Military veterans say the defence spokesperson was mirroring the approach of the civilian bureaucracy towards the armed forces.

New Delhi: The spokesperson for the defence ministry has exposed a rift between the armed forces and the bureaucracy over privileges and ornaments of service and sparked a furore among some former military officers with her comments on Twitter.

Swaranashree Rao Rajashekar, an officer from the Defence Accounts Service cadre who was appointed by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman as the Additional Director General (Media and Communications), is the principal spokesperson for the ministry.

On Friday morning, she tweeted to former Navy chief and Admiral Arun Prakash (retired): “What about misuse of jawans in your residence during an officer’s tenure sir? And how about children being picked up and dropped to school in Fauji (military) gaadis (vehicles)? Not to forget Madam’s shopping expedition on government vehicles. And endless parties…who pays for that?”

The defence spokesperson said that the response to Prakash was tweeted “inadvertently”. She deleted the tweet.

The response was to a retweet by Prakash of a photograph that showed the Internal Financial Advisor appointed to the Western Command of the Army (Chandimandir) that flashed a flag on the bonnet of an official car. Civilian officers are not entitled to the privilege that belongs to military rank flag officers (Major-General and above).

But even before the defence spokesperson could delete her tweet, the response to Prakash, a war hero and naval aviator, had ignited a firestorm with military veterans alleging that the defence spokesperson was mirroring the approach of the civilian bureaucracy towards the armed forces.

The spokesperson for Army headquarters said the Internal Financial Advisor in Chandigarh was “authorized” by the Western Army Commander.