A day after UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet expressed concern over reports of increasing harassment and targeting of minorities including Muslims and Dalits in India, the Defence Ministry in a massive overhaul has announced the inclusion of a human rights wing for the Indian Army.
It is part of the first batch of major reforms for the of the Army headquarters, based on recommendations by Army Chief General Vipin Rawat, and approved by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday.
The reforms are hoped to make the 1.3 million-strong force more agile, leaner, and meaner, as well as to enhance its combat capabilities.
Decades of research went into deciding what’s best for our army
The Army headquarters had instituted four studies with an overall aim to enhance the operational and functional efficiency of the force, optimise budget expenditure, facilitate modernisation, and address aspirations.
The first study on “re-organisation and right-sizing of the Indian Army” was focused on the operational structures to make the force efficient and future-ready by taking into account the operational situation on western and northern borders, the spokesperson said.
The second study was on re-organisation of the Army headquarters with an aim to bring in “integration and preclude the redundancies”.
The third study was on “cadre review of officers” and its focus was to recommend how to carry out reorganisation and restructuring to meet the aspirations of the officers’ cadre.
The fourth study on “review of terms of engagement of rank and file” was aimed at harnessing the higher life expectancy and ensuring younger profile of key commands and motivation of the personnel.
Besides the independent studies, the Defence Ministry had also ordered a separate study under Lt Gen DS Hooda on how to effectively restructure the force.
Details of the much-awaited upgrade
after 12 independent studies, this transformation exercise has been launched in with the challenges of future warfare, so as to develop a more capability-based task force to tackle them.
According to news reports, the restructuring would involve the relocation of 229 officers to operational posts, and the creation of new wings and posts like that of the Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCoAS) to supervise the directorates of military intelligence, operational logistics, strategic planning. This will make him the third deputy chief to report to the Army Chief, after the Director General of Military Operations and the Director General of Military Intelligence.
Sources informed NDTV that the government has approved merging of the separate verticals of planning and strategy and the Master General Ordnance (MGO) into a single office of Capability Development and Sustenance. This department will oversee the entire modernisation and revenue procurement of the Indian Army.
“Towards the Army’s capability-based modernisation needs, this would synergise and coalesce all revenue and capital spending under one organisation and effectively prioritise competing requirements with an operational focus to get better value for funds allocated by the government,” a senior army official told the news channel.
Timely, modern, and progressive solutions
The minister has also approved the creation of a new Information Warfare wing, to combat the realities of cyber, hybrid, and social media threats. It will be monitored by a Lieutenant General for the first time.
A new wing devoted to vigilance and human rights issues will be set up under major-generals. The ADG (Vigilance), who will report back to the Chief of Army Staff, will also have a new Vigilance Investigation Unit under him, the sources said.
To look after the cases of corruption and ensure probity and transparency, a new officer of the Major Genral rank has also been appointed under the Army Chief.
The reforms will also include restructuring the Army’s officer cadre, making young officers eligible for key commands, arresting the rise in revenue expenditure, and “right-sizing” the force.
Meanwhile, the relocation of 229 officers, which accounts for 20% of the total official strength posted in Delhi, would ‘flatten’ the Army headquarters. These officers will now be posted to field fighting formations along the borders with China and Pakistan, thus strengthening border security.
Why it matters
The need for it could not have been clearer since the Doklam encounter with Chinese forces over Tibet. Some of the recommendations made for the reform, that have been gathering dust for over four decades, have just now been cleared, a month before the general elections.
Demands for these newly-adopted reforms, stalled and pending for decades, have been the point of high debate, especially in the wake of the Pulwama attack.
These reforms will be implemented with a sense of urgency.
The creation of the human rights wing is a progressive move as the Indian Amry has been raked over coals multiple times for the atrocities committed on civilians under the garb of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), especially in Kashmir and the north-east.
Decried by international bodies because it allows the army special powers to arrest, rape, and kill people with relative impunity, the AFSPA has come under increasing scrutiny owing to Irom Sharmilas 16-year-long hunger strike, and the naked protests led by the elderly Meitei women against a heinous rape and murder. In fact, the Supreme Court is overseeing a CBI probe into the alleged extrajudicial killings by the Army, Assam Rifles, and the state police in insurgency-hit Manipur between 1985 and 2010.
A 2004 committee report proposed the repeal of AFSPA but it was buried under two successive governments who did not want to hold the army accountable for its actions. For the Army’s new human rights wing to function effectively, it needs to first hold its officers and soldiers responsible for their actions.
The reforms, however, don’t address the monumental difference in the number of men and women in the Indian Army. A report released last year by Raksha Rajya Mantri Dr. Subhash Bhamre quotes 1,561 women officers, compared to 41,074 male officers. In other words, 96.2% of the Indian army is male.
In a contentious remark last year, Rawat had taken a remarkably medieval stance against filling more ranks in the Indian Army with women soldiers. His egregious comments triggered a debate when he said that accepting a woman commander could be hard for the jawans, and how women jawans would add to logistical and security issues, saying they require separate huts to sleep and change in.
He has even questioned their ability to lead troops, saying that granting maternity leaves while on commanding duty leads to a ruckus, suggesting that women arent ready for combat roles as they are destined for motherhood and must prioritise raising kids.
The army chief also believes excluding women from combat roles is a good way of avoiding having to deal with sexual harassment. The lack of an internal committee to look into complaints of sexual assault within the ranks is a gaping hole which the mega-reforms ought to have addressed.
Prarthana Mitra is a Staff Writer at Qrius