Promotion System

In the recent years,the promotion System of the Indian Army has come to acid test.As per the promotion system,a person in the Army is evaluated by:-

• ACRs(Annual Confidential Reports)-This is a quantitative evaluation of officers measuring upto about 17 different criteria where they are graded on a scale of 1-9.
• Pen Picture -It includes brief description of traits displayed by the officer as well as recommendations for future promotions.

This is a system that is believed to have been a success in the Indian Army for the recent years.But in today's world,this is spelling disaster for the army as now in regard to people posted in peace areas,it has become an evaluation system of a person's ability to appease his seniors in the best possible way,be giving gifts to organizing parties.Moreover,the people serving in peace areas often tend to have inflated reports as compared to their counterparts in the field areas.Unfortunately the army makes no disparity in reports collected in peace and field area.As a result of this,during the promotion boards,the peace timers tend to overtake the rest and hence deprive this army of capable officers.

An army which is not regularly involved in active warfare tends to undergo a rusting of its ethos and culture which creates an environment that only spills unprofessional-ism through its ranks.It is disgusting that the promotion policy has come to  'weeding out the best' in the recent years.peace timers have come to be evaluated on theirs 'gardening and golfing skills'.The fact that combat skills and honors of an officer hold very less value only exemplifies this.
Today in the army your promotion is' not on how good you are but to how good you look in front of your seniors'.Peace timers heavily capitalise on this aspect.A bouquet of flowers to the commanding officer's house on b'day of any of his family members can certainly assure you of a 9 grade in your ACR,but doing what an officer should really do is going to fetch you very little appreciation.Gone are the days when being in the infantry was a matter of pride.Today people from there can indulge only in self pity as their experience in varied field area has got little to do with their promotions.In fact,it is even ironical that few people even in the infantry occupying the highest ranks are those who have never served in tough field areas because they were really good at liasoning and were able to put off such posting.This in turn has a vary negative impact on the health of the army as an hardworking officer finds little incentive in for his efforts.

With the 'Shammers'   lurking up in the steep hierarchy of the indian army,it'll be right to say,that in case of a war,India will not only lose brutally with such incapable generals,but will also face high casualty.
How can people who themselves have no war experience guide troops to participating in one.The primary purpose of Armies is to fight and win wars and officers who show promise in the battlefield must be identified, and nurtured from as early as possible. Soldiers like Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Gen Timmy Thimayya, Lt Gen Bhagat and Lt Gen JFR Jacob had fought battles and suffered wounds as young officers.That is why they proved to be such good senior commanders and did well as war leaders. Officers who are very good at event management/hospitality chores should be permitted to migrate to the hotel Industry. They cannot shirk combat and then demand to be promoted to the highest level on the plea that it is not their fault that they were not given an opportunity to go to the battlefield