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By mere possession of these three qualities you can be an achiever in any field of life—

1 3

Determination Sense of Responsibility
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Practical, effective and efficient
intelligence

Crisis Management; System of a Nation
Security is one of the prime concerns of every state and society. No nation, state or society can
afford to ignore the possibility of threats from enemies; internal strives caused by disgruntled
elements, communal violence, breakdown of law and order, epidemics or natural calamities. The most
extreme form of emergencies come in the shape of aggression from an enemy, which could jeopardize
the very existence of the nation. Every country maintains a system of handling such emergencies.
Such emergencies can also be called as crisis. However it is not possible to predict the type, duration
and degree of crisis. So, a country has to remain prepared for emergencies of all types, from
simple to complex and from predictable to unpredictable! I will exemplify it as under—Maldives
did not have its own army. Maldives sought help when trespassers attacked. Our paraforces rescued
Maldives within hours, similarly the East Pakistan (Now known as Bangladesh) did not have its own
army. During aggression Pak army clutched the innocent civilians and subjected them to inhuman
torture and mass killings. Bangladesh cried for safety and shelter, for action at first instance we
deployed Muktivahini (Muktivahini was a deployment of the armed forces personnels in civilian
clothing) and later on army was pressed into the action. Consequently 93 thousand POWs (Prisoners
of war) surrendered and Bangladesh was rescued. We were blessed with a credit of being the first
country to recognise Bangladesh as a separate nation.
THE ENTIRE EXERCISE OF THE SYSTEM IS TO QUEST FOR A LEADER OF CRISIS.
Let us not forget that crisis-managing agencies are only ‘consumers’. They do not produce
anything to benefit the society. To avoid wastage of scarce resources of the nation; distribution of tools,
weapons, training and expertise has to be tightly regulated. Our country has got a multi-tier system of
crisis management. At the bottom the system lays the volunteer Home Guards followed by the Civil
Police, Armed Constabularies and Paramilitary Forces. Armed Forces stand at the apex. The level of
skill, effectiveness, endurance and firepower increases from lowest to the highest in the hierarchy. The
Armed Forces thus have such skills and tools in highest quality and magnitude. In the event of any
emergency or crisis, a lower organisation is pressed into service initially. If it fails, the task is handed
over to the next higher organisation till it is achieved. The unfinished mission is handed over to next
capable agency. Armed Forces are called to manage the crisis only if all lower agencies fail.
Remember, the Armed Forces cannot hand over their unfinished mission to any next agency.
Nation is doomed if the Armed Forces too fail. I will cite an example from the opening address given
by one of the senior officer of SSC (Services Selection Centre) Central Bhopal for 116 IMA course to
prove the testimony of the above statement.
“Gentlemen, you should remember that you are aspiring to join an organisation which has no
parallel in our country. If you go by the recent communal riots in Gujarat, you can reaffirm your faith in
this organisation. There, when the situation went out of control, the state police machinery and
thereafter the CRPF, RAF and other security forces raised their hands up. It was then that the army was
pressed into action and the job which could not be done by 20,000 police personnels was successfully
undertaken by 2,000 army men.”