AN ARMY OF GENERALS
The Indian Army’s cadre review, the first in over three decades, has recommended drastic changes in the rank structure. For starters, the review, being carried out by the Military Secretary, a Lt General-ranked officer, has proposed doing away with a few rungs of the army’s steep promotion pyramid. It plans to convert the starting rank of lieutenant into the final year of an officer cadet’s course at the Indian Military Academy which means all officers will be commissioned as captains. The review has proposed doing away with the rank of brigadier (of which the army now has around 800 officers).
If implemented, this would represent a radical restructuring for the Indian army which has seen little change in its rank structure since independence. If the new suggestions are implemented, a colonel-ranked officer will be promoted directly to the rank of major-general. Another controversial suggestion is that all officers, irrespective of merit and selection, will be assured of reaching the rank of major-general.
Currently, an army officer who gets promoted to the rank of brigadier, spends the longest in this rank, nearly seven years, before being cleared to become major-general. Roughly one in three officers makes it to the rank of brigadier and major-general.
At the heart of this new cadre restructuring study is what appears to be a burning desire to seek parity with the civil services. The army’s grouse is that while an IAS officer reaches the rank of joint secretary in just 18 years of service, an army officer will take, on average, 30 years of service to reach the equivalent rank of major-general.
Experts warn of a blowback on the army. “First, we had time-scale colonels and now, time-scale majorgenerals. Every time we have sought parity with the civil services, we have ended up diluting our own rank structure,” says Major-General Surjit Singh (retired), a manpower planning expert.
A senior army official, however, says the cadre restructuring is “just an idea now which may be comprehensively analysed later. It’s just a thought, as of now. All modern armies routinely undertake such studies to remain dynamic and effective”.