The army chief antagonized his political masters by taking them
head on in the age controversy, which left him with egg on his face. Unlike
most of his predecessors, he is beyond currying favours from the Govt for lucrative post
retirement avenues.
Was it out of vengeance or spite, that the Chief wrote to the PM
exposing glaring deficiencies in India’s defence preparedness. Or was it because
it is his duty to do so. If the latter
were true, it is probably a bit late for such an action, now that just a couple
of months remain for him to hang his uniform. The former on the other hand
might well be the case. The upshot in any event is that, chinks in India’s
armour now stand exposed. As they ought to be in a mature domocracy. The
downside however, is that these chinks stand exposed to our not so friendly
neighbours as well.
Without taking any precipitate action against the army chief as
suggested in some quarters or trying to connect the core issue of the nations'
defence preparedness as brought out by the chief with his age row, the MOD
should make a quick reality check and take necessary corrective measures with
total transparency in rejuvenating the defence forces leaving no scope for anyone
to play with national secuity and territorial integrity of the nation. At
least, till a week ago the common man had
a sense of security that India was safe in the hands of our defence forces.
Going by the startling revelations, that faith now stands considerably eroded.
There should be no room for politicking and the whole nation should stand as
one, to restore the health of India's defence establishment in all its wings,
as a national task of urgent priority. Let not there be a repeat of 1962, when
the then PM did not pay heed to the advise of service Chiefs due to a misplaced
complacency that the Chinese would never attack India.
“The safety, honour and welfare of the
country comes first, always and every time”
