‘Bureaucrats don’t like us, nor do we’

CHANDIGARH: A session on ‘Indian Military and Society’ at the Military Literature Festival today turned out to be a bashing for bureaucrats. Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd), former Vice Chief of Army Staff, said: “Bureaucrats do not like us. We do not like them. They are the biggest let-down.

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

A session on ‘Indian Military and Society’ at the Military Literature Festival today turned out to be a bashing for bureaucrats. Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd), former Vice Chief of Army Staff, said: “Bureaucrats do not like us. We do not like them. They are the biggest let-down.

The political leadership is vague. They do not know the difference between mortar and motor. Media and military have antagonistic relations. If we do a good job, it is not reported. If we do a bad job, it is in headlines.” Lt Gen KJ Singh (retd), former Army Commander of Western Command, said, “The problem is that we have a fleeting relationship with bureaucrats. Once I went to meet a defence secretary. He asked me what was happening on the western front. I replied we were preparing for the Amarnath yatra. He asked what I had to do with the yatra. I replied the main camp was in Jammu. Then he asked what do you have to do with Jammu? I told him the Western Command boundary is up to Jammu.”

He added, “The defence secretary then asked whether Yol corps was a strike corps. Then I replied it was a pivot corps. He said it must be then Jalandhar. I replied it was also a pivot corps. He did not know that mightiest strike corps is with the Western Command; 2 Corps at Ambala... he was in the last six months of his tenure.”

Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh, former Lt Governor Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry, said, “A bureaucrat knows that military is the only organ which delivers. Right from 1947 onwards, there is degradation in status of military.” However, Lt Gen DDS Sandhu (retd) differed: “We are making bureaucracy a whipping boy. During British times, there were hardly any ranks in the police.

A Brigadier is considered equivalent to IG. Now there are so many IGs, ADGPs and DGPs in a state alone. Bureaucracy draws its powers from politicians. The government and bureaucracy are on one side and people and defence forces on the other.” Lt Gen HRS Mann (retd) said there was a lot which the Army could do for itself. He pointed out that how much a bureaucrat could know about defence when earlier he was in animal husbandry department.