Army changes promotion norms for Major General

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17

The Army has just ended the “edge” enjoyed by alumni of the prestigious National Defence College (NDC) in securing promotions to the rank of Major General.

Till now, Brigadiers, who got selected for the NDC, were getting promoted as Maj Gen. Getting selected for the NDC meant an assured promotion to the rank of Maj Gen, making the NDC a sort of “holy grail”. 

The NDC is located in New Delhi and it runs a year-long course for Army, IAF, Navy, IPS and IAS officers.

In the latest promotions announced over the weekend, four NDC passout Brigadiers have been overlooked and not promoted as Maj Gen. Two others have been given “staff” duties and not “command” duties.

In all, 36 officers, including six on “staff”, were promoted. Of these, 11 are those who did not go to the NDC.

Sources say it shows the NDC is no guarantee for promotion. Some officers have missed out on these courses as marks that differentiate one from the other are in decimal, making it more of a case of ill-luck to miss out.

The change in thinking keeps the race open. There are only 340 posts of Maj Gen and around 1,100 that of Brigadier. It means that officers passing out from NDC have to start again on a level-playing field and do not get the “edge” by just qualifying for the course.

Some months ago, Army Chief Bipin Rawat had issued a 23-point directive to the Military Secretary’s (MS) branch. One of the points made by the Army Chief being that even if good officers do not get selected to courses like the NDC, there should be no hindrance to further selection.