Physical torture, inflicted on cadets under the pretext of “training”, has led to an alarming number of them dropping out of the premier National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Pune. Forty cadets, of the 127th course, out of the roughly 400 cadets that were admitted in the academy, chose not to complete their course and leave midway.
Officials suggest that this is the highest number of dropouts that the NDA has ever witnessed. As of 1 January 2014, the Indian Army is short of 8,455 officers.
The guardians of the cadets who were forced to take their wards out of the NDA midway, said that the strenuous physical exercise, amounting to physical torture, which was inflicted on the cadets under the pretext of training, was the reason why they pulled their children out of the academy. “I was aware that life in NDA would be physically demanding for my son, but what they do there is nothing but torture. Which training says that the cadet should be asked to run around for miles with another cadet on his shoulders? Or stomp on someone’s palms if he is not able to do 100 push-ups? Are these a part of the official training module, which has been designed by the Ministry of Defence?” asked the father of a former cadet, who is working in a public sector undertaking bank. He did not want to give his name.
A list of queries sent to the commandant and the public relations officer of the NDA remained unanswered. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence and the Minister of State for Defence too did not reply to the queries that were sent by this newspaper.
Some retiring and serving military personnel stated that “physical exercise” has always been a necessary ingredient in the training of cadets in military academies around the world. “What some civilians call torture, is nothing but a part of physical training in the NDA. The training is required so that in a war like condition the soldier is not found wanting,” said an Indian Navy officer of the rank of lieutenant colonel.
However, a former naval cadet, who left his training at the Indian Naval Academy (INA) midway because of ragging, and is now working as a judicial magistrate, said that ragging cannot be romanticised as a part of training. “Those who pass out from these institutions, after going through that ragging, try to romanticise it by saying that it made them tough. However, no form of ragging, amounting to physical torture, is justified under any pretext,” he said.
Interestingly, the 16th report of the Standing Committee on Defence tabled in August 2012, which dealt with the functioning of Sainik schools in the country, also focused on the “menace of ragging” in these schools that prepare students for the military service.
In 2009, an NDA cadet, Nitesh Guar, a resident of Bhopal, who died after participating in a cross country run, had earlier told his parents that he was being continuously ragged by his seniors.
This newspaper also came across at least two videos, posted on various video sharing sites, that showed cadets being beaten up by their senior cadets. The videos, that were shot “secretly”, did not mention the location or the time of the incidents.
