Armed forces rank parity: Parrikar to set up 3-member panel

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 28  

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will set up a three-member committee to advise the ministry and resolve the rank parity issue that has led to raised tempers in the armed forces.

On Thursday night, Parrikar was informed by an aide that the rank parity issue had not been addressed totally as some facts had not been brought out. Parrikar, not completely satisfied with the turn of events in the past one week, has now decided to set up the committee that will take 10 days to study all documents, including the decision of the Group of Ministers in 2009 ratified by the union Cabinet, sources said on Friday afternoon. 

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Sources said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is keen to go totally by the Warrant of Precedence (WoP)–a guiding document of the government that laid down which rank in civil and military had to be given what protocol, status etc.

Under the WoP, a major general is equal to a joint secretary in the government. As per an MoD letter issued on October 18, a major general was equated to a principal director. On Thursday afternoon, the MoD issued a clarification saying it had only reiterated previous instructions, including the last one in 2005, and not lowered the rank parity.

The fact that the 2009 GoM decision and ratification by the cabinet had corrected this anomaly probably was missed in the decision-making of the MoD in the past one week.

Since October 18, the forces have informed Parrikar that this anomaly had been added and the rank parity letter issued on October 18 had actually lowered the status of the forces.

The MoD on Thursday said, “The present reiteration of rank equivalence is only for matters of assigning duties and functional responsibilities.”

The forces opine that there cannot be multiple parameters on rank-parity--one for ‘functionality’ and another on the Warrant of Precedence.