We all remember images of ATS Chief Hemant Karkare donning a bullet-proof jacket (BPJ) and a helmet just before he went into the 26/11 operations. Hemant Karkare died of bullet injuries on his neck. Every single bullet fired from the AK-56 and the AK-47 weapons used by the Mumbai terrorists went through the bullet-proof jacket.
Sadly Karkare's counterparts who are engaged in counter-insurgency operations across the country and face similar bullets on a daily basis are in no better shape.
The soldiers have been saying the jackets are heavy, cumbersome and largely ineffective. CNN-IBN has copies of letters written by the Rashtriya Rifles and HQ 16 Corps dating as far back as 2004. Soldiers have been complaining that the jackets are worn out, bulky, clumsy and sag towards the front, thus leaving upper parts of the chest, shoulder and neck exposed to terrorist fire. The Army further adds that even with the protective gear on, it was losing men. Twenty-eight per cent men died taking shots in the chest region, 11 pc in the head and almost 14 pc died because their face and neck region was exposed.
The design of the old jackets is part of the problem. Add to it that most of the bullet-proof jackets are more than 15 years old. Former Army Chief Gen VP Malik confirms that one of the world's largest armies has not been able to give 50 pc of its infantry soldiers a bullet-proof jacket.
Barring a few emergency purchases, the Army has struggled to get new BPJs. Part to blame is the tangled procurement procedure, part some unrealistic parameters. It's no secret that even if the top brass of the Army decided on a bullet-proof jacket today and the entire bureaucracy got together to push it, it could easily be years before the soldier in Kashmir gets to wear it.
That of course is hardly the reality.
The procurement process to get a BPJ started almost a decade ago. In June of 1998, the Army first put out a requirement (what is called a General Staff Qualitative Requirement or a GSQR) GSQR No 759. According to this, the Army wanted protection from various weapons including a 7.62mm, a 5.56mm, a 9mm Carbine at 5 metres, a 9mm Pistol and a 12 Bore shot gun at 5 metres.
In September 2001, the old GSQR was scrapped and another, GSQR 878, was given.
In this new requirement, the Army dropped the 12 Bore shot, the 9 mm pistol and the 5,56 mm INSAS.
One can understand that GSQRs need to be reviewed periodically and should be changed if technology and operational requirements of the Army so merit but it was always no secret that the 9mm Carbine was always more lethal than a 9 mm Pistol and the 12 Bore shot gun. Their inclusion in the first GSQR should have surprised all.
Meanwhile, three years passed and all that the new GSQR did was drop some parameters of the old one and still maintained what many said was an unrealistic weight parameter, even as hundreds of our men were falling to enemy bullets.
And now nearly eight years later, the Army has changed its mind again. It realises the weight it has been demanding is unrealistic. And in view of the new level of threat perceptions post-26/11, it wants protection from more weapons. Remember as I said before, even if the Army made up its mind about what it wanted, it could manage to put the bullet-proof jacket on its men only years later.
One can understand the changing threat perception and thus changing protection levels which need to be taken into account, but proposals in the first place should be futuristic and look at threat levels five years from now, and not just the current situation.
BPJs have improved leaps and bounds across the world. While two major companies across the world hold a control over the raw material used, private industry we spoke during the course of this investigation said there is simply no shortage. Tata Advanced Materials, part of the Tata Group spoke to us on camera and said, they, along with many other private industries in this country, have agreements and understanding with companies abroad and all they needed their end users to do, was to simply decide on what they want and how much they are ready to pay for it.
Which brings me to a part of the letter from Rashtriya Rifles where the officer concerned was making a pitch for better bullet-proof jackets for his men. All he said let's get the best for our men, let's not look at the cheapest available, because if that's the case we could save more than a hundred crore by not procuring any protective equipment for our men altogether.
(This is a part of a CNN-IBN series Battle Ready which cuts through the war hysteria and looks at a basic sense of our preparedness)
URBANEYE
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This has not happened for the first time and this is not the only concern with the security forces. Have you ever seen people traveling in trucks where there are no seats to sit in. This is quiet common with the security forces. Our jawans traverse interstate distances in convas topped trucks. If the road they are moving on happens to be smooth they sit down in turns or lay one one another and if the road is a typical one they suspend their bodies to any thing they can catch on in the top of the truck. This may not seem a bigger concern but this is being faced by the majority of the security forces.
Anubhaji you are the pleasantest face on the Indian television screen. I am a huge fan of yours.
Manzoor Nazar
+919419430591 ...Reply
Excellent post. I saw your show on this topic on CNNIBN on Sunday too. I liked the way you presented the importance of the "man" behind the "machine".
Please do an in-depth analysis of the reasons why the armed forces are facing shortages, both in "Quality" and "Quantity" of human resources and how this can be overcome. ...Reply
It is very sad that our cops are ill equipped to handle any terror attack like this. Many of our politicians who live and thrive on tax payers monies roam around in bullet proof cars and with dozens of guards around them.
Even after the 1962 war, we have not learned. We can not remain under sophisticated compared to our enemies.
When our political leadership will rectify this serious lacunae? ...Reply
This was the topic at every coffee table after 26/11. My first reactions after seeing late mr.karkare wearing that BPJ was, "where the hell they get something so weird"... the sag mentioned in your report was very evident. when you compare these BPJs with the one's the NSG commandos were wearing, you could make out the difference....these jackets did not even have neck protection.
Add to the fact that our police men still dont have a service pistol with them and we expect them to stand against AK-56 and AK-47s??!!??
Here in Chennai the govt. has given vehicles to the police personal on beat duty such as the TVS apache and Hyundai Accent, but what if these people came face to face with a terrorist while doing their duty?? they dont even have the necessary equipment to safeguard themselves, let alone catch them. We would end-up paying homage yet again to our soldiers who didnt deserve to die in the first place.. ...Reply
More than this we should be discussing reforms for Central Services viz. the IAS and the IPS. Post Independence we had districts with inhabitations of about 5 lakhs and a District Collector with 10 years Service. Today you have the same district with a population of 25 lakhs but the same IAS Collector with 13 years. This individual is too immature in terms of service to handle the large district and hence we get poor administration which is the root cause of such anti national activities being permitted to fester. Fake ration cards, passports, land transfers etc. all because of poor administration. Prevention is better than cure. The intake of IPS/IAS should be increased to cater for more field level officers. This will ensure that only the best get to the top like the Armed forces. Today every idiot who somehow makes it past the IAS/IPS exam makes it to a DG/Secretary level and can head major governmental bodies which he is incompetent of handling. A district with about 20 lakhs population should have at least 5 Additional Administrative officers and One District Administrative officer (Collector is passé and reeks of colonial arrogance) with at least 20 years of service.
The Police should also be restructured accordingly and all police Thanas should be headed by an IPS SP. The police should be organised to provide policing and law enforcement and not as anti terror teams. For such activities we should have organisations like the SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics teams) like in other countries. The police should at no stage engage the terrorists but should have a mechanism in place to get the special teams to act at short notice. Very much like fighter pilots who scramble when enemy aircrafts intrude. The State Armed Police and RAF/CRPF/BSF should be the riot and terror negation teams. If all fails call in the Army.
On 26/11 the police should have just had a good reporting system in place by which the initial reports would have set in motion the RAF and SWAT teams to get into action. The Police should have provided back up support like crowd management and setting up control rooms and providing district information and liaison with other district administration bodies.
Now decide where the shield should go.
Like the idea mobile ad which shamefully says âpolicewallaho ko paise dena chahiye kya - ha ha ha- Janata ne kahan ha to ha ---- varna bahut maregi â" Yeh hain Democracyâ Sic literally with designs.
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