Officer-men face-off in Army, soldier refuse 'menial jobs'

In yet another incident of face- off between Army officers and men, ten soldiers refused to carry out alleged 'menial jobs' ordered by their superiors in Patiala in Punjab and returned to their regimental centre in protest.

The incident occurred last week when soldiers belonging to the 56 Armoured Regiment returned to Armoured Regimental Centre in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra protesting against alleged 'menial jobs' assigned to them by the officers of the unit.

Taking a serious view of the incident, the Army is now planning to take strict disciplinary action in the case and a Court of Inquiry (CoI) has been ordered, Army sources said here.
The CoI will take a holistic view of the whole episode and ascertain the reasons which led to the situation, they said.

Fearing strict action, the sources said the ten soldiers are "apologetic" about their conduct.

The Army sources said the jawans were not ordered to carry out any 'menial job'.
The soldiers, who are clerks, refused to carry out their military duty of cleaning rifles and weapons and when the commanding officer (CO) asked them to perform Battlefield Physical Efficiency Tests (BPET) as form of a punishment, they protested and left for their regimental centre, they said.

This is the fourth such incident in the Army in last one year during which jawans have protested against their officers and three of them have taken place in tank regiments.
The last such incident took place in Samba in Jammu and Kashmir at the 16 Cavalry Unit where jawans and officers were engaged in a stand-off after the suicide of a jawan.

Prior to that, several officers and jawans including the CO of the regiment in Nyoma were injured after a fight between them.

Another incident took place at 45 Cavalry Unit in Gurdaspur in Punjab where officers and jawans clashed with each other after a training session.

CoIs in all these incidents have been ordered but they are yet to be completed.