Counter-Terrorism: Indian Army Officers Radicalized


November 11,2008: The Indian army was shocked to discover that one of its senior intelligence officers, 37 year old colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit, worked with Hindu terrorists to carry out a recent (September) bombing of a Mosque, which left six dead. Hindu terrorism has been around for thousands of years, but it has never been a major problem, and this was the first time a senior army officer had been caught working with Hindu terrorists. Most army officers are Hindu, as are 80 percent of Indians (13 percent are Moslems). Moslem and communist terrorism does far more damage, and for years the army had been far more concerned with Moslem or leftist officers turning radical. In the course of the Purohit investigation, a retired army Major was also arrested, and it is feared that more officers may be involved. The biggest problem with Hindu terrorism, aside from the death and destruction, is that it makes it easier for Moslem and communist terror groups to recruit.

India is having increasing problems with its military officers. The Indian Army is short 24 percent of its officer strength, and is desperately seeing solutions. The air force and navy are also short, but only by 12-15 percent. The military fears that commanders are compromising standards to hold on to what officers they have.

But it's not just officers that are hard to get and keep. Technical specialists are in short supply, which is a growing problem as the army adds more high tech gear. The basic problem is that the army must compete with the civilian economy for highly trained or educated personnel. The army maintains high recruiting standards for officers, thus trying to eliminate the shortages by more aggressively recruiting young NCOs for officer candidate school doesn't work because too many of the NCOs cannot pass the entrance exam.

Moreover, India is at war, with troops getting killed and injured in Kashmir, the northeastern tribal areas, and fighting Maoist rebels in eastern India. The casualty rate is actually quite low, but just serving in a combat zone is hard on the nerves, and not attractive to many educated young Indians. The result is best demonstrated by looking at who applies to what school. The elite Indian Institutes of Management gets 200,000 people applying each year, for 1,200 slots. The Indian Military Academy got only 86 applications for 250 slots.


While many generals see officer conscription (via mandatory officer training and service for university graduates) as inevitable, many citizens and politicians oppose it. But the generals point out that the problem has been around for a decade, and is getting worse. The additional workload on the officers they do have is forcing many to quit because of the overwork. And there is also the temptation to let marginal officers stay in, with could lead to more "officers as terrorists" scandals.

The source of the problem, in a nation of 1.1 billion, is the corruption in the primary school system. Teaching jobs in many parts of the country are considered political patronage. These teaching assignments are handed out to political activists, with the understanding that they are no-show jobs. So, despite a lot of money being put into primary education over the last half century, the illiteracy rate is still 39 percent. The army cannot compete with a booming economy when there is such a shortage of qualified personnel.


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