IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT 17- (POSITION OF STRENGTH) Brig PS Gothra (Retd)
"We assess a criminal's reach or strength and then take action against him. Fauji blindly gets into a situation. In fact, you people have a habit of dealing with situations from a position of weakness," said the DSP when I was coaxing him to book the over ground workers under Public Safety Act.
"We have been helping you all through. We have been including your name in the sitreps for successful operations and you insult us by saying that we deal from a position of weakness," I said angrily.
"I am sorry to say it, so bluntly. I feel bad for your predicament because my three brothers are serving in the army and one of them is an officer."
"That doesn't explain position of weakness," I said firmly.
"Well, firstly you are including my name in the sitrep because you fear that I may spoil something. And look at the way you get treated by some civilians because you deal with them from a position of weakness," said the DSP.
"I agree that we include your name in the sitrep because of your nuisance value. But the civilians respect us. In fact, it comes from their heart. And their respect for us is certainly more than that for the police."
"I am talking about civilians dealing with you. For example, a labour officer signs the muster roll for porters employed by you only after getting a bribe. You know very well about it, but indulge in an ostrich mentality by leaving it on the mate to get it signed from the labour officer. If you knew how to deal from a position of strength, you would have refused to use the porters for three months. The lack of employment will make locals move to politicians, who in turn will kick the labour officer hard on his butt. Also the politicians will come begging you to resume hiring of porters," said the DSP.
I just sipped some water to gulp down the hard truth and said, "What else."
"The CDA office people pass your bills after taking their cut from the vendors. The local auditors make you spin around for some petty observations. Your CSD vendors don’t supply beer in the summers as per your demand. The clerks at Jammu railway station demand money from your Jawans to change the railway warrant. Invariably the convoy gets delayed and jawan pays, or he will miss the train. The Defence Estates people make you people do their job and use their manpower for help in their houses. Here on the line of control the BSF sends only 40 percent of the strength to the posts and you cover the gaps by applying your troops. Your vendors supply you with not-so-good rations. I am told the rations are better in other services....."
I interrupted him as I didn't want to hear more from him by saying, "Vendor bribing CDA office people is between him and paying authority, we are clean. It doesn't affect our health."
"How naive of you? Firstly, the vendor caters for that cost in his quotes. So, you get that much reduced value for money. Secondly your procurement gets restricted to the vendors who can deal with the CDA office." (I am sure this problem must have been solved with the advent of GeM)
I excused myself from his office I didn't want to listen to more of his bakwas.
But at my level I tried to change things. Unfortunately most of the time I was looking over my shoulders at the 'senior officer' to do something. And the malady is that there is no 'senior officer'. As a company commander I thought CO is a 'senior officer'. As CO I thought the commander was a 'senior officer'. And if I had become a Major General, I would have thought Lt General to be a 'senior officer'.
Later in my service as I came out of unit life, I have seen more of our habit of dealing from a position of weakness. One could see people begging in the IFA office for official work. Or pleading to a GE to change tiles in one’s residence. Or some junior officers standing in the corridors of South Block waiting for the last-minute signing of Govt Sanction Letter for the foreign visit. Or putting up with the truant civilian subordinates in the Army Headquarters.
I hope things have changed a lot after my retirement four years ago. I am worried that such meekness or lack of guile and cunningness should not become part of our psyche. After all in war we have to fight from a position of strength.
Full forms of the abbreviations:
1. DSP – Deputy Superintendent of Police
2. CDA – Controller of Defence Accounts
3. CSD – Canteen Stores Department
4. BSF – Border Security Force
5. NFU – Non-Functional Upgradation
6. CO – Commanding Officer
7. GeM – Government e-Marketplace
8. GE – Garrison Engineer
You have hit the nail on the head. Hope thing’s change in time to come. Good read.
ReplyDeleteThe Corruptiin System in Civil is acceptable if Doles are distributed to all people in Chain of Command.Corruption is alarming, if Doles are taken by one individual.The agents collect money ,avoiding direct contact by Babus. SHOs and RTOs get their cuts, through a well established, honestly paid delivery system.Anyone not agreeing is termed as a C----, Harassed and posted out.MoD Civilians, coming in contact with Fauzis know , Army people have no time for Legal Battle and troops suffer if timely sanctions are not taken. Civilians have whole life to face Court Cases and an anyway assured promotion System.Fauzi will be branded as Rigid, Non Flexible etc.System is slow to punish culprits, an honest Fauzi will keep on running around in Circles, sometimes, being burdened by Court Cases, where he is made a Defender party in personal capacity in Court Cases, even after retirement, for some actions done during military Operations in Kashmir.My letters to PM/RM to help these ESM has not even replied or acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteTo conclude, corruptiin suits the System, which has been put in place since long, anyone resisting or change System is a Threat to a well oiled Money Making Black Industry.
So true. We have always been at the receiving end. You have only laid bare what is there. As a youngster I had ideas of getting the local auditor caught for taking bribes and so on. These were nipped in the bud till such time I too turned a Nelson's eye to it. Motto was, don't mess with them
ReplyDeletePlain truth well told Param
ReplyDeleteSir, always a pleasure to read your blogs.
ReplyDeleteAn insightful and brilliantly written article. I hope it serves as a valuable reference for strategic thinkers and policymakers alike.
ReplyDeleteYou have hit the nail on its head Sir
ReplyDeleteYou have hit the nail on the head. When our seniors tell us to go and liase, basically they want us to go and beg. When I was in the Army headquarters, there was a pile of pending MOD cases. We all know why cases are pending. My boss used to tell me to go and liase. In frustration I used to enter the office of Joint Secretary without his permission, with my cap off, sit without him asking me to sit, speak to him without calling him Sir and come back without any results
ReplyDeleteNothing has changed...The second last para remains valid to this date
ReplyDeleteThe 'seniors' apply their seniority only on those in uniform....while they unhesitatingly indulge in cajoling even the lowest denominator in civvies if it serves their purpose and this is mostly for petty gains/ favours ....
This spoilt by the Brass, those below are doomed to their fate at the hands of those who have been spoilt silly
It's a Systemic malaise and prevails at all levels...we trade self respect for assumed cleverness
This coming from a DSP is rich! No ,am not refuting his comments about various civ bodies / individuals we deal with. Those are correct statements. What I won't digest is the police talking of strength ! All the time they are at the beck & call of a local cheap politician to do as per his bidding ,& harassing /torturing hapless citizens who he is supposed to protect! Extorting bribes from poor truckers/ shopkeepers doesn't show position of strength either. During this tete a tete, these points could have been thrown at his face .
ReplyDeleteThe strength of the Police is the load of dirt they have on the pollies, which looms as a threat to their reputation and growth. Hence the police's position of strength.
DeleteNothing has changed, top hierarchy is busy with i me myself, youngsters are busy with day to day struggle. Very well written. Thanks sir
ReplyDeletePSG, very pertinent issue. We all knew it while in service bur could not really find the way ahead to correct this posn of weakness. It should be tried as an org wholly and not by indls. Armed forces subservience to civil is taken too far that's why we have incidences such as DEO's case. I am sure QRT taught him some lessons.
ReplyDeleteMajority of us from bottom to top lack moral courage to stand up n say n do what is right.
ReplyDeleteMany times it happens because we take it too personally on ourselves... thinking that desh ka sara bojh mere hi kandhon pe hai....aur mein hi kar sakta hun
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, nothing has changed at all! Rather things have worsened! Sad state of affairs. But you have definitely hit the nail on the head! As always … amazing read
ReplyDeleteVery well 👌 written Dear Sir, I’m considering myself to be very lucky as I was blindly following Sardar Patel’s style and against bribery since my young days. Plus when it came to Uniform, again lucky to have 2-3 Commanding Officers who won’t budge and stood by me, encouraged me to be straight. Finally one more CO who ordered me to approach Corps Cdr to get some lucrative items back, given away to him by our previous Boss. Thereafter- VZ became a panga taker- put a few behind bars for bribery & no one ever dared to ask. Proudly I can say that LAO or any auditors weren’t allowed to buy a soap cake on payment from our CSD. When we topped having 268 OAs(Audit Objections), as against entire Central Command units had totally about 100, again our CO & I got them resolved without paying a penny, correcting our errors and making good to the Govt treasury, but NO BRIBES. I am very grateful to those COs who stood by me. Regards VZ.
ReplyDeleteThings have not changed. In fact corruption from lower level to higher level has increased. See the relations between police and the Armed Forces. How a Constable posted in transport department could amass so much, beyond my Imagination. How the Police harass the transporters. The level of Corruption has reached the Judiciary. There is a very old saying that a Patwari (Lekhpal) runs the house of a Kanoongo, several Kanoongo together run the house of SDM and several SDMs maintain the house of the District Magistrate. It is a common site that a Policemen will eat in a road side Dhaba and will not pay for what he has eaten. He would travel in a AC coach without a ticket. If a road side vendor or Thele wala ask for the money against the service provided by him will only get a slap on his face. These are the realities of life.
ReplyDeletePragmatic but ... They are too thick skinned to understand what you are "advocating" ie "Act from position of Strength"... https://x.com/Partho39174407/status/1934260507378389459?t=QjMUqrccxVBIrYRVGbSdug&s=19
ReplyDeleteAnd the thread
Another stark truth, getting worse every y
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely on the spot Sir!
ReplyDeleteThe catchword here is ‘Senior Officer’. But who exactly? To this day, even I haven't been able to figure that out. You take a problem to your immediate superior he either shrugs it off or offers no real support. That’s why we operate from a position of weakness; our position of strength lies elsewhere on the battlefield, and there alone.
ReplyDeleteThe DSP isn't to blame. It's our own Generals who have led us into this precarious state. I'm certain of one thing: we are exactly where we were stuck. And that’s the saddest part.
Nice write to bring forth the reality, as it exists. Kudos.
ReplyDelete