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Sharing the spoils

Two conclusions can be deduced from the announcement of post-Kargil gallantry awards and the Republic Day honours to the armed forces. First, in India, it is mostly the officers who do the fighting. The jawans either watch from the sidelines or do not show any courage. Second, when God distributed such qualities as valour and devotion to duty to Indians, he did it according to rank. How else can one explain the lopsided preponderance of officers in the gallantry awards and the near absence of other ranks in the Republic Day honours?

Like every institution in free India, we have succeeded in downgrading the importance, exclusivity and high honour which was associated with gallantry awards in the last 50 years. Sadly, the Indian Army helped in underlining the farcical nature of these awards by awarding the Param Vir Chakra to a jawan "posthumously", only to admit later with embarrassment that the hero was very much alive.

It was not always so. Far more discretion and detailed examination were exercised when such honours were bestowed before Independence. It took much more than just taking part in a war to qualify for even the smallest award. The highest honours were reserved for the select few whose deeds were subjected to the strictest scrutiny. Above all, most of the gallantry awards went to the fighting man, the Tommy, the doughboy or the jawan.

Consider, for example, the following. Over two million Indian troops fought in the Second World War. They took part in some of the most difficult terrain, in the African desert and the Burmese jungle. They were present in some of the fiercest battles of the war, at El Alamein, Casino and Kohima. They fought for over five years. During all that time a total of just 28 Victoria Crosses were awarded to Indians, the second highest after Britain's own troops. Only two of those went to officers: Prem Singh Bhagat and K S Judge. The percentage of officers to men was fairly representative of the 20 to 1 ratio between the jawans and officers in the army. The same ratio remains to this day.

As against this, consider the Kargil action. Whatever the hype, the action was really the eviction of about 600-odd intruders from the heights of Kargil by a force of over 10,000. No doubt the ruling party was grateful to the armed forces for their action just in the nick of time, helping it to win the general election. But one cannot but get the feeling that the honours heaped on the troops were out of all proportion to the action. Even more embarrassing was the fact that nearly 85 per cent of the gallantry awards went to officers.

The Indian officer is certainly not lacking in courage or valour. It must equally be true that the officers lead from the front. Hence, the large percentage of officer casualties in Kargil. But army officers will be the first to admit that the brunt of any fighting has to be done by the jawans. And all things being equal, he must get a proportionate share of the spoils.

Indian Army officers never get tired of quoting the immortal words inscribed in the Indian Military Academy's Chetwood Hall. 'The country comes first, each and every time, and the men you command come next. Your own comfort and wellbeing come last, each and every time.' Yet when the time came to put this into practice, both the government and the army failed miserably. Here was a chance to show India's fighting jawan that the country cared, that his actions were recognised and that his sacrifices were not in vain.

Unfortunately, the self-serving bodies responsible for drawing up the honours lists failed to keep Chetwood's words in mind. Of the four PVCs awarded, two went to officers. In the case of the Maha Vir Chakras and Vir Chakras officers garnered more than 80 per cent of the medals. A benevolent government showed its appreciation by being overgenerous and looked on beaming from the sidelines.

Over the years the bestowing of gallantry awards has become both a farce and a business. The rot started with the 1971 war. In a notorious soft and emotional state like ours, where populism has been honed into a fine art, it was inevitable that India's overwhelming victory would prove to be a veritable cornucopia for the armed forces.

The brunt of fighting in India's many confrontations with Pakistan and China has been done by the army. 1971 was one of the few times when all three services participated. The government of the day was so keen to claim victory that it began to announce gallantry medals even before the short war was finished. To make matters worse, each service began to demand its own and proportionate share of the honours. Within each service, various commands wanted their own portion. Thus, the Indian Navy dished out exactly the same number of Maha Vir Chakras and Vir Chakras to its Western and Eastern naval commands.

The entire process of awards was turned topsy-turvy when the awardees were selected first and the citations written afterwards to suit the awards. There was an almighty hurry to announce the awards, leading to some hilarious situations. The navy bestowed an award on an officer believed to have gone down with the Khukri only to discover that the officer had been hospitalised and was not on board when the vessel sank.

Soon the states got into the act. Wanting to publicly display their patriotism and concern for the armed forces, each state announced generous extras of its own to the award winners. Maharashtra was particularly generous to the awardees. It not only gave a generous cash award, but also both agricultural land and building plots. Unfortunately, far from helping the award winners, the scheme only helped to subvert the honesty and integrity of armed forces personnel. Overnight a number of officers, who hardly knew Kandivli from Borivali and Sholapur from Kolhapur, became Maharashtrians. A lackadaisical state government, obviously not wishing to embarrass our war heroes, did not check the antecedents and passed the claims.

The bestowing of gallantry awards according to rank began in 1971. The navy awarded 8 Maha Vir Chakras in 1971; only one went to a sailor. It awarded no less than 46 Vir Chakras, itself a huge number for a fourteen-day war. Only five were for sailors. Obviously the class distinctions of a feudalistic society remain alive and well in India's armed forces.

The Indian government will have to take greater interest both in the number of awards accepted for a particular action and in the distribution of those awards. The selection process is obviously flawed. Conferring scores of gallantry awards, even for minor actions, makes them meaningless. When informed by a club that he had been made its member, Groucho Marx replied, "I do not wish to become member of a club, which will have me as a member." It is perfectly possible that one of these days a member of the armed forces will decline to accept an award on the same grounds.

Admiral J G Nadkarni (retd)