Deja Vu

The two neighbors seldom have things going in tandem. I am talking about us and our neighbor country, Pakistan. However there has been some degree of similarity on both sides of the border lately.

The government on both the sides has lost its credibility. The elected government on both the sides, are at loggerhead with their army chiefs. The Supreme court of both the nations are rebuking respective government for its inability to curb corruption or in fact to facilitate corruption at high levels.

Pakistan is reeling under the fear of an army coup, as it has a number of times in the past and many a times the fear was not unfounded.

The Indian army has been disciplined ever. There have been skirmishes between army and the government in past but it is for the first time that a serving chief of army staff has taken government to the court. Earlier, Gen Thimayya, in 1961, was on loggerhead with the then Defence Minister and offered to resign due to differences between the two. Pt. Nehru prevailed and made the general continue. At that time, as is evident in retrospect, the general was correct but owing to the pressure of discipline, which is inculcated in defense personnel and a strong government in power, he acceded. Gen Rodrigues was put under fire by our politicians for his remark on China. Once again, I feel he was justified. What else would you expect form the chief of army?

An incident comes in to my mind. I had read somewhere about a highly ranked defense officer (dont remember the name) and Mrs Gandhi. There was a widespread grapevine that Indian Army may carry a coup.The officer had been to meet the PM.
After toiling with her paperweight for quite some time, Mrs Gandhi exclaimed "No, you can't do that".
"What?"
"You cannot topple my government" Mrs Gandhi expressed her concern.
"Ma'am, It's not that I cannot, but I would not." Said the officer calmly.

I don't know whether the story is true or not but it certainly expresses the essence of spirit of our Army. The General of the same Army is taking the present government to the court. Could not the government have anticipated such move when rejecting the claim of Gen Singh? But the way the government has been oblivious to all the situation in the past like arresting Anna, attacking Baba Ramdev, protecting the culprits of CWG and 2 G Scams, appointment of Mr Thomas as CVC, questioning CAG (and the list goes on...) The government has once more been successful in shooting on its own toes. At a time when the credibility of government is low and the institution of Army is one of the most regarded ones in the country, would not have been better for the government to be better planned and having taken better decision?

Like our neighbors, we know that our government is busy protecting the corrupts. However unlike our neighbors, we do not have fear of any coup. Because, unlike our neighbor,we know that our Army is not behind power. It would just be a matter of integrity and honor that the general is fighting and we know our Army for precisely these features. It is these traits of our Army which drove it to fight against better equipped Chinese with 303 rifles. It has been these traits which have led the regiments to capture peaks after peaks in Kargil in spite of being on the disadvantage w.r.t the position.

Remember 1962: The Prime Minister, Pt Nehru, gave a statement in Parliament that we did not have any fear of Chinese attack, so did Dr Singh recently. In 1961, the relationship between Indian Army chief and Indian government was low, so is the case now. However I hope 1962 does not get repeated.

I hope and I wish the better sense prevails.