Posts Tagged ‘Military’

Where the wind of the argument leads…

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
The Indian Express is at it again. It has published a front page story suggesting that the Army headquarters had also written a Signal message, similar to the one written by the Navy Chief. [...]

Another GOK

There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee. ~Lester J. Pourciau

From one of the news reports today:

It [the government] has decided to form 3-member committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The committee will also have Defence Minister AK Anthony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as its members.
The proposed committee will [...]

Soldiers, not warriors

Previous post on the subject – Indian Army: Image & reality
While the Indian army continues to label its soldiers apathetically as PBOR (Personnel Below Officers Rank), the IAF has rechristened them as Air Warriors. Robert Bateman explains the concept of a warrior and why professional soldiers can not be warriors.
The bottom line is that a [...]

Learning from West Point

The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power.  ~Daniel Webster
A new book by Bill Murphy, In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point’s Class of 2002, recounts how life changed for him and his classmates at the US Military Academy at West Point [...]

Temper the exuberence

Recent newsreports state:
Army sources said that this is the most severe punishment handed down to a serving general by a GCM. Lal, who was based in Ladakh, is also the highest ranked officer to be convicted on charges of sexual exploitation and molestation.
The GCM was ordered in July 2008 after an inquiry ordered in September [...]

The SCPC logic

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell. ~Harry S Truman
This blogger considers itself to be no expert on the SCPC and had largely assumed, by popular perception, that the SCPC had handed a raw deal to the military officers. The commonly held view is that [...]

An oddity requiring explanation!

This is a wonderfully engaging piece by a New York city lawyer who has joined the US army. As economic liberalisation has taken deeper roots in India and the western influence has become predominant in Indian society in the last decade, this would strike a chord with most readers. Especially those, who come from those [...]

Military laws of a bygone era

Earlier post on the subject: Army Act – a sad remnant from 1857
10. The Armed Force personnel of the three services are subject to the Indian Army Act, 1950, Indian Air Force Act, 1950 and the Navy Act, 1957. In this connection several submissions have been received that the Acts suffer from inherent defects and [...]

War veterans to corporate leaders

Previous post on the subject - The soldier and the corporate
There ought to be  at least some military veterans at the top of the pile in various corporate houses in India. It is just unfortunate that their military background doesn’t get much prominence in the media. While the services do not promote these ex-military corporate leaders [...]

GOK – 5 (Services and self deceit)

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. ~Demosthenes

The major headlines in the media have been about the NSG meet at Vienna. The proceedings and the machinations of various NSG member nations must be at the top of the PM Manmohan Singh’s agenda. While the deal [...]

GOK – 4 (coffee stains & tea cups)

How can you trust the airplane maintenance when they can’t wipe the coffee stains off the flip trays?
One of the great consultants in the field of quality process improvement, Tom Peters, wrote a very famous book titled “In Search of Excellence.” One of the examples he gave in the book, related to improving quality, was of an [...]

Tackling sandbars

…by continually raising water levels. A dynamic organisation should allow the problems to surface and be resolved quickly. The Indian military, however, is like many other government organisations that keep their “water levels” high and deal with problems only if they break the surface.