Army plans code of conduct for retired officers, draws flak

NEW DELHI: The Army headquarters is formulating a code of conduct for retired officers, who have often been extremely critical of the serving top brass for policies ranging from taxing disability pensions of soldiers and opening cantonment roads for civilian traffic to enforcing a price cap on cars being bought from subsidised CSD canteens.

The Army’s plan — made public by its outgoing adjutant general Lt-General Ashwani Kumar, who retired last Thursday — is to get all serving officers to sign an undertaking to adhere to the code of conduct or ethics after retirement. The force believes some veterans have taken to social media platforms to “needlessly and irresponsibly attack” policies being implemented by it.

“But the code is still at the discussion stage...there is nothing final yet. Moreover, the Navy and IAF will also have to be consulted too,” said a senior officer. The views of veterans are also likely to be taken once the code of conduct is finalised, he added. But the veterans are already fuming over the move. “The time has probably come for the veterans to draft a code of conduct for the generals in service,” said a retired Army officer. Brigadier V Mahalingam (retd) tweeted that if the Army was drafting the code, the move was “totally idiotic…”


Major General S S Chohan (retd) tweeted: “Would they say please surrender your rank on retirement if you do not sign the proposed code? Most would do it for the freedom we all look forward to after decades.” “They need to understand that Constitution of India is our real code of conduct,” he added. An “open letter” on social media said the code of conduct showed how “touchy” the Army HQ is about “justifiable criticism” about the policies the force is adopting.