We are reminded that we have the fourth largest standing Army in the world, and that too a volunteer force. These million odd men by virtue of being ‘volunteers’ are supposed to be highly motivated. Behind this force are phalanxes of equally motivated 100 million people who can produce at least 20 million fighters.
Sri Lanka
and exercise Brasstacks infantry units were supposed to have around seven hundred and fifty men. They seldon had even four hundred men. The same is true of other Arms and Services.
China
. That is why, despite our expressions of outrage at various times we have allowed
China
and
Pakistan
to hold on to our territories, which they had occupied in 1962 and 1947. Words do not compensate for real strength.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Our one million volunteers army is a façade. Let us analyse these ‘volunteers’. They are not exactly ‘volunteers’ but disadvantaged men who/not are able to get anything better than wear uniform to earn their living.
It is a well known that the Army is the ninth choice among the youth in the country. Within the army the infantry, which constituted 37 percent of its strength, is the last choice. The infantryman is rated fourth i.e. group D in the hierarchy of merit. 37 percent in a million men makes 3,70,000 men. But many of these 3,70,000 men are clerks, cooks, tailors, carpenters, medical attendants, communications men, drivers and the like. Further, at any points in time, 25 percent of the men are away on leave, temporary duties on sickliest or of instruction. Therefore on field, the Indian Army will not have more than 3 lakh infantrymen defending 7200 km of land borders. During operations in
And what happens when we are at war? There will be causalities and prisoners. These are supposed to be made up by reinforcements from the reserves. But, if a small localized war like Kargil is any pointer, we had to pull out 27 Mountain Division, from the Eastern theatre and 6 Mountain Division from the Central Command to fight that small war where only three or four units of the Northern Light Infantry were involved.
While there were thousands of volunteers we had no plans, systems or infrastructure for recruiting, training and equipping these men into cohesive units. When we discuss our operational plans in sand model exercises, the state of reserves and their employment is always slurred over. Large scale inter-theatre movements of Divisions Brigades or even Battalions are seldom practiced.
The problem is that we cave a very small (one hundredth of our population) Army and only spend about 30% of our GDP. There is no way this Army (or Navy or Air Force) can defend the country in the face of a major aggression, say from
The solution is utilizing assets namely our one billion population with its physical and intellectual strength, our huge landmass and our economic strength. The standing Army must exist only as a nucleus for exploding into a hundred or two hundred division Army. The remaining population must constitute the reservoir to support the Armed forces to deter or vacate an aggression. Since it is impossible to economically support such a gargantuan standing Army, it can only be a conscript Army. All men and women up to the age of say 30 years should be drafted the university educated ones for a period of two years after they have completed their education. The peasants and labour should be drafted for three years. The officers should also come from these conscripts. They will bring with them a variety of talent.
During this period of the draft men should be paid a small stipend besides being fed, clothed and equipped for the tasks they have to perform. Depots of food and arms should be created at suitable places near our threatened areas. Training should be imparted by regular units for the conscripts. Specialised training at various schools should continue as at present. Thus organ, we would be truly invulnerable instead of being paper tigers that we currently are.
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