Lack of empathy, a misplaced sense of entitlement, an exaggerated tendency to complain at the drop of a hat—and more. A three-star general’s letter in the name of a “pragmatic performance analysis” is a damning indictment of the leadership of eight women commanding officers who were then a part of corps headquarters.
The five-page letter by corps commander Lt Gen Rajeev Puri to Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Ram Chander Tiwari lists seven subheads of problematic areas relating to women commanding officers (COs).
Sometimes difficult to decipher due to its extensive use of abbreviations, the letter dated October 1, was reported in Hindustan Times earlier this week. It is not immediately known how the letter, which has gone viral on social media, became public.
[Read Rahul Singh’s HT report here]
The letter, which argues for gender neutrality as a policy and makes a distinction between neutrality and equality, ironically, faults the women COs precisely on the basis of their gender.
For instance, writes the general, “mundane ego problems…spiral out of control in most cases.” Such “mundane cases”, he notes, “are seldom reported by male counterparts”.
The women display a misplaced sense of entitlement which, the general concedes, is also exhibited by a “few of their male counterparts”. But, the proportion of women doing so “pts [points] towards a trend rather than an exception,” he explains.
Women are not trained to be commanders and were inducted as a special cadre, the letter continues. Who is to blame for this alleged lack of training is not explained. But, “at the level of a CO, hand holding is neither available nor expected,” he writes.
The women have a “desire to prove oneself in a predominantly male dominant field.” This, according to the general, is likely leading to both over-ambition and over-compensation. Because the women see a gender bias, disagreements tend to “draw a more severe reaction” he writes.
A long battle
The armed forces began inducting women in certain branches as short service commission officers only in 1992. Until then, women were allowed to join the military but restricted to the medical stream.
Over the years, the women have had to fight for their inclusion every step of the way, often going to court for their constitutional rights to equality. Each time, they have been opposed by the government for various reasons from physiological differences to domestic responsibilities.
In 2006, the women won a court battle when their tenure was extended to 14 years. Two later they became eligible for permanent commissions but only in the legal and education wings.
In 2020, in a landmark verdict the Supreme Court overruled the government’s objection to giving women command appointments in the army. Reliance on the inherent physiological differences between men and women rests “in a deeply entrenched stereotypical and constitutionally flawed notion that women are the ‘weaker’ sex and may not undertake tasks that are too arduous for them,” the judgment noted.
In 2023, the apex court ordered the army to assign women officers to command roles outside the medical stream for the first time. As a result, 108 women out of 244 were selected for promotion and offered command assignments. These are women with years of service, selected from the 1992 to 2006 batches.
Among the first women officers to be appointed to a command role, Col Neha Singh told HT’s senior associate editor Rahul Singh at the HT Leadership Summit in 2023, that it was a “turning point” for her.
Shaken and stirred
Lt Gen Puri’s letter has caused a stir among army circles and consternation among women. It “reeks of misogyny” Maj (retd) Bhavana Chiranjay (retd) who served from 2000 to 2009 and now runs a child rights non-profit told me.
“The army is a calling,” she said. “You have to meet its selection process.” And once in, “You are chiselled through an exacting training process. No exceptions.”
There are checks and balances within the organisation, said Lt Col (retd) Sarita Satija, who served for 21 years from 2000. “There are ways in which issues and concerns can be raised. A letter by a senior general that is now in the public domain is not the way,” she said. It has led to “an unfortunate national debate even among civilian groups. He should have thought more carefully before writing that letter,” she said.
Both Chiranjay and Satija believe there are issues of national security involved. Chiranjiv said the letter reveals what one senior general believes are “chinks in our armour.” Satija added, “The public needs to be assured that only competent officers are in command positions. There can be no doubt on that account.”
For women, it has been a long journey to fight for acceptance and inclusion. Even now, there are only 0.56% women officers in the army, less than the 1.08% in the Air Force and 6.5% in the Navy.
Women don’t expect special treatment on account of their gender. Equally, they don’t want to be singled out by stereotypes on account of it.
Women COs have “reached where they have on merit and hard work”, said Satija. Not everyone gets promoted, she pointed out. Once in, women must prove themselves repeatedly as officers of the Indian army, not women officers, but just officers.
The following article is an excerpt from this week’s HT Mind the Gap. Subscribe here.
