SHOULD SERVICES REMAIN APOLITICAL?

SHOULD  SERVICES REMAIN APOLITICAL? 

COL DR K PRABHAKAR RAO VETERAN

 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 Indian 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 legacy continues even today. The aloofness from civilian crowds and places, regimentation dinner nights regularly ensured 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 with a blank upper story that can not think anything except army matters and  saying yes sir  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? we have to run a km to find the position of service chief  in a long cueue. Nehru ensured that services were downgraded  and degraded systematically.  Nehru was damne scared of army and its chief Gen Thimmayya who enjoyed international reputation . Nehru had 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 the resignation was later withdrawn by the General  after detailed discussions with Nehru. but Nehru betrayed the  General in parliament  and it was unboming of him 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 and politicians will be washed away as avalanche without a trace. This can be prevented only by taking care of the services and not showing discrimination and discriminating them as untouchables. Services is an organisation part of this country. It is not a mercenary set up to play around at will. Choice is with them.