{"id":250,"date":"2011-04-13T09:59:18","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T09:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goodnewz.in\/Blog2\/?p=250"},"modified":"2011-04-13T09:59:18","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T09:59:18","slug":"pull-of-the-lanyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/2011\/04\/13\/pull-of-the-lanyard\/","title":{"rendered":"Pull of the Lanyard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lanyards\"<\/a><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>he Regimental system is one of the cornerstones of the Indian Army. Regimental spirit is the glue that binds fighting arms together in a unique bond of loyalty, camaraderie and selfless service. The spirit transcends decades, seniority and other barriers to bring all ranks of a regiment together, professionally and personally. In war and under adverse situations of all kinds, it is the thought of keeping the flag of the regiment flying high \u2013 \u201cpaltan ki izzat\u201d \u2013 which makes men go beyond the call of duty, put their lives at peril and perform remarkable feats of valour. It is this spirit that brings aged veterans, barely able to walk, back to the unit to celebrate a \u2018Battle Honour Day\u2019 year after year.<\/p>\n

However, like everything else, when such a spirit reaches excessive levels, it can be damaging. An example of this is an item in today\u2019s newspaper \u2013 \u201cArmy Chief favours his regimental officers<\/a>\u201d. Apparently the Chief has played a role in facilitating all officers of his Regiment \u2013 Rajputs \u2013 preparing for the Staff College Exam, to be able to go to Infantry School, MHOW, and stay there to prepare.<\/p>\n

On the face of it, there seems to be no big deal \u2013 no harm done. After all, there is a Rajput Battalion there, which will take care of their officers. As it is, a large number of Infantry officers do go there every year under their own arrangements to prepare for the exam, and the results generally show the wisdom of such a move. However, there\u2019s a catch. At what rank or appointment does an officer stop being merely a regimental officer and start taking a broader perspective \u2013 taking ownership of the organization beyond regimental affiliations? After all, isn\u2019t the Chief of Army Staff the Chief of the entire army? Shouldn\u2019t he therefore, be equally concerned about the performance of all officers appearing for the exam? Should he really be seen going out of his way to make such arrangements for \u2018his\u2019 officers? What kind of a message does such a narrow focus send to the rest of them?<\/p>\n

It is not without reason that the Army has a system of officers beyond the rank of a Colonel no longer wearing the regimental cap badge and shoulder titles. \u00a0They are not expected to confine their thoughts and actions to regimental level, and are supposed to identify with the Indian Army as a whole. From here on, they command formations where units of all regiments and arms are under their command. They are therefore supposed to rise above regimental loyalties and be fair and impartial in their dealings with all of them.<\/p>\n

It is rather sad that in the recent years outright favouritism motivated by a misplaced sense of regimental loyalties has become par for the course for most senior officers. So, a number of important appointments in the key branches at Army Headquarters have been held by officers belonging to the same regiment (or arm, in the case of Artillery) as the incumbent Chief. Similar preferential treatment has been accorded when it comes to the move of units or foreign postings. A statistical analysis of the results of promotion boards and redressal of complaints against ACRs or Non-empanelment is also sure to show an unmistakably skewed pattern in favour of the flavour of the day in terms of regiment.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this is a self perpetuating trend that gets accentuated as time goes along. And while the ultimate benefit to individuals or to a particular regiment may be short lived, the overall damage being caused to the organisational fabric of the army as a whole is long term. It is up to the sagacity of senior officers to differentiate between healthy regimental spirit and outright parochialism, and chose the former over the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regimental spirit wins wars. But does it have any r\u00f4le to play in deciding who reaps benefits and privileges? Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21,9,31,93,25,77],"tags":[39,12,94,76],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appraisal-system","category-blogitorial","category-military","category-promotion-system","category-regimental-spirit","category-values","category-welfare","tag-army-chief","tag-indian-army","tag-regimental-system","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rohitagarwal.in\/swordarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}