Speeches (Vol. I)

Coming back to the problem of the army, the hon. Member Shri. Dandekar went into the details of some of the problems. I think they are very realistic problems. The only thing that I am trying to tell him is that we in the army headquarters are also very much aware of these problems. I can tell him that in the last year and a half or nearly two years, many staff studies were undertaken about this organisation of the devisions. He spoke about the ratio between fighting and non-fighting groups in the division. I can tell you, they call it in the army parlance `ratio between teeth and tail ‘. As was rightly pointed out, formerly the ratio of teeth-to-tail was rather different because the whole thing was based on the British model and the British model was different because they had different ideas, they had different roles or functions of the army. Their main base was England and their units were functioning in different parts of the world. For them the tail was rather more important than the teeth. The teeth was not important because the people were rather backward; the people were ‘unawakened people and it was not very difficult for them to deal with those people. So far the role they had in different parts of the world they did not need very sharp teeth. But in recent months we have made attempts about re-organisation. This is the information that the Chief of Army Staff gave to the National Defence Council ‘only last month and I think it is better that this House also knows this. This is the result of certain re-organisation schemes introduced in the army. I will give only a few comparative figures. These figures are the teeth and tail ratio with Pakistan. Teeth 78; tail 22 for standard infantry division. For the Chinese infantry the figures are : teeth 86; tail 14. As a result of our own re-organisation of the Indian army now our figures for Mountain Division, teeth 75: tail 22; for infantry division the figures are: teeth 83 and tail 17. I know it is somewhat less than that of the China’s. But there we will have to take into account different methods of calculation and different methods of organisation. The rear organisations of defence service which we have to organise are of different types than they have in their country. The engineering and medical services are organised in a different way. They do not possibly calculate them in the organisation of the type of the army. Possibly that explains why our teeth and tail ratio becomes a little more than that of the Chinese. But I can assure the hon. Members and the House that we are very much aware of this position because, as he has very rightly pointed out as was also stated by Shri Nath Pai, we have to make very effective utilisation of the resources that this hon. House is pleased to keep at the disposal of the Defence Ministry. We are very much aware of this and we are pursuing the matter from that point of view.

He also referred to the other aspects of promotion, moral, discipline and training. I will first take up promotion, because that is more important. Possibly, he is still hearing complaints. Perhaps, some disgruntled officers are carrying tales to him. I am prepared to accept it. But I can assure this hon. House and I have made this statement before also in this House- that up to the level of Lt. Colonel promotions are generally made on the basis of seniority. After Lt. Colonel, which really-speaking becomes a very important cadre of leadership, the promotions are made on the basis of selection. And the selections are made on the examination of their annual confidential records. The selection hoards or committees consist of very high officers. They sit together, assess the capacity of officers and then make a recommendation about the promotion of the officer concerned. It is only on very rare occasions that I had an opportunity to differ from the recommendations of that hoard. Normally, I find, they go very scrupulously by the merits of the officers concerned. So, really-speaking, there should not be any ground for complaint. Certainly, some officers are superseded when others are promoted and at higher levels the posts are few. So, some people might be feeling disappointed, but possibly unjustifiably.