Last night I dreamt I was a junior-level
officer in the Navy.
In my dream, I suddenly found myself
accused of plotting a coup d’état along with the (non-officer) crew of a missile
boat. You know, like the crew of a missile boat is going to be able to take
over a country, let alone a country with a virtually ceremonial navy like this
one.
Even in my dream, I knew this was ridiculous. Apparently, even the naval
authorities knew the charge was ridiculous, because they made no attempt to
arrest or court martial me. What happened was that they subject me instead to
systematic and punitive harassment. I found myself evicted from my quarters,
all my belongings (including my books) dumped outside, and the quarters
themselves demolished. I had a “mentor” officer – a commodore or admiral (who
in real life happens to be one of my former teachers in dental college). He
refused even to talk to me, and instead passed comments in my hearing about how
ungrateful I was. One of my “brother officers” finally told me in accents to
high-falutin he was practically swallowing his vowels that I was a “trait’r”
and so he would have nothing to do with me.
While I spent the rest of the dream vainly
trying to find someone willing to give me a hearing, let alone help me in any
shape or form, I soon realised the reason for these charges. I’d opposed some
admiral’s wife’s nincompoop idea of stationing Sea Hawk fighters on a new
aircraft carrier.
The Hawker Sea Hawk, as it happens, is a sixty-year-old design which
even the Indian Navy retired back in the 1980s from service aboard the light carrier Vikrant.
I’d pointed out to Frau Admiral
that these museum pieces were not even capable
of taking off from a carrier fitted with a ski-jump (like the new carrier in my
dream), assuming they could even be made airworthy, but she wasn’t at all happy
with that, since she thought they "looked so good". Nor were her entourage of fawning officers happy with me either.
So that was the reason I was in that mess.
Now, although that was a dream and the
whole premise was utterly fictional, it’s not that far off from what actually
goes on in India’s defence services. While I was working with the air force, I
saw at first hand the way the spouses of senior officers threw their weight
around, virtually assuming the privileges of their husbands’ rank. And those of
us who know something of recent Indian military history (most especially the
Kargil conflict of 1999) are aware that inconveniently outspoken officers find
themselves speedily out on their ears after trumped up charges and drumhead
trials, while others who refuse to rock the boat are rewarded with good
postings and promotion.
While – as I said – my dream was
exaggerated and allegorical, I’m pretty sure that equipment acquisition,
promotions and suchlike things happen more due to the whims and fancies of
those in power, and that those further down the totem pole had better accept
the orders from above or suffer the consequences.
I don’t think the problem is unique to
India’s defence services, either – it’s probably a rot present in the very
structure of the military animal. But in India, the feudal social system and
the corruption of power tend to reinforce each other in a particularly ugly
fashion.
Can things improve in our lifetimes?
Dream on.
