All this while I had been talking about the "
how to" of military to civvy street transition. That was probably more relevant to those who chose to retire without a pension, either because you were short-service commissioned officers or those who resigned (<10 years of service) or retired prematurely (<20 years of qualifying service).
But what about those of you who have superannuated or put in the minimum of 20+ years required to qualify for a pension! Should you work for a corporate entity in the public or private sector?
The answer would depend on your interests, of course. And your financial situation. However, if you ask me, I will always suggest that you do anything, even setup your own business, but don't ever join a private sector company? At the end of the day, it is just not worth it.
Why?
Because you are so much more versatile than the private sector will allow you space for. They will argue that you do not have industry experience, that you don't have the pedigree of an IIT/IIM, that you did not possess the relevant skills for the job or often, that you are not adequately networked within the industry or the target market for them to consider you seriously.
They definitely don't see your versatility, they don't correlate the type of assignments you have had with the existing or emerging needs of the industry primarily because they don't understand what goes into those assignments. And they definitely will not acknowledge the fact that many of us who have succeeded in the private sector came from the same background and started from scratch.
So what should you do?
If it catches your interest, I will suggest you get on to the very critical task and unfulfilled task of nation building. Yes, the very same task of nation building that stopped a few years after our independence from British colonial rule in the summer of 1947. My best guess is that it lasted all of 10 years, after which petty power politics overtook nation building.
There is so much left to do. When George Orwell wrote "
The Animal Farm", he was of course using it as a parody for the problems following the birth of the communist Soviet Union in the October Revolution. Our nation suffered a similar fate in the years post independence.
Orwell's' novel addresses not only the corruption of the revolution by its leaders but also how wickedness, indifference, ignorance, greed and myopia corrupts any revolution. It portrays corrupt leadership as the flaw in the revolution, rather than the act of revolution itself. It also showed how potential ignorance to problems within a revolution allowed the subsequent horrors to happen when a smooth transition to a people's government was not achieved.
What was the status of India on 15 August 1947. We were a collective of hundreds of princely states, some independent, with most under loosely administered British presidencies, residencies and agencies. This besides the several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal.
Then, through a combination of factors, Vallabhbhai Patel and VP Menon convinced the rulers of almost all of the hundreds of princely states to accede to India. And having secured their accession, they then proceeded to, in a step-by-step process, secure and extend the central government's (read the Congress party's) authority over these states and transform their administrations until, by 1956, there was little difference between the territories that had formerly been part of British India an those that had been part of princely states. Simultaneously, the Government, through a combination of diplomatic and military means, acquired control over the remaining colonial enclaves.
Did the new "rulers" discard the old and usher in the new?
No. They inherited all the entitlements of the British Raj and the Princely states put together and set about perpetuating them for eternity both for themselves and for their progeny. A classic case of Orwellian
deja vu! The new rulers were largely feudal lords, or vassals who assumed that they were the new lords, and as their entitlements and self-interests grew, India regressed.
For a time, starting from 1991, we were given to believe that India had finally awoken. Sadly, that dream too was shattered.
Personally, I don't believe that the India in which we live today is what our forefathers envisioned when they conjured up the dream called India. Given all indications, the nation state today is hell bent on alienating all of us. And events over the past several years have on reinforced this feeling.
How long should we allow this state of despair to continue?
Great countries are not born great! They are molded in the fires of hell before they wrought into greatness.
Will it be painful?
Like hell!
It is said that
all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
If you wait, you will grow old and infirm and have leaking bladders or worse.
If you die today, you will still have a good looking body.
If there was a better time to act, it is now!
If you have served well, it is time for more sacrifices. This is a fight for our freedom from the "tyranny of the elected" and their blatant disregard for the common people of this country.
It is time to rebuild a nation once again.
As an aside, let me bring up a little story, an example of a simple action that differentiates a great nation.
As citizens, we are all aware that it is normal for nations to honour their soldiers. Read this letter written on Nov 21, 1864, from a President to a grieving mother on the loss of all her sons in battle:
Now contrast this act with the state of affairs in our nation.
In India, the establishment views soldiers with suspicion, they disregard their heroes and view their sacrifices with contempt. Can you even imagine a letter like the one above, written to the mother or father or spouse of a fallen soldier by one of our Presidents? Why is it like that?
This, of course, is just one aspect. Take any other aspect of governance and you will find nothing but systemic rot. The battle for change is yet to begin, but the signs of its relentless approach are everywhere.
This battle was sanctioned a long time ago, in the Bhagavad Gita, and in the following verses:
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥४-७॥
...Bhagavad Gita Chapter IV, Verse 7
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥४-८॥
...Bhagavad Gita Chapter IV, Verse 8
Whenever and wherever a decline of righteousness and a predominance of unrighteousness prevails; at that time I manifest myself personally, O descendants of Bharata.
For the protection of the denizens and the annihilation of the corrupt adversary and to fully establish righteousness once again, I shall reappear age after age.
Traditional Hindu belief points to the re-emergence of a person, a God.
However, many also believe what I believe.
That in the evolution of nations, there will be periods of such darkness that it will trigger the re-emergence of collective righteousness, of awareness, of consciousness and a reunification of purpose in its people.
The undercurrents are already palpable.
There is no doubt that this nation will have to go through the purgatory of a bloody revolution before it emerges with strong democratic ideals to take its place in the comity of progressive nations.
We are all out of uniform now. The bonds that once kept our arms tied and our voices gagged have long been cast off. We are citizens once again, free to voice our opinion, free to act, free to shape our own destiny. We are the people.
It is we who now need to step up and be counted. Collectively we have to make a difference. It is not about rebuilding an army. This fight is political - and it is not the dirty word as we had come to expect.
Politics is nothing but a fight for hearts and minds.
I hope it will never come to a stage where we will feel the need to take up arms again. War's are violent by nature. Violence begets violence, and once begun, it is difficult to control.
But what is war, after all?
As Clausewitz said and we are all only too aware,
war is a continuation of politics by other means.
So political strategy will have to include a means to deliver the right results - whatever form or shape that might take. After all, how does one bring to a halt the rampant loot by our elected representatives.
Fear!
Yes indeed. Fear is the key! No longer does there appear to be any fear of the law. Judicial processes have been deliberately underfunded and bogged down by overload. Justice is not delivered for years, nor is it seen to be delivered. There are innumerable cases in which people have fought for justice until their deaths - natural or otherwise.
And when the legal proceedings is directed at political heavyweights or has political overtones, where is the hope that justice will ever see the light of day? In such cases, subversion of investigative or even the judicial processes is the norm.
"
Be the change you want to see", said the Mahatma.
Any movement for change will have to be political in nature. Politics is not an area of strength for soldiers. So what do we do that will make a difference? How do we select our aim, develop our objectives? What preparatory activities does it entail? What should be the form of organization, if any?
The start point will have to be an assessment of the strength and weakness of the existing system, the main political parties and other stakeholders.
Sounds logical enough. But what then?
Funnily enough, it is not as if the existing dispensation is not aware of what it takes to make this country great. They just don't have the strength of leadership to carry it through. And if we can work it out, this is exactly where we will succeed.
However, don't be under any misconception with regard to our background. It is a very different set of leadership skills and abilities that will be needed - that of wielding influence without authority, of consensus building and of tremendous personal sacrifices.
Then again, it may just boil down to the question of who will fire the first shot for the revolution in the making for so many years to reach a tipping point!
