TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
In the initial years of militancy in early 1990s, when the military and paramilitary forces got deployed in a big way for internal security duties in Jammu & Kashmir, Late K F Rustamji, founder Director General (Retd) of BSF had warned “This is the best way to ruin an Army”. If only Rustomji was alive and around today, he would know, to what a sorry pass the things have come with incumbent and former Army Generals falling in the trap of political conspiracies and getting provoked to wash the dirty linen in public while the political worthies, whom they so painstakingly work hard to get stabilised in the seat of power, thanklessly declare that they never had anything to do with the Army in the vain hope that by saying so they might endear themselves to the separatist constituency.
It would be a sin to understate the sterling role played by the Army over the last two decades not only in supplementing efforts to restore normalcy but also in according the much needed stability to the duly elected democratic government at any given time. Remember, but for the logistic support from Army as also the Village Defence Committees (VDCs), would it have been possible for the Govt of India to put an end to a protracted spell of Governor’s rule in 1996 by paving the way for installation of a democratic government headed by Farooq Abdullah ?
To that extent, is this not a providential irony that over the last 20 years, the biggest beneficiaries of Army presence in the State have been the same socalled mainstream regional parties which always sought overt or covert Army support to stay in power without publicly acknowledging it lest this should antagonise the separatist constituency and thus also their Kashmir-centric vote bank ?
Meanwhile, the Pak sponsored twin terror attack at Hiranagar and Samba on 26 September and the manner in which the Indian Army promptly came forward to contain it even while sacrificing the life of one of its commanders, is only a vindication of the enormous gratitude that all of us owe to India’s defence forces but out of sheer political expediency, some of the mutually vying Kashmir-centric political parties refuse to acknowledge it even while claiming themselves to be mainstream political parties and enjoying enormous perks and privileges as State’s office bearers, ironically sworn in under the oath of constitution of India.
In a nutshell, at an hour of despondency when the common man looks up to the Indian Army as his only saviour, and pleads to habitual Army baiters “Please spare the Army!’’, Umapathy takes pity at those who denounce the very same Army to which they owe their sustenance and survival, a La, ‘‘Aaj Deewar Kha Gayi Saaya, Aaj Maine Yeh Vaakya Dekha !’’
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