The newspapers and news channels are now-a-days full of eyeball grabbing headlines which will be forgotten tomorrow. But for a man who has any affection for the armed forces, recent times have been quite traumatic.
First the so-called Sukhna Land Scam which shall be remembered not for what happens to the four accused but for the explanations and defence offered by a large number of veterans who retired as generals. All of them proffered the defence of the accused on three main grounds.
• That there has been no pecuniary advantage to the accused or loss to the state.
• That no land has changed hands.
• That rest of the society is also corrupt, and
• That the government must not question the decisions of `High ranking military officers’ because it demoralises them (corruption in their ranks apparently does not)
Now let us analyse the happenings of a typical day in light of these comments. 08 February 2010 was no different from the other days in the India of Twenty-first century.
First News item: Dainik Jagran a Hindi daily reported that the Haryana Police Rewari have caught a gang of five robbers, including three serving soldiers who have allegedly committed 11 crimes of killings and robberies between July 2007 and December 2009.
Second news item in the same newspaper reported that a Captain of the army and the local Railway Protection Force Ambala Cantonment Railway Station were involved in an altercation because the policeman objected to the officer pushing his own motorcycle from the train to the Railway Parcel Office. Police objection was based on the rule that only railway employees are permitted to handle booked baggage while shifting it from the parcel van to parcel office. Apparently the officer was doing somebody else’s job because he did not want to be kept hanging on the station to reclaim his vehicle. The altercation resulted in the officer being made to cool his heels for some time at the Police Post.
Third news item was also in the same daily where-in it was reported that a soldier travelling by Tinsukia Express fought with a railway employee who was attempting to steal the soldier’s belonging and the soldier was in turn booked by railway authorities for travelling on a ticket bought in someone else’s name (that this is common amongst those who buy tickets from railway agents is immeterial)
Fourth news was reported by the Indian Express Chandigarh Edition on page 8, about incarceration of seven army-men who had stopped and roughed up a policeman who was speeding away after hitting and injuring two motorcyclists near Bharatpur in Rajasthan. The local police claimed that actually they had caught and detained the culprit while the policeman in question was merely driving the impounded vehicle to the police station. Imagine the Bharatpur police in such a short time was able to nab the culprit, make a sketch/ photograph of the incident (a mandatory requirement for the investigating officer to fulfil) and move a vehicle involved in an accident. So next time you find yourself stranded on highway while the police blocks the traffic to complete the formalities after the accident just walk up to them and tell them about Bharatpur police.
Fifth news was about some 400 army-men getting trapped under avalanche at Gulmarg. This number itself pointed towards a huge tragedy in maing, but all three major English channels put this important news at number two or three. The one used the incident to cosy up to the Chief Minister and other officials of the state administration (who really had no role in the rescue). The other covered it in a perfunctory manner. Only one news channel covered it in a profession manner – yes you guessed it – the BBC (sad but true)!
My take on these insignificant news items is exactly that; many of my good friends in the army and out of it will say these are nothing but daily dose of minor aberrations which we all face in India. But, I beg to differ. These are symptoms of all that is wrong with the system.
• The first incident shows that serving soldiers believe that in the India of today crime pays.
• Second, third and fourth incidents prove that they are not too far of the mark. In first instance an officer has paid the railway to move his motorcycle by luggage van attached to a passenger train. But despite having paid for the service he must have pushed the vehicle at Devlali to put it in the luggage van of the train and at Ambala was pushing it from the luggage van to parcel office with the sole aim of quickly getting his vehicle released. If he was to wait for the railway employee, his motorcycle would have taken considerably more time to arrive. So he was a victim. But look how the system is turned on its head. The victim is detained and no questions are asked from the railway about the quality fo service. Same is the case with second instance where-in the soldier is slapped with a hefty fine for resisting theft of his articles. But most sad is the third instance where-in the seven soldiers are taught a lesson by the police for being good Samaritans. No wonder people do not stop to help accident victims.
However I also want to ask the army authorities (who are very busy taking care of bigger issues).
• Give more time to junior officers to be with their troops. So that they can identify latent qualities or aberrations in the psychological make up of their soldiers.
• Be less demanding in your administrative and ceremonial wishes. Let us for a moment stop making up for the loss of warrant of precedence by amassing more and more soldiers for menial works.
• Constitute multi-disciplinary and empowered teams of mature officers, including legally qualified ones who will undertake deliberate investigations into each incident of civil-military strife and take up follow up action; even legal action if required.
• Insist that self-respect of the soldiers is not compromised for administrative convenience and self-created emergencies.
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