Should National Service be made compulsory?

by **Z C** » Sat May 03, 2003 10:52 am

For those who don\'t know what it is, you serve the Armed Forces as soldiers (men only) for a year or two before you can start working. This can be from anytime after you are 17 or 18 yrs old, but necessarily before you start work. It is there in Switzerland, Taiwan, Singapore and Israel. Malaysia is planning it. There are many countries where if you are unemployed, you are automatically taken into the defence forces. Of course, India can\'t take in all men, but at least it can be made compulsory for those who want to work in public sector and govt services.

by **Arch** » Sat May 03, 2003 1:16 pm

Yes, it shud be made compulsory for the young boys and girls for 1) it teaches them discipline 2) teaches patriotism and in turn the value of freedom in ones own country 3)physical health 4) responsibilty twds their country wherein they wud get to understand that they shud not allow the politcians/beaurocrats to take ones country for granted by way of increasing corruption etc. Now, I wud prefer girls in the National service too. They can do a lot of stuff though may be not as much as the males, in terms of physical input, understandably. There are other aspects where the females can be of great use. I wud, though suggest that the women shud not be sent on to the field, for what we have seen w/ the female POW\'s of USA. Not worth.

by **greyarmadillo** » Sat May 03, 2003 3:14 pm

No... I am against mandatory military service! We don\'t need a Spartan state... we have more serious problems to attend to. However... young people should serve the nation, in some way, before they actually start working. For instance... our adminstration, and our economy are far from perfect. Perhaps, mandatory government service... should be enforced. It could well be a part of your education.... like the dotors,they have internships!

by **Z C** » Sat May 03, 2003 3:48 pm

Well, it\'s not possible to take everyone into the National Service, and that\'s why I said that for those who want a public sector or govt job, it should be compulsory to serve the defence first... It will bring discipline, especially for state govts, and probably corruption may come down.

by **Greyarmadillo** » Sat May 03, 2003 4:36 pm

ZC... if you feel joining the armed forces, would make people less corrupt, I am afraid you are grossly mistaken. The Indian Armed Forces is just as corrupt as everyone else in the country... heard of the Samba Spy Case!??

Military Training, makes a soldier out of a person... and soldiers cannot run a civilian society! Once you make military training mandatory, the next thing... we will have a military dictator, like our neighbours. Then ... U lose your precious freedom.

by **Raveendra** » Sat May 03, 2003 11:18 pm

Whether it is good to make it compulsory or not, definitely you can\'t make it compulsory in our \'democratic\' country. (Always there are forces to oppose whether it is right ot wrong).
But GOVERNMENT can take students (who ever is willing) for a period of one/two years by paying a reasonable amount (to make it attractive, something like unemployment allowance) and use their services for society.
But they shouldn’t be made permanent, otherwise it may not be effective.
After all we have lot of un employed youth wasting time in cinema viewing and spending time on discussing about all useless ‘imposed’ heroes.

by **bull** » Sun May 04, 2003 12:48 am

hmmm.. interesting topic, at least it will help us wear on national pride, self esteem, commitment to duty...I would like to ask this to any serving or rtd officers how they feel about this... my nephew (27 yrs)is a capt in the army, his father a colonel just got rtd. lets ask such guys.

by **Z C** » Sun May 04, 2003 12:39 pm

Greyarmadillo, are all the countries that I mentioned before ruled by dictators? Israel? Swiss? etc etc... I think this idea is better than Chandra Babu\'s Janma Bhoomi and Srama Dhanam!!

by **Greyarmadillo** » Sun May 04, 2003 7:47 pm

ZC... well i don\'t know of Chandra Babu Naidu\'s development programmes... so lets discuss them in another board... ok!
Now... the countries you mentioned... Israel, its perpetually in War, either with Palestine, or with its other neighbours. Now... if our country were in such a state, I would sign up for the Armed Forces... even before someone asks me to!
As for Taiwan... it has to do so... for China may annex it anytime... the only way to put up some fight is to enforce military service.
Now.. for Singapore... are you aware of the strict rules enforced on civilians in Singapore...?? If the government didn\'t make military service compulsory, it would be impossible to govern the populace with those rules!
As for Switzerland... U\'ll have to track back to WW2, and considering that... if you had a Nazi Germany as a your neighbour... and you better have all your citizens sign up for military service. Even later.... being the custodian of most of the World\'s Black Money, and being located right at the heart of the Cold War... military service is a must of Singapore!
Case Rested!!!!

by **Greyarmadillo** » Sun May 04, 2003 7:48 pm

oops... Correction to the last post... I meant Switzerland!

by **Z C** » Mon May 05, 2003 8:03 am

All those countries have external threats, we have internal threats: PWG, religious riots, corruption... Switzerland is the country with the highest per capita income, second comes Singapore -and abt Israel and Taiwan, both are well developed. What is the size of these countries? So small, yet they are able to be succesful, why? Disciplined govt servants!

by **ananth** » Mon May 05, 2003 9:33 am

I think it is better to utilize the unemployed men and women as man power and brain power resources. I believe that most of the unemployed youth are qualified to a certain extent. They do not have to be \"soldiers\" wielding guns in the battlefield.It is ridiculous to assume that soldiers are less corrupt than civilians. A lot of soldiers are zombies, brainwashed to follow orders without thinking.They are not in the ARMED FORCES because of patriotism but because it pays their tuition ( USA ) or entails many perks ( everywhere ).
Our men and women are better served as think tanks, as brains for the projects we need to do in our country. We do not need to search for work, it is all around us. Students are young and have energy. They can be employed in collecting data for surveys,census and research, rescue operations and maintenance operations in the country.
Our systems what are so overloaded due to disorganised functioning can experience \"some\" relief due to the added man power. It is crucial to show our appreciation to these youth and impress upon them the usefulness and importance of the work that they are doing. The word I am looking for is... \" recogniton\". If we recognise the work of these individuals, I dont see a problem in rounding up many such unemployed youth. Just my opinion.Any comments/suggestions welcome.

by **Z C** » Mon May 05, 2003 4:47 pm

Dear Ananth, i thought the discussion was abt sending govt servants to National Service to bring some discipline into the sector. i am surprised by ur statement, people become soldiers for perks !! what makes u feel that they ready to die to save u and me from external threats because they get some perks !! sending men to service is abt inculcating discipline.

by **Sankar** » Mon May 05, 2003 6:48 pm

Mr. ZC, nothing comes free. It\'s true in the case of Nation also, to be frank. In the countries you mentioned (Switzerland, Taiwan, Singapore and Israel) I don\'t think that people are joining and serving for nothing in turn.
Today even if you pay Rs. 500/- per month as stipend, there will be a big line to join happily for the National Service in any place in India.

by D » Mon May 05, 2003 7:00 pm

i agree with u ZC but it also means patriotism, I guess.

by **Z C** » Mon May 05, 2003 7:28 pm

Mr. Sankar, I haven\'t said that they go for free - of course there will be an allowance. For your statement \"there will a queue...\" we are not looking for people coz there\'s a shortage. I believe that there will be a queue to join defence from every place in India, coz I have seen selection processes where candidates appear in thousands and many go home disappointed. The idea is to send those shortlisted candidates for govt jobs to the defence or take only those who have a defence background, like Short Service Commission, the main reasons being: 1) to bring discipline in the sector 2) to offer govt jobs to those who are genuinely interested in serving the country and fellow citizens. (Both are same coz, \"desa mante matti kadoi, desa mante manushu loi\"). I strongly believe that only those who can fight for the country can help the country BETTER. Especially, I think advocates and police should be sent first.

by **Greyarmadillo** » Mon May 05, 2003 8:02 pm

Has it ever occured to you that its the large size of our nation, and its population that is in fact the most significant hindrance to our development!!!

by **Greyarmadillo** » Mon May 05, 2003 8:04 pm

I agree with you absolutely... Community Service should be made an integral part of higher education in the country!

by KK » Tue May 06, 2003 2:28 am

We can think of an idea of introducing joining NCC and other groups from the age of 12 till the end of the education. Either graduate or PG. As a activity with grade and marks. So it gives every student or person to chose whether to go for armed forces or not and it may help induce Patriotism and social service into them. And at the same time they will come in contact with most important facts of society and how to face them. I think this step will be better than teaching Chemistry for a BE computer sc student in first year.

by **Z C** » Tue May 06, 2003 10:33 am

Everyone blames population. It will take us a few decades to bring it down - should we wait until then? We have to find a different solution.

by **ananth** » Wed May 07, 2003 5:22 am

I did not until I met some. Trust me... the world is a strange place!

by **Arch** » Wed May 07, 2003 11:57 pm

ananth, everybody requires money for that is what gives us oppurtuntiy to take care of our minimum req. what with such severe infaltion ! Just because a soldier is in the army does not mean that he has to forego his right to feel the need to earn money too, ananth. afterall, he\'s putting his life at stake and earning it, it sure is a way lot more worth.

by **Z C** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:55 pm

read this, BJP feels the same way as I/We do. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/01041616.htm

by **peeping tom** » Sun Jun 08, 2003 12:39 pm

In India the unemploymet is so high, ( countless ), that Army wont be able to give proper training to this much amount of guys.

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