In India, civil military relations have been strained in the recent past due to a couple of instances.
First, it was the date of birth controversy about the serving Chief of the Army. It involved a few missing documents and a legal tangle. Even as it was solved with all honours retained, other set of controversies seem to have emerged.
These new controversies perhaps have been blown out of proportion, probably because the DoB controversy was still fresh in mind. During this second phase of the controversy, corruption, under-performance and under-preparedness came into picture.
However, the icing on the cake was the whole supposed coup expose by the Indian Express. Figment of imagination, undoubtedly at its worst, was at play in creating a script that would crate yet another dud like Agent Vinod!
Has the media been mature on reportage and expose?
Its one thing for a letter to be leaked, but its completely different for the media to publish it without even giving it a second thought. there are a couple of reasons why that letter should not have come out and why it should not be blown out of proportion for what it says.
First, it was the date of birth controversy about the serving Chief of the Army. It involved a few missing documents and a legal tangle. Even as it was solved with all honours retained, other set of controversies seem to have emerged.
These new controversies perhaps have been blown out of proportion, probably because the DoB controversy was still fresh in mind. During this second phase of the controversy, corruption, under-performance and under-preparedness came into picture.
However, the icing on the cake was the whole supposed coup expose by the Indian Express. Figment of imagination, undoubtedly at its worst, was at play in creating a script that would crate yet another dud like Agent Vinod!
Has the media been mature on reportage and expose?
Its one thing for a letter to be leaked, but its completely different for the media to publish it without even giving it a second thought. there are a couple of reasons why that letter should not have come out and why it should not be blown out of proportion for what it says.
- As the highest officer in uniform, it is the duty of the Army Chief to tell the highest political authority about the country's defence preparedness.
- within that, his honesty of presenting a clearer picture must be appreciated; being at a fag end of his tenure as chief he could very well have done a good cover up. And it is not that difficult!
- At no point he discusses what the Army has. So no point on beating the chest over country's defence preparedness. I don't mean that all is well but its not as bad as it is being made out to be.
- Also, as an outgoing Chief he has to inform the government of the status of the forces, a stocktaking of sorts.
therefore one needs to be cautious in judging the letter controversy
the next question is who leaked that letter?
was it someone close to some arms seller who could benefit from a quick purchase of the items mentioned in the list as missing?
was it someone who wanted to show the Army Chief as ineffective, or the defence bureaucracy as incompetent and short-sighted?
is there an agent-vinod inside the defence establishment?
These are all million dollar questions of course and it must be ensured that the probe looks at all the angles. In addition, now that the issue is out there, a fair justice demands that results of the probe must be made public as soon as available.
Coming to the Express expose, it is undoubtedly a childish story; a kind of effort whereby one has attempted to join the dots and claiming to see the big picture, completely missing the detail meanwhile.
On a lighter note, an army officer informed that a serving general would prefer to enjoy his single malt in the evening and his golf on Sundays instead on having to deal with Mamta, Mulayam and the likes!
(opinions here strictly personal!)
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