Army Chief trying to please his political masters
By Arun Srivastava
The observation of the Army chief, General Bipin Rawat on the nature of the students’ protests against the new citizenship law and the quality of leadership at a public event in Delhi is not only bizzare, or inappropriate, nor amounts to overstepping the Laxman Rekha, instead it is a direct attack on the institution of Indian Republic and Constitution of India. What is most deplorable has been silence of the prime minister and the defence minister not censuring him on this issue. As the serving chief he should have refrained from trespassing the sacred domain.
This is not for the first time that students have resorted to protest. India’s political history is full of such movements. Usually some amount of violence always took place. It was the political business of the civilian government, the party in power at that time to take action against the protesters. But at no stage any military general came out condemning those movements. Rawat is a known sycophant of Narendra Modi and it is not a secret but this time he could not hide his flattery only for the sake of securing his position of future CDS of India. A retired naval officer rightly observed that he did not know of any Indian army chief issuing such political statements in the past. “This happens in the Pakistan army. It seems we now have Pakistan as our role model. The country is on the path to becoming a Hindu Pakistan through the enactment of discriminatory laws.”
One ought not nurse the view that his statement is the manifestation of degeneration of the political institution of the country and officer in uniform has brazenly breached the limits of his institutional role, instead it unravels the design of the Modi government to lunch an onslaught on his opponents and the protesters behind the façade of its being undemocratic. Rawat throwing his weight behind Modi-Amit Shah would exonerate them and portray the impression of a government acting in the interest of India’s constitutional democracy. His criticism of the protests, his public criticism of protesters that they are “leading masses and crowds to carry out arson and violence in cities and towns”, and his decree “this is not leadership”, are no doubt improper but more than that these would act as moral booster for the Modi government to portray the agitation and agitators as an act of crime and criminals.
The UP government and the saffron brigade are hell-bent on giving a criminal identity to the movement. They are brazenly following the path of repression. They are unwilling to listen to any sane advice or argument. A question should be asked why 21 people were killed in UP in the protest? The only reply is they do not have any respect for democracy and constitution. The government instead of ustilising its intelligence resources to identity the crininals who tried to hijack the agitation has painted the leadership and movement as wrong doers.
By one single stroke Army chief tried to paint an unpatriotic image of the protesters. His compulsion could be understood from the simple fact that he undertook this task even at the cost of violating the spirit of the Constitution. Somebody should tell Rawat about the damage he has inflicted to the highest military office and to the nation.
Before opening his mouth he ought to have realised that he has no authority to judge the direction of the agitation. Does he feel that he is the person in India to pass verdict on the abilities and competence of the students all the universities and colleges in India? Someone on his behalf said this was not a political statement. If it is not then could else be? The CPI(M) leader was right in demanding that the general apologise for his “indiscretion” which had “adverse ramifications for the constitutional arrangement inbthe country”.
How unbecoming it was; a serving Army chief publicly trying to please political masters of the day on an extremely sensitive public issue by criticising opposition leaders. Yechury said that the Indian armed forces are “going the Pakistan way of politicising the military” and said that the Army chief ’s comments were an “obnoxious interference in matters of democratic struggles. Former BJP member Yashwant Sinha also took exception to Rawat’s utterances. “…Army Chief Bipin Rawat wading into the current political controversy is a new low. Must be nipped in the bud” .
Gen Rawat said “the leadership is conveyed through personal example. That is what we in the armed forces are proud of”. His observation is quite confusing as well intriguing. By mentioning armed forces, was he trying to compare the political leadership with the leadership of armed forces. This is really ominous. In this backdrop the remarks of the former Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas (retd) ought to be mentioned. He said; Gen Rawat’s remarks were clearly “wrong”.
A statement issued by the Army says; “”He has not referred to any political event, personality. He was addressing the future citizens of India who are students. (It is his) righteous duty to guide students on whom shall depend the future of the nation. In Kashmir valley, youths were misguided the first, by people whom they trusted as leaders”. Nice. The clarification admits that he was addressing to the future citizens of the country. He was not addressing the political leaders. But his statements send some other message. When he says ;””A leader is one person who leads you in the correct direction. Gives you the right advice and then ensures that you care for the people you live,” it gives the impression that they were acting at the behest of some leader. Is not it. It is worth mentioning that Modi-Shah have been blaming the Congress leadership for the present situation. Does not it appear that Rawat was simply repeating their accusations? (IPA Service)