INVITATION IESM : The Third Veterans Remembrance Day Seminar On Sunday, December 15, 2013

                                                  



                              INVITATION

              ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED




IESM : The Third Veterans Remembrance Day Seminar On Sunday, December 15, 2013


    

As has been our practice for the last two years, the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, Panchkula Branch plans to hold the Third Veterans Remembrance Day Seminar On Sunday, December 15, 2013 at The Jainendra Public School Auditorium, Sector-1, Panchkula, Haryana on Post-Independence Evolving Contours of the Indian Military Society.

 

 

Till independence, India didn’t have to worry about her military security. It was the prerogative of the British Crown. The Indian Army had no coherent nationalist ideology except for a consciousness of its history of loyal obedience, and valour under the foreign ruler. As India moved out of Britain’s orbit, her defence forces’ attempt at creating a robust structure was stymied because a severe shortage of trained Indian officers, and such as there were, though brought up in the British military mould had never experienced higher command.

 

 The officer corps is the active directing element of the military structure and is responsible for the military security of society.

 

 

The state is the active directing element of the society.

 

 

 In 1962, unfortunately both were not up to the task.

 

 

Post 1962 War, Indian defence forces was augmented, both numerically, and equipment-wise at a feverish pace, and this is what perhaps saved the country when faced with a war against Pakistan in 1965. The Indian defence forces also defeated Pakistan decisively in the 1971 War with a record bag of 93,000 prisoners of war. A long interregnum of peace followed till 1999.

 

 

With the 1999 Kargil War, many skeletons came tumbling out of the government and defence forces’ cupboard – lack of intelligence, equipment and ammunition shortages, and delayed employment of the Indian Air Force etc. It has been a long haul for the Indian defence forces from 1947 to the closing month of 2013. It has weathered many storms.

 From 1965 onwards, the country has seen a phenomenal increase in new raisings of the Central Police Forces. Despite this, there has been little decrease in the army’s employment on counter-insurgency tasks. From 1992 onwards about 1,300 women officers have been inducted into the armed forces. Higher educational levels have been mandated for recruitment to rank and file. Modernization and making up of the existing deficiencies of equipment has been a nightmare.

  On October 4, 2010, the then Indian Airforce Chief, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik said that 50 per cent of the IAF systems and equipment was obsolete and the force was facing a shortage of around 600 pilots.

For the last two-and-a-half decade, the Indian Army’s officer shortfall continues to fluctuate between 10,500 to 13,000. Lately, there have been some cases of worrisome tension in officers and men relations. In 2012, a news report appearing in the Indian Express alleged that the then Army Chief General V. K. Singh had stealthily tried moving troops and tanks to Delhi to pressurise the government on a personal matter.

 

 

The armed forces are a proper functional society within the larger civil society coterminous with the state, with boundaries separating the two. Both are incomplete without the other. Central to the issue is that the officer corps, as the active intelligent component of the Indian military society interrogates itself and the military society holistically.

 

 

Any society is a complex organism, and can hardly be deliberated upon in a one day seminar. Only following sub-themes are sought to be discussed during the current seminar:

 

 

·        Session 1 . The services have conspicuously failed to obtain adequate and timely resources for new raisings, vital defence equipment, and infrastructure. Sometimes, it appears like a total lack influence over governmental machinery by the senior service hierarchy. While deflecting of blame comes naturally, is it also because the services, in military straitjackets have not learnt how to work the democratic system of governance?

 

 

·        Session 2. Women officers made a late entry into the hallowed male bastion of the Indian military in 1992, and have kicked up a veritable storm. Do women actually want equality in serving in the military? From female advocacy point, the answer is obvious. From another perspective, the answer is far from clear. Is military service just another job? And yet, in the changing technological scenario, women may be more suitable than men in certain tasks.

 

 

·         Session 3. Democracy and free flow of media led information has enhanced human aspirations. Lately inter-personal relationship has increasingly come under strain. Decidedly, there is an elemental of coercion in enforcing the services disciplinary code. Shouldn’t the services man management models, disciplinary methodologies and laws be reviewed keeping in view the latest sociological changes?

 

 

 

Programme         Inauguration and First Session.        10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.

                             Lunch                                      1.30 p.m. to 2.15 p.m.

                             Post- lunch Sessions                2.15 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.

                             Tea                                          4..30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

 

 

 

All veterans,  interested scholars, and citizens of the Tri-City are invited. Do keep your calendar free for this important veterans event, and do inform your friends and colleagues also. Ladies are cordially invited.

 

With regards,

 

Brig. Kiran Krishan, SM (Retd.)

Convener, IESM, Panchkula

Mobile: 9876116898