As my turn came for promotion to Lieutenant General, I was
informed by the COAS, General Rodrigues, during a visit to HQ 15 Corps that he
had earmarked me to take over command of 15 Corps in July 1993. Since I had
already done over two years as COS at the same location in a difficult period,
I requested him for a change. My father was, at 93 years, not only of an
advanced age, but had also been ailing for some time and needed care. I, therefore,
told him that I would prefer to be posted to a place which had good medical
facilities. The COAS accepted my request. He posted me as the COS HQ Western
Command to succeed Lt. General B.K.N. Chibber, PVSM, AVSM, who was being moved
as the Security Adviser to the Government of Punjab. This was to be an interim
posting till a vacancy for the corps commander occurred. Accordingly, I got a
short tenure of six months as the COS with the then Western Army Commander, Lt
General GK Gulati, PVSM. This enabled me to get familiar with the operational
tasks of Western Command, as also with the ongoing operations of
counter-insurgency in Punjab, which were in the final phase of consolidation.
The dynamic Chief Minister, Shri Beant Singh, along with
the very competent DGP, Shri KPS Gill, were well in control in Punjab. There
was unity of purpose and very close coordination between the civil
administration, the Police and the Army in the conduct of the operations. In
Punjab, by and large, the civil society was not with the insurgents, which
enabled a quicker return to normalcy. The media also played a positive role by
providing a very balanced coverage of the events. The actual task of
eliminating militancy was undertaken by the Punjab Police, while the Army
provided them with a secure environment by dominating the rural areas and the
border belt during night time. At the Command level, in addition to the
planning for the conduct of the counter-insurgency operations, there were
operational discussions, tactical manoeuvres, and war games. As the COS, I
found that there were many administrative installations, hospitals, and
logistic units which needed attention. Their supervision and reporting were under
the direct responsibility of the COS, and I was able to visit these various installations
as also familiarise myself with the entire western border in Punjab, during my
time there.
In November 1993, I
was appointed GOC of a pivot Corps, while it was undergoing the yearly
operational alert. This was one of the most important pivot corps of the Indian
Army providing a pad for launching operations, with considerable resources on
its orbit. Its armoured content was as much as that of an armoured division. The
Corps also had an independent Artillery Brigade with the 155 mm (Bofors) guns. The
Corps Key Location Plan (KLP), at Bhatinda, Suratgarh, Bikaner and
SriGanganagar was still under development at that time. Major General J.S.
Dhillon, my COS, was of great help in finalising the KLP and other
infrastructure. Maj General Vinod Sehgal was GOC of one of the divisions; Maj
General N.C. Vij (later COAS) was in command of the other; and Maj General C.S.
Panag was the GOC of the third Infantry Division. The Corps was also a test-bed
for developing the “Battlefield Surveillance Centre” and the “Artillery Command
and Control Centre”, which have now been made operational in the Indian Army. Aspects
like offensives across deserts and riverine terrains and reduction of strong
points were perfected.
During our stay at Bhatinda, our daughter, Anisha got
married. The wedding was solemnised at DSOI, New Delhi. I deliberately held the
wedding outside my corps zone, to ensure that my subordinate commanders and
staff did not flock to the wedding with gifts. I also disallowed leave to the officers
to participate in the event. Some of my officers may have thought me too strict.
But my purpose in organising the wedding function of my daughter outside my
Corps area was quite clear—private functions must remain private in the Armed
Forces. And I mention it here, to highlight the tendency at times to use
official facilities for private purposes in many departments. This leads to
misuse of resources and promotes corruption, and senior officers must set an
example to discourage such a trend; we emphatically must not follow the precedent
of our political leadership and other government officials in this regard.
Most of the stations in the Corps, i.e Bhatinda, Suratgarh,
Bikaner, SriGanganagar, Lal Garh Jattan, and Kota, were small or new towns. The
cantonments there were not fully developed. The Army, today, by its efforts has
developed good sports facilities, opened new schools, and constructed housing
complexes and hospitals in most of these stations. All this systematic work has
also helped in restoring the confidence of the civil populace, in ensuring
better governance, and in normalising the situation on the ground from
anti-national elements. It is often not fully realised that the Army, in this
process, plays a significant role in the development of infrastructure of
remote areas, smaller towns and the border belt. The civilian population and
the retired veterans also feel involved in the task of nation building.
The army units in peace-stations basically are either
involved in training for war, or are there for much needed rest and refit from
the pressures of the field areas. The Infantry units have their peculiar needs
for reorientation to the new environments, as unlike the specialised units, the
Infantry units mostly come from a hard field-station to the peace-station on rotation.
They need time to get their families and the shortages and low scaling of
married accommodation (approximately 15%) permits tenures of less than a year.
Formation Commanders need to cater for their special needs and must not give
them additional duties, other than their operational tasks, which often appears
to be the norm. The training commitments of the units located in the peace
stations, particularly specialist units such as Air Defence Regiments, Assault
Engineering Regiments, Armoured Units and Artillery Regiments need coordination
as the firing ranges are few and far away.
I was able to conduct the planned two weeks operational
familiarisation of all the formations, preceded by a Corps Level War Game at
the operational locations in November 1994. This also enabled me to meet a
large number of my units and their officers on the ground. Thereafter, Infantry
Div (Rapid) under Maj Gen Vinod Sehgal was exercised on the offensive
operations astride the canal/river obstacle along with the independent Armoured
Brigade. One Infantry Brigade of the other Infantry Division provided the
“enemy force”, and the third Infantry Div was tasked to provide the control and
umpire organisation. The exercise was supported by the other supporting arms
and services fully. Such exercises enable the units to practice battle-craft
and drills. The Army Commander, Lt. General G.K. Gulati, PVSM, witnessed the
exercise and gave some valuable advice. The GOC Div, Maj Gen Vinod Sehgal, was
a fine soldier and an imaginative Commander, and tried out some new concepts although
most commanders these days do not try out anything new, for fear of making
mistakes and adopt the well-beaten and predictable paths. In fact, new concepts
and ideas are often run down.
As I was just about settling down as the GOC, I was
pleasantly surprised to get my transfer orders as the GOC of a strike Corps,
located at Bhopal. The command of one of the strike Corps of the Indian Army is
an honour, which any professional soldier would aspire to. I took over the
command of this Corps from Lt General K.M. Seith, AVSM, a fellow paratrooper
and a friend. The Corps had its armoured elements located in Central India,
with other two formations at Ranchi and Secunderabad. The Corps was well spread
with units at stations like Trivandrum in the South to Barrackpore in the East,
Pune in the West and Delhi in the North.
Some of the supporting formations were still under the process of being
raised. The Corps HQ was housed at Sultania Infantry lines in some makeshift
accommodation, with some units in tentage and TRS (Tent Replacement Scheme)
huts in the EME Centre Complex at Bairagarh.
We raised the Air Defence Brigade at Dehu Road and moved
the Independent Arty Brigade to Aurangabad. Both these stations proved to be
good assets to the Corps, as these also had good education facilities. I was
able to visit various formations and assess their training needs. The Division,
ex Ranchi, was practised in move and deployment in the Rajasthan deserts for
training. The long time taken for this induction and deployment was a matter of
concern and was suitably rectified later by the Army HQ, by allocating another
formation from Central India. This improved the operational capabilities of the
Corps further. We were able to conduct a full scale exercise in the deserts,
codenamed Chakravyuh, by all the formations, including the Armoured Division,
with the training tanks, the Artillery and the Engineering brigades in full. HQ
Southern Command provided the ‘enemy’ troops. I was also able to get the Air
Effort, including helicopter lift, for a Special Forces battalion lift for the
exercise. The exercise was witnessed by the COAS and the Air Chief. Maj General
Vijay Kapoor was able to exercise the Armoured Division in a realistic setting
in the deserts and along with the other Divisional commanders practice various
concepts of offensive missions. The logistics Services were also able to get
fully exercised.
It took considerable time for the formations and units to
de-induct to their respective permanent
locations, spread in the South and Central
India. This also gave us the opportunity to see the variety and diversity and
uniqueness of India’s heritage during our visits to the formations. My wife
accompanied me during some of my visits to these stations and acquainted
herself with the education and the associated issues of the family welfare. The
infantry units, I noticed, were always pressed for time doing numerous tasks,
since they get to the peace station tenures for a short 2-3 years, before going
back to the field. The commitment on station duties, assistance to civil
authorities during natural calamities, time for operational training,
therefore, needs to be balanced realistically.
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| Aruna with the ladies of the Station |
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| Receiving the COAS, General Shankar Roy Chowdhary |
