Army Chief General Bipin Rawat saying ‘I wish these people, instead of throwing stones at us, were firing weapons at us. Then I would have been happy. Then I could do what I (want to do)” the message goes out that army wants youth to pick up gun and fight the government forces with weapons and not pelt stones in anger. Such an irresponsible statement by highly responsible public functionary like army chief speaks volumes about the mishandling of situation in Kashmir both by the government and as well as forces fighting militants and stone pelting crowds in Kashmir. After all fact remains that General Bipin Rawat is not the first army chief who faces criticism over the allegations of disproportionate use of force in counter militancy operations and combating rock hurling crowds but the predecessors of General Rawat have also faced lot of criticism over the disproportionate use of forces in handling similar situations in Kashmir. General Rawat must not forget that intervention of the army in the campuses of educational institutions at the instance of the political leadership of the state or the centre is questionable and if at all the use of force becomes a compulsion for the government the police and paramilitaries but not the army have to intervene on the request of the civilian administration. Saying that it is his duty to lift the morale of the forces in Jammu & Kashmir and he did his duty by awarding commendation to Major Leetul Gogoi is a remark which owes a lot of explanations from the army chief. True it is that army chief is duty bound to lift the morale of the forces in Jammu & Kashmir but only in a situation when forces conduct anti-militancy operations or face shelling from across the border on the line of control (LoC) but not in poll related situations. Fearing violence from the stone pelting crowds Major Leetual Gogoi tied a man to the bonnet of a jeep for the fault of casting his vote on a day when lowest ever 7% record turnout was recorded in Srinagar parliamentary constituency. Question can be asked that has Major Leetul Gogoi’s created fear among the voters or boosted the morale of army by tying a voter to the bonnet of a jeep on an election day.
Protecting the constitutional rights of the people on an election day is far more greater responsibility than lifting the morale of soldier for any army chief in any part of the world.
By all standards of understandabilities the tying of a voter to the bonnet of a jeep by Major Leetul Gogoi was an insult to democracy and disrespect to the constitutional rights of the people. Before making objectionable remarks on situations in Kashmir the army chief being a higly responsible public functionary is duty bound to take care of the constitutional rights of the voters on an election day before doing his duty of lifting the morale of his men doing poll duty in a conflict zone like Kashmir. After all protecting the constitutional rights of the people on an election day is far more greater responsibility than lifting the morale of soldier for any army chief in any part of the world.
