SHOULD SERVICES REMAIN APOLITICAL.... BY Dr k Prabhakar Rao

SHOULd SERVICES REMAIN APOLITICAL. ? lord chetwode long ago stated that army should remain apolitical. It was British India at that time and he was ensuring that British power over India was secure and native Indians formed bulk of British I ndian army. he had vested interests. batch after batch from IMA passed out thoroughly brain washed by this slogan inscribed on Chetwode hall feeling proud. The aloofness from civilian crowds and places, regimentation dinner nights regularly endured that the gap between Services and civilians remained strictly.Army man Was made a desperate entity something like a Robot devoid of any inner soul. It went on for decades and finally the British yoke was thrown off in 1947. commander in chief who was also the army chief remained no 2 after governor G eneral. Where do services remain now? Nehru ensured that services were downgraded systematically. Nehru was damne scared of army and its chief Gen Thimmayya who enjoyed international reputation . Nehru gad no proper sleep as he was scared of army coup after differences developed between him and the General . Nehru played all types of tricks along with Krishna Menon the minister of defence to undermine the chief. the turmoil even resulted in resignation by Gen Thimmayya . the resignation as later was withdrawn by the General after detailed discussions with Nehru. but Nehru betrayed the General in parliament and it was unboming no doubt.He ensured that all services were commanded by the officers of same rank. it ensured that always three services had no individual superiority and could not Form any junta so that govt could be thrown off. Across the border, in Pakistan civil power was thrown aff with in few years by Ayub khan who threw out Iskandar mirza who was a former general? army rule went on for decades with Some interruption in between.It lost 1965 war under Ayub khan, 1971 war was lost under Yahya Khan with Bhutto emerging, then gen Zia ul haq came up hanged Bhutto and ruled for log till he died in air crash possibly an assassination. he unleashed never ending undeclared war in Kashmir that still goes on. Luckily in India civil power continues although Nehru was shit scared of general thimmayya the army chief before 1962 war. Thimmayya enjoyed international reputation with a DSO in WW II . Indira was scared of Gen Sam Manekshaw another WWII hero who changed the continent map by creating Bangladesh? Bangladesh too fell to army rule. point to note is that Muslim countries can not maintain democracy and they quickly fall to army rule . Turkey is an exception. Army and others services continued to be apolitical Inspite of aggression by civilian babus. Govt changed. emergency came and went away. two Pms Assassinated one afte the other. Services remained away Un concerned. after departure of Manekshaw , army chiefs were just yes masters. gen Sinha was the only a worthy outspoken General who was overlooked and General Vaidya was promoted.indira ensured removal of bhinderwale by an army operation against golden temple. she too paid for the action with her life. as days passed , status of army degraded further And further. field marshal Manekshaw was shown disrespect very soon and he whithered away along with Cariappa. The top brass of political leadership had no time to attend the last rites of the Field Marshall. these things really matter. only yes masters reached to the top and it is the order of the day. lot of water has flown since 1947. now there is a ceremonial Chief of Def staff who dances to the tune .there will be a rat race among the senior Lt Gen and full generals and equivalents. it is not necessary that an existing full general or equivalent will be made CDS. so there will be the biggest rat race there by downgrading the values in the system. This is always good for the civil administration as there will not be any unity among services and there will be plenty of moles in the system at higher levels with vested interests to pass information to the political bosses thereby undermining the services. However inner fire in services continues Many changes took place in services. Since 1947. Level of education increased. A soldier is no morea a novice and naive. the modern IT, Internet contributed to awareness among them and now they know what is happening outside the cocoon of services.They Discuss among themselves though not officially. To day it is not possible to isolate services from the civilian world so that Civilans can have their sway as they feel like and exploit services. attention reputation if services has been badly marred by the governments orders to army to lay carpets for Modis yoga day, to build bridge for ravishankars Tamasha at Delhi and to clean the shit and wastes from the mountainous areas left by civilians. To day the soldier asks questions in darbars although they are cowed down most of the times. But this will not go on eternally. the govt can not treat services as a mercenary troops and they are part of this country and one can not degrade them.If it is done they will be digging their own grave.The protest by veterans which is very severe was the result of discrimination for the last 68 yeras which as let loose purposefully by babus who are advisors to the political masters.With strike by the veterans politicalisation of services has commenced and it is a matter of time before uniformed troops become part of it. One can not keep them away for long. the way OROP has been handled and implemented by govt and later undermined the assurance speaks volumes .the services is a boiling cauldron and the bomb is ticking away. When the bomb explodes there will be an avalanche and the empire built by babus will be washed away without a trace. This can be prevented only by taking care of the services and not showing discrimination. Services is an organisation part of this country. It is not a mercenary set up to play around at will. Choice is with them.