Tej Bahadur Yadav had petitioned the High Court in January this year against his dismissal from the BSF.
Justifying Constable Tej Bahadur Yadav’s dismissal from the BSF last year, the Centre on Monday told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that a video he posted on the quality of food being served to security personnel “could have led to mutiny among the armed forces”.
Calling Yadav’s complaint “a cooked up story”, the government and BSF, in a written reply, said the video was an ill-conceived idea to “malign the image” of the force, and that his dismissal was only a minor punishment for the offences he had been convicted.
The High Court was told that the BSF discouraged additional tadka in daal to make it extra spicy and oily due to the rising cases of cardiac problems among troops, and that the “daal looked watery because it was made in a pressure cooker”.
Yadav had petitioned the High Court in January this year against his dismissal from the BSF. The reply from the government and BSF was taken on record on Monday. Yadav’s counsel, advocate S P Yadav, sought time to respond to the government affidavit. The matter will be heard next on February 27, 2019.
In its reply, the government said the daal shown in the video by Yadav “looked watery because it was made in a cooker and without stirring it, daal gets settled at bottom”. In the video, Yadav had said only paratha and tea were being served for breakfast, and he also complained about the quality of the moong daal at dinner.
“…In BSF mess, food is being prepared for number of persons and it is not practically possible to cook the food as per the choice and taste of each and everyone. Moreover, health of troops is also paramount consideration in the force as cardiac arrest problem has risen in the troops in recent times,” the affidavit stated.
The government said that when the administration base near the Line of Control in Poonch district switched over to advance winter stocking, leftover condiments like haldi, salt and others were used for four days in January 2017 as their fresh supply had not been received “due to snowfall”.
“…No sabji was prepared in breakfast as it was in short supply and the previous month’s fresh vegetables had exhausted,” the affidavit stated, adding that no one ever complained regarding the quantity or quality of food being served during breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The government said that absence of condiments for a few days do not make the food for the entire force bad or insufficient.
Stating that discipline is the bedrock of a force, the government said that some of the fundamental rights of forces personnel have been curtailed by the Constitution and Section 13 of the BSF Act imposes restrictions on the freedom of expression of force personnel. Yadav, the government said, instigated others to follow his footsteps to blame and defame BSF and the country.
“Petitioner (Yadav) provided this opportunity on a platter to Pakistan to use it as a tool of a propaganda machinery to further make adverse effects on the morale of the rank and file of Indian forces,” the affidavit stated, adding the NIA probe into Yadav’s Facebook account found many of his friends were from foreign countries, including 18-21 with connections to Pakistan.