The Army has always been a role model for the youth. Disciplined, apolitical, hardy and above all willing to sacrifice self for the country are a few qualities which over the years came to be identified with Army and its personnel, endearing them to every citizen.
The jawans have not lost a war. Yet, suddenly there are murmurs about corruption in the Army. The Adarsh Society scam has opened the cupboards and what tumbled out was an apparent deep nexus between some top Army officials and politicians who allegedly cornered flats for themselves or their relatives. And those who lost out were the war widows of personnel who sacrificed their lives on the heights of Kargil while driving out intruders from Indian soil.
The Army and its top brass were mostly apolitical till the 1980s. From among the Army chiefs prior to 1980, only Gen S M Srinagesh appears to have been dear to the political set-up, for he was appointed governor of Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Mysore (later Karnataka) between 1959 till 1965. But the major shake-up in the apolitical image came in the 1980s and has since stayed with the Army top brass.
Gen K V Krishna Rao, while addressing NDA cadets as Army chief at a time when the nation was witnessing tumultuous post-Janata Dal coalition times, had exhorted them to do their duty without being affected by politics. Immediately after retirement, he got affected and was duly appointed governor, a post which he held in many states from 1984 till 1990.
At present, there are four Army generals -- Gen J J Singh, Gen S F Rodrigues, Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh and Lt Gen M M Lakhera -- who are either governors or Lt-Governors. There is nothing wrong in Army generals getting appointed as governors purely on the basis of their knowledge of the Constitution and its working vis-a-vis a multi-party democracy. But given the politics that get attached to the appointment of governor as well as his working in a state, one wonders whether the generals had an active political mind which suddenly came to the fore immediately after their retirement.
The manner in which the Supreme Court described the role of governor in its famous Bommai judgment [1994 SCC (3) 1] leaves little doubt that it has to be a political appointment. After examining the way governors had behaved and testing it against the constitutional touchstone, it had said, "The key actor in the Centre-state relationship is the governor, a bridge between the Union and the States."
Given the politics played by the ruling party in the Centre against the states governed by Opposition, there has been little secret about the role governors played blatantly toeing the political line.
Many times people had started debating about the role of the Army top brass in many of the scandals that had haunted the armed forces. But most of these debates were brought to an abrupt end by bringing in patriotism. Those not in favour of opening the cupboards would invariably put forth the argument that questioning Army would invariably lower the morale of the jawans which would translate into a grave security threat to the nation. No more. For, the people have for the last quarter of a century seen the manner in which some of the Army brass have curried political favours.
And now the Adarsh Society scam has blown the lid off the nexus between the politicians and some of the top Army officials. There is no point in stopping this debate from reaching its logical conclusion. It had to happen some day. The shield of patriotism should not be used by black sheep to protect themselves from public scrutiny.
The apex court had in A R Antulay vs R S Nayak case aptly summarised this phenomenon, "If something that did not happen in the past is to be the sole reliable guide so as to deny any such thing happening in the future, then law would be rendered static and slowly wither away."
So, before anything withers away or even remotely affects the morale of the Army, the black sheep need to be quickly identified and their nexus with politicians exposed.
The jawans have not lost a war. Yet, suddenly there are murmurs about corruption in the Army. The Adarsh Society scam has opened the cupboards and what tumbled out was an apparent deep nexus between some top Army officials and politicians who allegedly cornered flats for themselves or their relatives. And those who lost out were the war widows of personnel who sacrificed their lives on the heights of Kargil while driving out intruders from Indian soil.
The Army and its top brass were mostly apolitical till the 1980s. From among the Army chiefs prior to 1980, only Gen S M Srinagesh appears to have been dear to the political set-up, for he was appointed governor of Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Mysore (later Karnataka) between 1959 till 1965. But the major shake-up in the apolitical image came in the 1980s and has since stayed with the Army top brass.
Gen K V Krishna Rao, while addressing NDA cadets as Army chief at a time when the nation was witnessing tumultuous post-Janata Dal coalition times, had exhorted them to do their duty without being affected by politics. Immediately after retirement, he got affected and was duly appointed governor, a post which he held in many states from 1984 till 1990.
At present, there are four Army generals -- Gen J J Singh, Gen S F Rodrigues, Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh and Lt Gen M M Lakhera -- who are either governors or Lt-Governors. There is nothing wrong in Army generals getting appointed as governors purely on the basis of their knowledge of the Constitution and its working vis-a-vis a multi-party democracy. But given the politics that get attached to the appointment of governor as well as his working in a state, one wonders whether the generals had an active political mind which suddenly came to the fore immediately after their retirement.
The manner in which the Supreme Court described the role of governor in its famous Bommai judgment [1994 SCC (3) 1] leaves little doubt that it has to be a political appointment. After examining the way governors had behaved and testing it against the constitutional touchstone, it had said, "The key actor in the Centre-state relationship is the governor, a bridge between the Union and the States."
Given the politics played by the ruling party in the Centre against the states governed by Opposition, there has been little secret about the role governors played blatantly toeing the political line.
Many times people had started debating about the role of the Army top brass in many of the scandals that had haunted the armed forces. But most of these debates were brought to an abrupt end by bringing in patriotism. Those not in favour of opening the cupboards would invariably put forth the argument that questioning Army would invariably lower the morale of the jawans which would translate into a grave security threat to the nation. No more. For, the people have for the last quarter of a century seen the manner in which some of the Army brass have curried political favours.
And now the Adarsh Society scam has blown the lid off the nexus between the politicians and some of the top Army officials. There is no point in stopping this debate from reaching its logical conclusion. It had to happen some day. The shield of patriotism should not be used by black sheep to protect themselves from public scrutiny.
The apex court had in A R Antulay vs R S Nayak case aptly summarised this phenomenon, "If something that did not happen in the past is to be the sole reliable guide so as to deny any such thing happening in the future, then law would be rendered static and slowly wither away."
So, before anything withers away or even remotely affects the morale of the Army, the black sheep need to be quickly identified and their nexus with politicians exposed.
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