The Armed Forces of India not the First Career Choice of Youth

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The Armed Forces of India is no longer the First Career Choice for the youth of India. From being one of the most sought after professions upto late 80's, it does not even feature in choice of professions of educated youth. Why has this happened in last 2 decades?

I remember when we were in School and career choices were spoken about the armed forces ranked very high in the order, MBA were not even known or spoken of. The armed forces had a certain draw and the youth were attracted to it.

The tradition of son following his father into the services, a worthy tradition left by the British, was a matter of pride for the family. Infact if the son of an armed forces person did not join the forces, it was assumed that he did not make the grade, the family lost face in the cantt. Today less than 2% of children of armed forces persons join the forces.

Why today the Forces is no longer the choice for the youth? We are getting rejects from the other walks of life who are joining the forces as last option! These officers are still in the junior positions and thus the impact is not so visible. But in another 10 years when this lot reaches senior positions there will be huge issues of quality of leadership.

What Changed in last 2 decades:

1. The career options have increased and much more choices are available to youth.
2. The successive governments have down graded the status of the forces, this has been in the media to see. The draw of commanding a respect and position is no longer there.
3. The 6th and 7th Pay commissions have given a feeling that the armed forces is an unnecessary burden this nation is lugging.
4. The disciplined protest (first in history of India) by the exservicemen was met with brutal force and the Prime Minister's speech at time of giving the promised dues was in bad taste. It has only showed that this nation respects those who break the law and destroy public property, unfortunately the armed forces persons even after retirement have so much patriotism left in them that they cannot do this. Thus- they are considered WEAK.
5. The politicians have time to make every death of a soldier into a political issue and spends hours in drawing political mileage but not one gets 15 mins to go and pay condolences to the family or attend the funeral of the martyr.
6. We pushed troops who were neither equipped or acclimatized to fight in the heights of Kargil and they delivered despite this and saved the face of India in world. But what has happened after that. The 6th pay commission came and took away the perks of the forces. The 7th pay commission has gone a step further by taking away what little respect the forces had left.
7. The CAG has brought out that the equipment and ammunition is neither adequate or worthy of fighting a all out war with either Pakistan or China. Was the government not aware of this, how is this possible. It is evident that the DO NOT CARE. So should the youth join to die due to apathy of the politician!

This could go on and on, but we are not getting anywhere. It is not that that the Political leadership does not know this, but it is that the Armed Forces do not provide a large enough vote bank that matters.

The Armed Forces persons are gullible, as the first thing they are taught is to trust your leadership and colleagues. This has been taken advantage of by the wily political class by time and again promises having been made at time of elections and forgotten post the election and forces being cheated.

The leadership in the forces being thrown up are only those who toe the line of the system and keep their mouth shut. The smart, intelligent and those who take a stand are written off well before they can make it senior ranks. This ensures that the top leadership in the forces is always weak and ever grateful to the political and bureaucratic class for being elevated to a position he does not deserve.

What needs to be done before we have a repeat of 1962 and are sorry once again? I do not want to give any suggestions or views but only say lets become patriotic to nation and not to a person, religion caste or community. Lets relook into ourselves and resolve to make the change.