Army, reform in military justice system and comprehensive measures to address the stress related issues among the forces is a need of the hour. Here the words of Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, to his king suits most appropriately:
“The day the soldier has to demand his dues will be a sad day for Magadha for then, on that day, you will have lost all moral sanction to be King!”
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