Challenges of Commanding a Signal Regiment

I had never believed in a secret service and never had one. However, to keep a hand on the pulse of the regiment I brought in a system of interviewing the NCOs down to the level of a Naik, by name, assuring them of full access to me and to blow the whistle if they noticed any wrong thing happening in the regiment accompanied with a terse warning of severe action if they failed to blow the whistle when warranted. The record of these interviews was maintained under my signature. In so far as general discipline was concerned I was helped by some thing that had happened earlier. A few Signalman had deserted while the regiment was deployed for the Bangla Desh operations and now with the regiment back in Ranchi and with the increased Police pressure being applied back home the deserters started trickling back, to be promptly consigned to the cells in the Quarter guard on arrival.

There were seven such cases which were dealt by me by Summary Court Martial. The minimum punishment that I could pronounce was dismissal from the service and three months RI in civil prison. With quick disposals of the cases in succession the message went round that the CO meant business and had a salutary affect all round discipline.

There was interesting fallout from these which clearly brings the relation ship between Officer and Jawan: A couple of months later of dispensing the punishment while returning to Ranchi and waiting for the change of trains at Gaya. I was approached by an individual who looked familiar. ‘Jai Hind Saiha,.’ he said.

It transpired that he happened to be one of the Court Marshaled Jawan, I was a bit apprehensive, not too sure of his behaviour verbal or physical: any reaction, with me being alone on the Platform, by him was being possible. However, he came and wished me and on my enquiring he stated that was on his way to his home after release from custody. My fears were unfounded; it was a jawan paying his complements to his Commanding officer. ‘Jai Hind, Kaisa Ho’ I responded. ‘Have you any money on you?’ After a frew words exchanged I enquired ‘No Sir,’ he replied with a long face.

With no money on him, possibly he was travelling without ticket, and food. I gave him Rs 50/- to take care of his onward journey which he accepted with gratitude while thanking me profusely. With the quantum of punishment just both in the Jawan’s and the Commanding officers eyes there was no malice in either of the hearts. To my mind this is Army once again and it’s ethos. Officer-Jawan relationship: based on honesty, sincerity and justice.

One of my major achievements as the Commanding Officer was to get the Regiment and the Officers Mess out of the clutches of the Regimental Bania (Wet Canteen Contractor) despite the fact that I, myself was passing through a major financial crunch thanks to the overdrawn of cash from the Field Cashier back at Kalimpong and with the CDA ruthlessly deducting from the, as it is the meagre, pay packet that one was entitled to those days.

The Formation HQ and all its units worked Friday nights with Saturday off. To instill confidence in their equipment and its capabilities on these nights I would take the regiment out a few Kms away from Ranchi and practice the deployment drills and establishing of the communications which resulted in all-round increased proficiency. All these actions had resulted from my bitter experience of the fiasco of the first exercise that was held near Ranchi on arrival from Punjab. Subsequently I had taken a decision that it would never be repeated again. To ensure this I had to even call one of the brigade signal company OC from the brigade that was not part of the on going formation exercise to function as the OC I Company, as the current incumbent, I knew was incapable of delivering the goods. As a practice few days before any formation exercise I would also call on the commanding officers of the battalions and assure them all help to make up their shortage of cable and equipment from my resources to the extent possible.

With all this achieved over a period of time I was in a happy and comfortable position to generally manage a peaceful nap during the formation exercises even at the time of the test exercise that was held in far away Rajasthan.
To be continued....

Brig Lakshman Singh, VSM (Retd)