"Im afraid you have got it a bit wrong. The goans in the Armed Forces did not need any parsi to assist in their promotions! I can assure you that those who reached higher ranks, did so on their own merits. Nothing to do with Parsis whatsoever. I cannot however vouch for the other central govt. services. regards, Gilbert Menezes"
Gilbert, I did not intend to detract from the obvious acheivements of our community in the Armed Forces and all things being equal and in an ideal world, they would have risen to senior and the top positions on their own merits. However, wherever we are - and the Indian Armed Forces is no exception - it is far from an ideal world. Promotions up to a certain officer rank are automatically based on seniority subject to a clean record of course, but after that when there are less positions than there are eligible personnel, it becomes a metaphorical free-for-all. The interested parties are a) the General Officers and their Air Force and Naval equivalents who are in favor of promoting officers who have directly served under them sometime during their career, on the principle of 'better the devil I know than the devil I don't', b) the 'know-it-all" bureaucracy who would like to appoint a "pliant officer" who would better understand their 'clever' motives and strategies c) the politicians in the defence ministry, the Prime Ministers Office and even the PM himself who have their own party considerations, not the least of which is community and caste and d) the Intelligence Apparatus who have bulky dossiers on all top officers, that they can manipulate according to the wishes of who at that point in time controls them. Sometimes thank God, specially in a situation when the country is in dire need, these various pressures can speak with one voice in favor of the officer with the most merit AND the least controversy (read: Parsi or Goan - the Anglo Indians have all settled in Australia) or thankfully at other times these various lobbies neutralize one another leaving the field open to the candidate with the same qualities mentioned earlier. The Pakistan Wars, the Khalistan Insurrection, the North East rebellions, The Emergency during Indira Gandhi and the formation of the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) for the Sri Lanka intevention, were situations like these. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
