The Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has spoken, once again, on matters that he ideally should not be heard speaking about. At a seminar on the North-East at the DRDO Bhawan this week, the General talked about the “faster” growth of Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AUDF) in Assam. “There is a party called AIUDF. If you look at it, they have grown in a faster time-frame than the Jan Sangh grew over the years,” General Rawat is believed to have said.
He is also reported to have said that the influx of Muslim migrants in the North East is part of a “proxy game” being played by “our western neighbour (Pakistan)” with support from across the “northern border (China)” to keep the area disturbed. What’s worse, he has apparently said that Bangladesh is following a policy of lebensraum – a Nazi term for creating living space. Such an odious reference was surely uncalled for.
The Army has since asserted that there is nothing “political or religious” in the comments and that General Rawat was only mentioning “amalgamation and development” in the seminar. Perhaps it is a sign of fractious times we live in that selective comments in closed-door discussions are peddled in the public domain without contextualisation or reference. Thoughtfulness and due diligence are often a casualty in the frantic, 24/7 rush for breaking news and higher TRPs.
But Rawat should have been conscious of this reality. He has courted controversy in the past. The kindest term for his comparison of stone-pelters with jihadis in Kashmir is ‘intemperate’. How does it help the Army, operating under very difficult circumstances in civilian areas in Kashmir and the North East, to be identified with a strident view that alienates the local population?
In no democracy should a General be seen to be publicly voicing his political views, more so if appear to be controversial or partisan.
Poornima Joshi Associate Editor