BSF study calls for younger field commanders

Gaurav C Sawant

New Delhi, April 30: THE age profile of field commanders needs to be changed for better leadership, points out an internal study of the Border Security Force (BSF).

The reports says that a majority of the field commanders — a whopping 80 per cent — are above the age of 50 and ‘‘unfit to lead’’ in active operations.
The study, ordered four months ago when Gurbachan Jagat took over as the Director General of the force, points out that the anomaly will be rectified only in the year 2002, when the existing lot of commanders retire.

‘‘Take the example of Mankachar in Assam. The deputy commandant leading the operations (B.R. Mandal who was killed in Bangladesh) was close to retirement. It is not an isolated case of a 56-year-old man leading a patrol,’’ sources in the BSF’s Operations branch point out.

Compare this to the Army: Patrols are led by young lieutenants and captains aged between 22 and 30. ‘‘There are also patrols led by Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) or Non-commissioned Officers (NCOs) but the age profile of the Army is very young. The BSF performs similar tasks but the age profile is very different and much older,’’ officials say.

The ‘‘defect’’ with the older generation of officers at field level is that they lack initiative. The middle-level leadership on ground is weak and the age profile works against their active participation in patrols and exercises. Orders in operations cannot be given from the rear and the camaraderie that should develop during exercises and patrols fails to emerge due to their non-participation. With age, their response slackens and speed suffers.

But it is only when the existing lot of commanders begins to retire in 2002 that younger officers who have made it through direct entry will be promoted and take command. ‘‘This is not a problem of the BSF alone. The Central Police Organisations (CPOs) suffer from the same problem,’’ said an official.

The BSF now aims to post officers with a younger age profile to active areas of operation. The force is also undertaking an exercise in improving its interaction with the media. ‘‘We have realised that media is a force multiplier. The Army got its point across effectively during the Kargil conflict due to its effective interaction with the media. We hope to do the same now,’’ he said.

The BSF is to begin a course with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi where officers at two different levels — field commanders for interaction with journalists on ground and top commanders for interaction at the headquarter level — will attend a course with the Army on media relations.
‘‘The BSF approached us for the media interaction course and we have given them the go-ahead,’’ Colonel (retd) R.K. Dargan, Officer on Special Duty at the IIMC said.