Challenges of Commanding a Signal Regiment

My long overdue promotion came through as Commanding officer of 9 Infantry Divisional Signal Regiment in 1973; possibly one of the very few non Staff College qualified to command a Divisional Signal Regiment. The regiment then located in Malout in Punjab was shortly to move to Ranchi in Bihar.

Maj Gen Dalbir then the GOC commanding the Division at Kalimpong had commanded 9 Division during the Bangladesh operations. A dominating personality both in size and demeanour blessed with a caustic tongue would spare no one even his brigade commanders if he found something not to his liking or amiss. He did find a solitary occasion to tick me off for fault of mine, later he did change his impression about me and compensated that with a remark at the time of my farewell courtesy call at his office. After the regulation cup of tea he wondered as to why I could not continue as his Commander Signals. To his kind thought I responded by asking if I could be of any help to Mrs Dalbir who was then staying at Ranchi in separated family quarters.

My wife’s association with Mrs Dalbir unfortunately did not find favour with the new setup and did create a few problems for me and my wife with veiled advice from various quarters to desist from being too close to the lady being offered in perfusion. However Jeet was made of a different mettle and did exactly what was demanded by the occasion unmindful of the consequences and with my full support.

On my way down to Siliguri to catch the train making connection to Ranchi I called on Brig Desai the CSO; I also had a lunch appointment with Brig Balaram at New Mal who very graciously waited for me even though I reached the Brigade offices Mess well past the lunch hour. Brig K Balaram, Commander 123 Brigade, with the Corps of Signal being his parent arm, would always stay in the Signals Mess in preference to the Alfa mess of HQ. Whenever he visited the Div HQ on duty in the afternoons he would dash to spent time in the Radio Mechanic Shop fiddling with massive valve radio sets.

With Jeet and family still at Dehra Dun I thought it prudent to move them to Ranchi during my joining time itself which still was a separated family station. Having settled them at Ranchi and leaving Jeet to fend for herself I left for Malout near Bhatinda in Punjab to take charge of my new assignment.

Once again I took charge of the regiment, all packed and ready to move like the earlier take over of 40 Medium Regiment Signal at Dehra Dun and that of the 81 Inf Brigade Signal Section during the Exercise ‘Doaba’. All the three command taking over were with the incumbents having already left.

I have been away in field area while my wife looking after the children and their schooling for the last three years or so. Back in Ranchi we had a Council of War with me declaring ‘I would have not much time to look after the family, commanding a regiment is a 24X7 job’. Her reply was equally curt and explicit ‘I have looked after your children for the last three years now it’s your turn’. As always the children and money became mine when it suited her otherwise I had no control on either of them. Though the children suffered in their studies she fulfilled her duties as the CO’s wife and the first lady of the regiment to a much more extent than what could be expected of her.

Commanding a unit in a peace station has its own perils. Domestic problems of the officers, petty jealousies of the ladies, both regimental as also of the formation resulting in disconnect among officers which soon manifest in the daily working. In addition I the new the Commander Signals perceived as an outsider; had a unsympathetic if not a downright hostile Div HQ Staff. The other Commanders were well bonded having faced the perils of the operations and shared the fruits of victory and the spoils of war together. This became even more obvious, when we all gathered for the Tea, post the GOC’s weekly conference at Div, will all of them huddled together leaving me standing aloof.

More importantly my shifting the family to Ranchi without approval was strongly frowned upon by the GOC and in tandem by the AQ which became a real dampener to my spirits. When the GOC gave me a baleful glare on this issue while interviewing me at Malhout I offered to send the family back to Dehradun which to some extent satisfied his ego. Perhaps the other reason for his being upset with me was that I had landed in the HQ already wearing the badges of my new rank thus depriving him of the privilege of doing the honour for which I had no solution to offer.

My own unit Majors and senior Captains were tired, dispirited and disinterested in their work unfortunately a few also not too honest; the temptations to dip in the till of rations and petrol and the cheap canteen liquor fetching good price in civil were too strong for them to resist.

I was soon to learn about the technical calibre, efficiency and capability of these so called seasoned officers in the process I nearly burnt my fingers. Come the first exercise with the Formation HQ on return to Ranchi; it was simple a move of the formation with its various elements to a distance of a few kilometres away from the town to check the various deployment drills and procedures.

My understanding that a unit back from Bangladesh operations and deployment on the Western front would be having all its drills well taped proved unfounded and came as a rude shock. I was happily unaware of the acronym SWOT learnt at the LDM Course at Secundrabad exactly two years later. However the analysis that I made after observing the internal and external environment of the regiment followed the same logic.
..... To be continued

Brig Lakshman Singh, VSM (Retd)