Of Matters Military
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Of Matters Military

Living the Olive Green

Mrinal Suman

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eBook - ePub

Of Matters Military

Living the Olive Green

Mrinal Suman

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About This Book

Regular introspection is the key to the continued good health of an organisation. Complacency breeds degeneration. Hence, issues that affect the wellbeing of the forces must be debated objectively to evolve timely corrective measures.The military is a social organisation, consisting of living human beings who yearn for empathy, love and respect of their countrymen. When mistreated, soldiers wonder if the nation understands their trials and tribulations. The organisational structure of the Indian army is like a steep pyramid. Supersession is inevitable and hits hard. On analysing this sensitive issue, the book recommends that the officers who are superseded must be handled with due compassion.The tower of the Indian army is built on the twin pillars of committed leadership and motivated soldiers. Both are intrinsically linked and are mutually contingent. The book highlights the need to diligently follow well-evolved norms for the continued sustenance of the army. Finally, whereas the welfare of ex-servicemen is the hallmark of all great nations, it is equally important for the veterans to help in nation-building programmes.

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Year
2021
ISBN
9789390439867
Part - 1
Soldiers are also Human
Army Families and the Trauma of Midnight Knock
In an article written two days before the swearing-in of Barack Obama, his wife Michelle devoted 515 out of 863 words to the soldiers and their families: “So as I watch Barack take that oath, I’ll be thinking especially about those members of our American family who stand guard across the world and the loved ones who await their safe return.
. My husband and I are deeply grateful for the sacrifices that these families make to protect all American families. And we join them – today and every day – in praying for their loved ones and their safety.”
It is very rare to come across such an expression of compassion and sensitivity for the soldiers’ families. Whereas soldiers are always eulogized for their acts of bravery, their women remain unsung and unrecognized. Very few realize that their suffering is no less severe than the hardships faced by the soldiers in war.
Undoubtedly, soldiers have to endure extreme privations and risks in war and insurgency-infested areas. Harsh environment of remote, uncongenial and glacial areas also poses threat to their safety. Although self preservation is a strong natural instinct, the soldiers are trained to cope up with the overwhelming odds. Peer support helps them in subordinating personal safety to group interests. For them, it becomes a matter of honour not to let their group, unit and country down.
Being present in the combat zone, soldiers remain fully cognizant of the evolving hostile environment. On the other hand, their families are far removed from the scene of action. Dearth of information, sense of insecurity and the ‘fear of the unknown’ generate agonizing apprehensions and trepidations. Resultantly, the families undergo acute physical, emotional and societal stresses.
In an allegorical sense, the term stress is often used to describe acute challenges faced by an individual. When stress surpasses ability to handle, it becomes a threat to both physical and emotional well-being. Therefore, the army families have to be strong enough to withstand all the stresses. They cannot afford to be weaklings. In fact, they must suffer their fears and disquiet in silence to keep the household environment in good cheer. Every army wife has to raise her family like a single parent. It is a grueling task, especially with growing up children, their education and health-care issues.
The worst time for the army families is when the soldiers go to war. Trauma faced by them can neither be described nor appreciated. Only the families who suffer the ordeal know what it is to live on the edge with a constant prayer on their lips. The agony becomes far more nightmarish for the families who have more than one members fighting the war. Let me exemplify it by recalling the personal experience of an army wife as narrated to a group a few years ago:
“My husband, a young Captain, was at the battle front during the Indo-Pak War of December 1971. I was 22 years old and expecting my first child. I had come to stay with my parents. As a career in the armed forces is the first choice of the progeny in Dehra Dun, many families have more than one member in the services.
Ours was a joint family. There were three more women – my grandmother, my mother and my aunt. In addition to my husband, brothers of my father, my mother and my aunt were also taking active part in the war. Understandably, there was palpable anxiety in the atmosphere concerning the wellbeing of all the four warriors.
Although my grandmother put up a brave front to provide comfort to others, she spent most of her time praying to all sundry Gods, hoping someone would care to pay heed to her prayers. In addition to her own son and my husband, she was concerned about the brothers of her daughters-in-law as well.
My mother and aunt went about their routine household chores without any display of the emotional turmoil that they were experiencing. Both were worried about the safety of their brothers. In addition, my mother was deeply concerned about my husband’s wellbeing. I was perhaps too young to grasp the full gravity of the situation.
At times the frightening thought of my husband becoming a war-casualty did cross my mind – ‘will he never see our child’. However, recalling the spirit and confidence with which the troops had departed for the war front, I brushed such thoughts aside. Soldiers’ wives must be equally brave, I told myself.
During those war-days, a telegram always meant bad news. Arrival of the postman was dreaded by all families whose members were fighting the war. Ringing of the door-bell or even a casual knock on the door sank their hearts. Wartime blackouts made nights more forbidding as the postman invariably arrived at that time. Every dawn made them heave a sigh of relief. The same was true of our family as well.
It was 8th of December and the war was at its bitterest worst. That fateful night brought the much-dreaded postman to our door with a telegram. All four women huddled with trepidation in a corner of the verandah to await breaking of the most traumatic news. It was certain that one of the four men had been killed in action. The suspense about his identity was nerve-wracking.
In times of such extreme distress, we humans are forced to make our priorities clear to God while seeking his protection. Can there be anything more trying and agonizing than having to make such a choice? Why should we be made to make a choice as to who should live and who is dispensable? We, the women of our unfortunate family, were also subjected to the same ordeal.
As is human at such times, all of said our silent prayers – “Please God; I hope it is not him”. For all of us, him meant a different person – not that we were not concerned about the other members. It is just that all of us have our own set of quotient of emotional attachment.
The eerie silence was finally broken after what appeared to be an eternity – my aunt’s younger brother had made the supreme sacrifice in a tank battle. While she broke down, the others involuntarily heaved a sigh of relief and said a quiet thank-you to their Gods for keeping their him safe.
Once relieved of our personal anxiety and agony, we controlled our own emotions of reprieve and started calming the grief-stricken aunt. Loss of the young brother had shattered her inconsolably. In hindsight, our sudden makeover from petrified weaklings to compassionate consolers appears somewhat odd – maybe it was spontaneous human response on release from intense emotional trauma.
The news of the ceasefire on 16 December ended our two-week long nightmare. We had been through ‘hell’ was our consensual refrain.
To date, I wonder about the preference my grandmother conveyed to her God on that fateful night – her son or grand-daughter’s husband. It would have been far harder for my mother to choose between her brother and son-in-law. Comparatively, I had an easier choice to make. It is another matter that to date I suffer pangs of guilt for having abandoned my uncles in favour of my husband. Was I being selfish? I have not found any answer as yet.”
She stopped and there was a deafening silence. She had spoken with intense sensitivity and poignancy. Those present were overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the emotional trauma that the family had been subjected to. As it was a story of complex inter-play of human emotions and sensitivities that defy description, they did not know how to react.
But then, all army families experience similar pangs of fears, worries and foreboding. Apprehensive of the worst news from the front, they continuously undergo excruciating anxiety and stress. Prayers and fasts provide some succor. However, what they dread the most is an untimely telephone call or a mid-night knock. Their hearts skip a beat. Their first reaction is to clutch the sleeping baby to the heart, as if to plead to gods to have mercy on the baby. With their heart in the mouth and wobbly legs, they muster courage to answer the call. It is impossible to appreciate the severity of their agony. Only the women with nerves of steel and prodigious inner strength can endure such challenges.
Supreme Court Declines to Unshackle the Security Forces
The month of April 2017 was very painful for the country. Death of 25 CRPF personnel in a Maoist ambush at Sukma was soon followed by the martyrdom of three soldiers in a terrorist attack at Pulwama. Heartrending TV clips of wailing widows and orphaned children were highly disconcerting. Far too many lives had been lost. Continued inadequacy of the Indian response to the long drawn challenges became evident once again.
However, it was the ruling of the Supreme Court that caused the maximum anguish. On April 27, it rejected the curative petition of the government and upheld its earlier direction of July 8, 2016 wherein registration of FIR against the armed forces personnel, even in the disturbed areas under the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA), had been made mandatory for every encounter death. Repeated pleas of the government that the said order would one day make it well-nigh impossible to maintain peace and security failed to convince the Court.
The decision to dismiss the curative petition was taken in a chamber-hearing without the presence of the law officers for the government. Apparently, the judges were so convinced of the soundness of their earlier order that they felt no need for further arguments.
As a veteran, one has experienced the trauma of losing colleagues to terrorist bullets in counter-insurgency operations in Nagaland and counter-terrorist operations in Punjab. Therefore, one felt highly let down by the Court ruling. With one stroke, the Court deprived the armed forces of the protection against prosecution provided to them under AFSPA, thereby throwing up a number of issues that are critical for the security and integrity of the country.
AFSPA was enacted in 1958 to bring under control what the government of India considered disturbed areas. AFSPA was first applied to the internal disturbances in the North East in 1958. It was promulgated in Punjab from 1983 to 1997 to control the turmoil and has been in force in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990.
Two points need to be flagged here. One, the efficacy of AFSPA stands proved by the fact that India continues to survive as a nation despite numerous insurgencies seeking secession from the Indian Union. AFSPA prevented balkanisation of the country by allowing the security forces to focus on tackling insurgents without any fear of subsequent inquests. Officers enjoyed legal protection as long as they acted in good faith which is held to mean ‘with due care and attention’.
Two, AFSPA has been repeatedly subjected to legal scrutiny at various levels since its enactment. Every dispensation has accepted its essentiality. What new developments have taken place in the recent past to warrant a fresh ruling by the Court, except that the anti-national activists have become more strident in their false accusations?
As a matter of fact, situation in the Kashmir valley had deteriorated considerably. Security forces were being subjected to unprecedented ordeals. They faced death at every step while engaged in combat operations against highly indoctrinated jihadis armed with sophisticated weapons. Hence, the requirement for legal protection to carry out the unenviable task had acquired increased criticality.
Sadly, the Supreme Court overlooked the fact that Kashmir is a not an ordinary law & order issue. A war is being waged there – an asymmetrical war wherein the jihadi forces are seeking to fragment the country and wreak havoc on the country’s social fabric through fidayeen attacks. They give no quarter. It is a fight unto death – either the security forces kill the jihadis or else suffer casualties. It is a matter of split-second response.
To prevent fidayeen attacks, the security forces have to seek the jihadis out and eliminate them. For that, police parties invariably accompany them. All efforts are made to minimise collateral damage. Terrorists exploit this self-imposed restraint of the security forces and take shelter in populated areas and summon stone-pelters to help breach cordons. Removal of protection of AFSPA will further embolden the jihadis. Wonder if the jihadi organisations have passed a vote of thanks for our Supreme Court!
The security forces are striving to keep the country secure. The Court has imposed most unwarranted caution on the soldiers. They will have to think of legal consequences before killing a terrorist. Some may consider it more prudent to let him slip-away to avoid FIR.
India must be the only country where killing of the enemies of the nation is subjected to judicial reviews. For such shameful state of affairs, the country needs to thank the human rights activists, pseudo-secularists, presstitutes and other anti-national elements. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has got carried away with their perverse logic. As one veteran has suggested, all judges should be asked to stay in military camps in Kashmir for a week to get a true sense of the trepidations and threats to life that the soldiers endure for months at a stretch.
Another veteran, who lost a family member to a militant’s bullet, has raised an agonising poser to the Supreme Court, “How much do you know about the brutality of war? How many of you have sent your progeny to the armed forces? Have you ever lost a family member in the defence of the country? Do you know the pain of losing a young son or having a widowed daughter or seeing your grandchildren grow up without their father? If not, please do not impede our war effort. Human rights sound very nice when you and your families are safely ensconced in secure air-conditioned homes.”
Applying the Court directions to the Pulwama incident, an FIR will be lodged...

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