INDIA
The Indian Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has been ordered to prepare a proposal for five years of compulsory military service to be completed before anyone can take employment with State or Central Governments.
The order from the Parliamentary Committee on Defence appears to reflect a growing feeling that India needs to do more to meet growing challenges on its borders, especially with its giant neighbour China.
Military chiefs say the Indian armed forces are around 60,000 under strength, but given the country’s huge population, universal conscription as is practised in Israel, Singapore and Switzerland is out of the question.
Commentator on military affairs Syed Ata Hasnain said the proposal to make a Public Service career dependent on military service was a good compromise.
“It will instil in the Civil Service aspirants an inherent discipline and will help overcome the acute shortages that continue to persist, especially in officer ranks in the Army,” Mr Hasnain said.
He said other advantages could be a progressive improvement in civil–military relations as more PS staff entered the ranks after undergoing military service.
He admitted that stringent medical and physical fitness standards would need to be adopted and could be anticipated as one of the obstacles to the final acceptance of the proposal.
“What the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee do not deserve is outright rejection as some kind of a hare-brained idea,” Mr Hasnain said.
He said it needed to run the gamut of serious examination followed by short-term experimentation.
“If successful, it will have achieved much, but a conclusive decision appears to be a good distance away,” Mr Hasnain said.
New Delhi, 17 March 2018
