GOVT DASHES MILITARY HOPES, KEEPS STATUS QUO ON RANK
NEW DELHI: After raising the military’s hopes that any discrepancy in rank parity with civilians will be corrected, the government on Thursday decided to stick to the controversial structure that has fanned resentment in the armed forces.
“It is clarified that there has been no down-gradation or any change in the existing equivalence of the service ranks whatsoever,” a defence ministry release said.
Any discrepancy would be corrected in a week, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday, a day after hindustantimes.com broke the story about a new letter dated October 18, 2016, laying down rank equivalence norms.
“The existing functional equivalence as clarified in 1991 and further reiterated in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2005 has only been re-affirmed (in the October 18 letter),” the ministry said.
In the letter, which claimed rank equation was “examined in detail”, a civilian principal director, who was equivalent to a brigadier, was equated to a major general, a director-ranked officer to a brigadier and a joint director to a colonel.
Till now, a major general was on par with a joint secretary and a colonel’s civil administration counterpart was a director, several serving officers said. A lieutenant colonel, earlier equivalent to a joint director, has been scaled down to a deputy director, they added.
The ministry said, “It is further clarified that the present reiteration of rank equivalence is only for matters of assigning duties and functional responsibilities.” It stressed there was no change in the “rank structure or he status” of military personnel.
The government’s nod to the existing rank equation has not gone down well with serving officers and veterans. “We were hoping the government will soothe some ruffled feathers. It’s disappointing,” said a senior officer.
The rank equation is followed while assigning duties, decides the channel of reporting, plays a role when officers are sent for training courses and also determines perks such as stenographic and secretarial assistance.
“Such turf battles are not good for the military’s morale. The bureaucracy’s mindset reflects the larger civil-military issue as to who has overriding importance over the other,” said retired brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal.