The alleged humiliation of an Army officer, and his fiancée suggests police high-handedness, but has another equally disturbing aspect, which impinges on the armed forces

Arun Prakash is a former chief of Indian Navy

In a recent incident in Bhubaneswar, a young woman accompanied by her fiancé was allegedly subjected to brutal physical violence and profound humiliation by police personnel. Her fault? She remonstrated with duty personnel in a police station for not registering a complaint.

Such an incident is unlikely to shock the average citizen because he/she is used to the rude and heavy-handed behaviour of the police as well as frequent instances of complainants or “victims” being subjected to violence and branded “perpetrators”. The reason is that the Indian policeman has retained the mentality of a colonial oppressor, the only difference being that while earlier he wielded the lathi at the behest of our British rulers, he does so now for his current political masters.

So, where is the leadership of our police forces, which should provide supervision and guidance to the constabulary in the performance of its prescribed duties? Although law and order is a state subject, officers of two central cadres — the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) — play a key role in state police operations. Authority over the police force is held by the state’s chief secretary, an IAS officer, and the force is headed by a director general of police (DGP) assisted by several additional DGPs, all belonging to the IPS.

It is these functionaries who should be leading and managing the police rank and file in the efficient discharge of policing functions, namely, maintenance of law and order, prevention and detecting of crime, traffic management, and ensuring public safety. Sadly, the performance of the police forces in all these aspects remains dismal. So low is the confidence in our police personnel and so belligerent their behaviour, that the ordinary citizen hesitates to approach a constable or the police station for help.

The Bhubaneswar incident has another equally disturbing aspect, which impinges on the armed forces. The woman’s male escort, a serving officer of the Indian Army, was also, allegedly, manhandled, humiliated and illegally detained by the Odisha police. The growing indifference and disrespect being shown by civilian authorities towards members of the country’s military is cause for serious concern, which requires a deeper probe and remedial action.

The roots of the extant civil-military relations can be traced to the obsessive fear in the mind of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, of a military takeover of the fledgling State. This led to a downgrading of the top military leadership while the status and pay of both civil servants and the police saw a sharp increase after Independence. While this was par for a new democracy, another act of omission that contributed to the steady decline in the military’s status in the State’s hierarchy was the failure of post-Independence governments to accord formal recognition to the country’s armed forces.

Apart from 49 Group A Services inherited from the British that constitute the huge government bureaucracy, three new All India Services — IAS, IPS, and the Indian Forest Service — were created by Article 312 of the Constitution. However, the functions, responsibilities and status of the armed forces, their chiefs and senior leadership, found no mention anywhere in the Constitution, in an act of Parliament or in the government’s Rules of Business. This lack of a defined status has been used by the bureaucracy, with tacit political approval, to downgrade the standing of India’s military.

Successive pay commissions, using arbitrary equivalences, as well as a devious stratagem, termed non-functional upgradation — accorded to the civil services, but denied to the military — have steadily depressed the military’s emoluments, relative to the other services. Since emoluments form the basis for deciding seniority in the government’s pecking order, military officers have found themselves, repeatedly, superseded by civilian and police personnel, who were, earlier, equal or junior to them in rank/precedence with consequences in public image/prestige.

Another source of concern for the military has been the progressive blurring of lines between them and the home ministry’s seven central armed police forces (CAPF). Growing steadily in strength, the CAPF today are 1.1 million strong. As in the state police forces, the leadership of six of the seven CAPF has also been garnered by IPS officers, who use military rank badges. Since the CAPF constables wear camouflage uniforms, they are indistinguishable from the military and both are often clubbed together as security forces.

The past decade has seen the last vestiges of the Nehruvian legacy swept away. Major policy shifts seemed to bring a sharper focus on defence matters. Amongst significant developments were the 2016 and 2019 cross-border retaliatory strikes on Pakistani territory, the 2020 constitution of the Chief of Defence Staff, and the creation of a department of military affairs. The expectation that the last two would bring about an improvement in the military’s status/standing has, so far, been belied. At the same time, while political mileage is extracted from the military’s achievements, the MoD relentlessly wages legal battles against veterans and widows.

There are other issues, too, impacting the military’s public image and its self-esteem. While disregarding the seniority principle in promotions, and dangling post-retirement carrots may guarantee a compliant military leadership, this must be weighed against certain drawbacks: One, a military leader beholden to the establishment for promotion, loses credibility within the service; two, the quality of his advice becomes suspect; and three, high-level military decisions may be skewed to please those dispensing favours.

The Bhubaneswar episode is just the most recent instance in a widespread phenomenon wherein military personnel are treated with disrespect by unsympathetic civil authorities. Today, the question uppermost in the mind of every jawan will be, if a commissioned officer can be slapped around and locked up by a police constable, what can happen to me, my family or my old parents, back in the village?

The politician and bureaucracy must take urgent and pragmatic steps to restore the confidence of the military that their uniform and selfless service will be accorded respect and regard by civilian authorities. Anything that undermines the elan and esprit de corps of our military can only be detrimental to the country’s security.

Arun Prakash is a former chief of Indian Navy. The views expressed are personal