By Don Morgan Kipgen
A sincere observation and explanation about the general ranking (with descriptive insignia) and Command structure of the regular army which are not well-known to many persons, including learned scholars, media boys, etc., in this H&T column have become a painful reality, thanks to a confusing Rejoinder. What was supposed to be a small matter of “Ignorance” turned out to be a shocking truth. The diplomatic rejoinder by a non-military reader to discredit a regular Columnist who writes, lives, eats, drinks, talks, sleeps and smiles with arms and ammunitions since time immemorial has backfired and left the general public all the more confused and misled. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is simply hard to understand as to why a person who is not an army officer, without knowing even the Indian Army history nor a learned scholar would try to put himself in a harm’s way by wrongly criticised a “fellow media boy with wrong informations, unsubstantiated and highly speculative observations. If taken as a matter of fact, the whole content of the rejoinder dated; 8th Jan 2008, could definitely harm the future academic career of young scholars, especially those who are interested in military institutions. What if someone used the ranking system with some totally wrong insignia and the wrong informations given by the author of that rejoinder ?
In Manipur, we have an MPS officer (now Dist SP) who did not know the meaning of JCO and Chevron. Another direct MPS officer did not know what “area of jurisdiction” means. One SI has no proper idea as to what “photocopy/xerox” but very honestly admitted that he was under the impression that Xerox photocopy was “an extra still-photographic picture”!!! A retired NCO and a senior army officers were adamant that even senior police officers had no full knowledge about military Command and Ranking Structure like some few other civil service officers. One senior police officer did not know what Muzzle Velocity and Calibre are all about and had no knowledge as to how many rounds could be discharged by an AK-47 in one minute!!! On two occasions, a senior citizen, an IPS officer (Retd), first Manipuri IPS officer, mentioned about the raping of “one Miss Rose Tangkhul by one Major Pundir of the BSF’ in his articles whereas there is no rank of a Major in the BSF. If Mr. Pundir wore a Ashok Chakra (a Major in Indian Army) then he had to be a Deputy Commandant of the BSF. On the other hand, another retired Manipuri Army officer of the rank of Lt Col also wrote twice about “ The importance of being 2nd Lt” as written in an X-File column by a former journalist pertaining to the electrifying Yurembam Power Station case wherein Capt. Pillay, (Military Engineer attached to the HQ 57th Mtn Div., about 3 years ago) saying that the power station was shut down by 2nd Lt. Pillay!!! Of course, the former Army officer did mention later that the rank of 2nd Lt had been demoted to the rank of a JCO, ie., Naik-Subedar = one star with ribbon. But how Capt. Pillay be called 2nd Lt Pillay by two learned persons twice independently ? We have heard about the 21 paratrooper (SF) Bn, or 21 Paras in short, so many times from both the media and senior police officers. The so-called Leimakhong-based 21st Field Parachutists under the command of Col. Mann. The so-called “11th Grewal Rifles’ was also indeed the 11th Garhwal Rifles as corrected in this H&T column too. This is not to discredit any person’s honour or credibility but it is just a matter of real (official) fact.
Coming back to the “Rejoinder to the article military Formation and Ranking system,” the disjointed letter to the Editor was appalling. First, who says “legendary” (Gen. Sam) Manekshaw is the first and only one Field Marshal in the Indian Army ? How could the writer forgot India’s first Army’s Chief Field Marshal K.M. Carriappa (15th Jan., 1949 to 14th Jan, 1953), conferred after Gen. Sam Manekshaw ? How could he cocked-surely wrote the insignia of India’s Field Marshal as “Crossed Sword Star and encircled by two branches (sic)” ? Since there is no “encircled branches” in Indian Army’s epaulette (shoulder badge), the rank of Field Marshal has been somehow interpreted by the writer as that of a Maj. General!!! The non-commissioned army’s officer ranks of Subedar-Major and Subedar were deliberately left out by this H&T Columnist since it was written in accordance with universal army ranking system with the insignia of the Indian Army as an identifiable comparative purpose. There are no equivalent ranks or designations of Subedar-Major and Subedar in other nation’s ranking system. Moreover, Hindi is not encouraged in local English News-papers; hence, Sergeant, Corporal and Lance-Corporal instead of Havildar, Naik and Lance Naik. The “Rejoinderer” gave us a confusing insignia of Subedar-Major as “ Ashok encircled by twol branches with ribbon (JCO)” which is not known nor seen even by senior Army Officers and retired officers JCOs, NCOs, etc. A Subedar-Major wears only one Ashok Chakra with a ribbon and nothing more, definitely not two branches (sic). Moreover, there is no emblem or insignia called Ashok, which is a person’s name, but there is an Ashok Chakra, the 4-Lion Emblem of Emperor Ashoka at Sarnath, which carries an inscription, “Truth Alone Triumphs, Falsehood Never’. Contrary to the Rejoinder’s presentation, only the cap badge of General Officers and Brigadiers has olive branches (with a sword and a staff beneath an Ashok Chakra) and not on any officers shoulder piece (epaulette). The insignia of a sword and a staff is called “crossed sword” since it resembles the crossed swords of Indian Army’s Crest. The Army’s Central Command has also been left out. Who says “the GoC-in-C, Northern Command, has the highest chance of attaining the rank of General (sic) ? Upto to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, there was no Northern Command !!! Can we say that only SP of the Imphal-West or East has the best chance to become DGP of Manipur ? A mere childish speculative observation without statistical fact, dare we say? It is worth nothing that Gen. Shankar Roy Chaudhury was appointed as the Chief of Army Staff even though he had never ever Command any one of the 5 Combat Commands. During the Indo-China War of 1962, Gen. Kaul was appointed as Theatre Commander even though he was Commander of non-combat unit with the blundering military scholar, Brig. D.K. Palit as the DGMO (now headed by a Lt.Gen) by P.M. Nehru, ignoring the presence of India’s two most distinguish general officers, i.e., Gens Thimayya and Sam Manekshaw, both became the Chief of Army Staff later on. The Rejoinder also added an irrelevant and non-regular Army unit called Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) ignoring the existence of the DGMI and dubbed Military Intelligence (MI) with local term “INT” in written official form. Intelligence is printed as “Intell” by most military units. As for the rank of the demoted 2nd Lt, it was clearly written in this column as “2nd Lt/JCO = a star with ribbon,’ since Naik-Subedar has no equivalent English term. Once a JCO is added to 2nd Lt, readers would know that 2nd Lt is no longer a Commission officer’s rank (ie., a star without ribbon/JCO). Let’s be more sincerely practical and responsible enough to use our knowledge for the benefit of the general public. Let’s not write anything without having full knowledge and authority over a subject which we present as truth.
[TSE]
A sincere observation and explanation about the general ranking (with descriptive insignia) and Command structure of the regular army which are not well-known to many persons, including learned scholars, media boys, etc., in this H&T column have become a painful reality, thanks to a confusing Rejoinder. What was supposed to be a small matter of “Ignorance” turned out to be a shocking truth. The diplomatic rejoinder by a non-military reader to discredit a regular Columnist who writes, lives, eats, drinks, talks, sleeps and smiles with arms and ammunitions since time immemorial has backfired and left the general public all the more confused and misled. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is simply hard to understand as to why a person who is not an army officer, without knowing even the Indian Army history nor a learned scholar would try to put himself in a harm’s way by wrongly criticised a “fellow media boy with wrong informations, unsubstantiated and highly speculative observations. If taken as a matter of fact, the whole content of the rejoinder dated; 8th Jan 2008, could definitely harm the future academic career of young scholars, especially those who are interested in military institutions. What if someone used the ranking system with some totally wrong insignia and the wrong informations given by the author of that rejoinder ?
In Manipur, we have an MPS officer (now Dist SP) who did not know the meaning of JCO and Chevron. Another direct MPS officer did not know what “area of jurisdiction” means. One SI has no proper idea as to what “photocopy/xerox” but very honestly admitted that he was under the impression that Xerox photocopy was “an extra still-photographic picture”!!! A retired NCO and a senior army officers were adamant that even senior police officers had no full knowledge about military Command and Ranking Structure like some few other civil service officers. One senior police officer did not know what Muzzle Velocity and Calibre are all about and had no knowledge as to how many rounds could be discharged by an AK-47 in one minute!!! On two occasions, a senior citizen, an IPS officer (Retd), first Manipuri IPS officer, mentioned about the raping of “one Miss Rose Tangkhul by one Major Pundir of the BSF’ in his articles whereas there is no rank of a Major in the BSF. If Mr. Pundir wore a Ashok Chakra (a Major in Indian Army) then he had to be a Deputy Commandant of the BSF. On the other hand, another retired Manipuri Army officer of the rank of Lt Col also wrote twice about “ The importance of being 2nd Lt” as written in an X-File column by a former journalist pertaining to the electrifying Yurembam Power Station case wherein Capt. Pillay, (Military Engineer attached to the HQ 57th Mtn Div., about 3 years ago) saying that the power station was shut down by 2nd Lt. Pillay!!! Of course, the former Army officer did mention later that the rank of 2nd Lt had been demoted to the rank of a JCO, ie., Naik-Subedar = one star with ribbon. But how Capt. Pillay be called 2nd Lt Pillay by two learned persons twice independently ? We have heard about the 21 paratrooper (SF) Bn, or 21 Paras in short, so many times from both the media and senior police officers. The so-called Leimakhong-based 21st Field Parachutists under the command of Col. Mann. The so-called “11th Grewal Rifles’ was also indeed the 11th Garhwal Rifles as corrected in this H&T column too. This is not to discredit any person’s honour or credibility but it is just a matter of real (official) fact.
Coming back to the “Rejoinder to the article military Formation and Ranking system,” the disjointed letter to the Editor was appalling. First, who says “legendary” (Gen. Sam) Manekshaw is the first and only one Field Marshal in the Indian Army ? How could the writer forgot India’s first Army’s Chief Field Marshal K.M. Carriappa (15th Jan., 1949 to 14th Jan, 1953), conferred after Gen. Sam Manekshaw ? How could he cocked-surely wrote the insignia of India’s Field Marshal as “Crossed Sword Star and encircled by two branches (sic)” ? Since there is no “encircled branches” in Indian Army’s epaulette (shoulder badge), the rank of Field Marshal has been somehow interpreted by the writer as that of a Maj. General!!! The non-commissioned army’s officer ranks of Subedar-Major and Subedar were deliberately left out by this H&T Columnist since it was written in accordance with universal army ranking system with the insignia of the Indian Army as an identifiable comparative purpose. There are no equivalent ranks or designations of Subedar-Major and Subedar in other nation’s ranking system. Moreover, Hindi is not encouraged in local English News-papers; hence, Sergeant, Corporal and Lance-Corporal instead of Havildar, Naik and Lance Naik. The “Rejoinderer” gave us a confusing insignia of Subedar-Major as “ Ashok encircled by twol branches with ribbon (JCO)” which is not known nor seen even by senior Army Officers and retired officers JCOs, NCOs, etc. A Subedar-Major wears only one Ashok Chakra with a ribbon and nothing more, definitely not two branches (sic). Moreover, there is no emblem or insignia called Ashok, which is a person’s name, but there is an Ashok Chakra, the 4-Lion Emblem of Emperor Ashoka at Sarnath, which carries an inscription, “Truth Alone Triumphs, Falsehood Never’. Contrary to the Rejoinder’s presentation, only the cap badge of General Officers and Brigadiers has olive branches (with a sword and a staff beneath an Ashok Chakra) and not on any officers shoulder piece (epaulette). The insignia of a sword and a staff is called “crossed sword” since it resembles the crossed swords of Indian Army’s Crest. The Army’s Central Command has also been left out. Who says “the GoC-in-C, Northern Command, has the highest chance of attaining the rank of General (sic) ? Upto to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, there was no Northern Command !!! Can we say that only SP of the Imphal-West or East has the best chance to become DGP of Manipur ? A mere childish speculative observation without statistical fact, dare we say? It is worth nothing that Gen. Shankar Roy Chaudhury was appointed as the Chief of Army Staff even though he had never ever Command any one of the 5 Combat Commands. During the Indo-China War of 1962, Gen. Kaul was appointed as Theatre Commander even though he was Commander of non-combat unit with the blundering military scholar, Brig. D.K. Palit as the DGMO (now headed by a Lt.Gen) by P.M. Nehru, ignoring the presence of India’s two most distinguish general officers, i.e., Gens Thimayya and Sam Manekshaw, both became the Chief of Army Staff later on. The Rejoinder also added an irrelevant and non-regular Army unit called Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) ignoring the existence of the DGMI and dubbed Military Intelligence (MI) with local term “INT” in written official form. Intelligence is printed as “Intell” by most military units. As for the rank of the demoted 2nd Lt, it was clearly written in this column as “2nd Lt/JCO = a star with ribbon,’ since Naik-Subedar has no equivalent English term. Once a JCO is added to 2nd Lt, readers would know that 2nd Lt is no longer a Commission officer’s rank (ie., a star without ribbon/JCO). Let’s be more sincerely practical and responsible enough to use our knowledge for the benefit of the general public. Let’s not write anything without having full knowledge and authority over a subject which we present as truth.
[TSE]
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