When Army plays politics
-I
Sir,
In keeping with
democratic conventions the world over, armed
forces remain subservient to democratically
elected governments. India is no exception to
this tradition. Wherever this convention has been
infringed, power hungry generals stifle
democracies and dictatorships have perpetuated.
It is not to suggest that political class is
infallible. They too commit blunders but then
there are inherent cheeks in democratic polity
-to prevent misuse unless people themselves are
politically naive. Even for worst political
situations generals. have no better alternatives
to offer. There is no denying the fact that our
own political masters have blundered in matters
paramount to our national interest but that is no
excuse for armed forces to dabble in politics for
soldiering and politicking are entirely different
ball games.
Of late, Army top
brass is making attempts to meddle in politics
only to burn their fingers in the bargain. Very
recently the present Army Chief publicly
advocated political solution to the problem of
terrorism in J&K. Such suggestions usually
befit a politician but not a general, especially
whose own men are thick of combat with those very
terrorists with whom he advocates policy of give
and take. Going a step further, he publicly not
only endorsed the political decision to, declare
ceasefire but, disregarding ground realities, was
also the staunchest advocates of its extension.
It is history now that the ceasefire turned out
to be a miserable failure both at the political
as well as at military plane. While the
politicians wriggled out of the adverse situation
with deft manoeuvering, an art they have
mastered, General was left to cool his heels
alone. In fact we tame surrendered the advantage
we had gained over the insurgents just prior to
cessation. of combat against them. It is no
secret that after ceasefire there has’ been
a qualitative and quantitative upsurge in
insurgency in the State. In. retrospect ceasefire
was a bad military decision prompted more by
political expediency than any military logic.
Recently, Army
again tinkered with a sensitive political issue.
It organized a seminar in Jammu University, on
30th and 31st October 2001, where the
participants were called upon to find solution to
the J&K problem beyond the confines of
diplomatic semantics. Incidentally,General Parvez
Musharraf used similar expression while seeking a
solution to the vexed Kashmir problem. One hopes
this similarity was purely coincidental and
nothing beyond. For the discerning, only options
beyond India’s stated position on Kashmir,
or for that matter diplomatic semantics, are
either secession/independence or greater
autonomy. Since state Autonomy Commission’s
report has already been rejected by the Central
Government, one wonders if the other option was
open to debate. How one wishes that the Army top
brass concentrated more on the military problem
they are contending than poking into domains
beyond their stated briefs. It should be a matter
of concern that such exercises send signals
either of paucity of ideas to fight the
terrorists or of battle fatigue.
Expressing
satisfaction that insurgency had not yet fully
firmed in areas south of Kashmir valley or urging
people to rise in self defence, that too by a
general still in command, does no good to either
military morale or the civilian confidence.
Equally dangerous is the trend of serving
military generals sharing stage with so called
intellectuals whose ideographs are amply
enunciated, day in and day out, as proponents for
dilution of territorial integrity of our country.
India has one of the finest armies in the world
which is led by the best junior leaders. Let none
spoil it by petty politicking for narrow personal
gains.
Yours etc...
Yoginder Kandhari,
Jammu.
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