During the India Today Conclave 2013 held on 15-16 March at New Delhi, General Bikram Singh, Chief of Army Staff faced a volley of four questions from a Pakistani journalist. He responded to the targeted questions in a firm militarized manner and with diplomacy shoved under the carpet. For all of you, who missed it, here is the link .
Indeed, we are a great Nation of democracy which propagates and permits freedom of speech, as the General said, but unfortunately soldiers have theirs impeached with numerous restrictions. So much so, that it’s a laboriousness and tedious procedure to even appear for a TV game show, and one can absolutely forget about giving a media bite.
So, if we see a Chief of Army coming out in open and taking questions from a journalist of a not so friendly neighborhood in a National Forum, then it seems, either he is claustrophobic about the whole anti-military sentiment in the Government (after Gen's age controversy and ASFPA), or is looking for a Governorship after retirement. It was evident from his demeanors and tone that he wanted to clear the air between the bureaucracy and military divide. More than once, he sounded bowed in respect, expressing his assertions for the decisions of Political administrators. Nevertheless, it was indeed a matter of pride for all of us to see a Chief of Army, with clarity of thought and ‘Hazir Jawabi’.
Recently there has been a paradigm shift in this ideology of the Politico-Military establishments and the stance of Generals in particular about the issue. Today they believe in being optimally outspoken and heard, and hence, probably for the first time yours truly could see him at a Grand Conclave like this. Alas, a welcome change from the Constipated Mouth Sealed General-ism, which is still quiet prevalent. A trend which could be patented by the previous Chief General VK Singh.
Hearing about the aspirations of Army on Times Now or NDTV, from retired officers always casts a different shadow. Everyone respects there guidance but the military scenario and threat perspective changes every hour at Company and Platoon level. Big words like Strategy, CBM and Rules of Engagement, loose there relevance for a soldier on LC. Restraint and Resentment to truth with Pakistan can never be the tools of junior leaders, but still they maintain equilibrium between moral ascendancy at the local platform viz-a-viz the National Foreign Policy. If thrust with any further intellect of ‘South Block Board Room Conference’ jargon, they won't be able to fight the next war. It is not that the young soldiers do not understand the benefits of a quiet border, and demand an escalation in already eve burning LoC. But a calibrated response to the beheading is needed. If I still know my Fauji brothers, who have never let us down, then there will be a beheading, but of the other side at an appropriate time and place of our choosing.
Certain things which must be hurting a soldier, in this 1.13 million Army, have been branded a fancy name "Foreign Policy and External Affairs". If you have a Jawan beheaded, the External Affairs befitting action is not to play cricket with Pakistan. I mean it could be the joke of the year on ‘Comedy Circus’. We all know that there is no political will to fire a missile, but at least we should not stoop to our boots. Conflict resolution is not one sided tennis match, with no return from the other end of the court.
Coming to the aspect of China centric threat matrix. The General comfortably and diplomatically weaned the question, probably to avoid controversy and hysteria. However, there are bigger things at stake - the success story of BRICS, Regional Asian Trade market and importantly the Indian Ocean dynamics. So is China, a real military threat? In a realistic assessment of their demand over parts of Arunachal, there also lies an underlining economic bargain, which I am sure the Chief could not have highlighted. If there exist a threat with China, then it’s because of our dubious and cloaked policy on Tibet, for which we do not have any concrete plan of action. I am surprised why no one asked that. There are some more questions which no asked and needs to be answered.
- The rising corruption and the unusual celebrated cases of Military have become the talk of a common man. What are concrete steps being taken at grass root level to clip them?
- Why is there a growing discontentment among the young officers? Are these individual aspirations who cannot tolerate the hardships of Military discipline, or the continuous separation from the family because of extensive involvement in IS duties, or is it the destitute pay scales of soldiers?
- The growing distance between the officers fraternity and jawans have led to numerous standoffs in the recent past. But there is also another analogy which is emerging as the prime cause for all the unwanted and questionable incidents – the unrealistic sycophancies and arrogations of the high ranking officers. What is wider, the gap of realities between a young junior officer and a jawan, or between a young junior officer and a high ranking officer?
- Leadership is an important facet of Military. But slowly the leaders of are Army are becoming mear managers and the managers from the corporate world are proclaiming themselves to be leaders of the modern world. Is it true?
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