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Monday,
April 29, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Sekhon case: politicisation vs military ethics THE spate of news and comments on Air Marshal Sekhon’s “honourable removal” from service for seeking political patronage for career enhancement brings to the fore attempts at politicisation of the armed forces and related issues. A sitting MP from the Air Marshal Sekhon’s community has in one go labelled Mr Badal an inept administrator, alluded to an inspired leak of Sekhon’s letter, addressed to Badal, to get Air Marshal Bhatia of the hook (since removed from Western Air Command) for violating Pakistan airspace and nearly starting an Indo-Pak war. Lastly, he justified Sekhon’s serious misdemeanour to the latter’s “itch for frontline action”. The MP has obviously missed out on the fact that all soldiers, sepoys to Generals, look forward to being on the battlefront during a war. It is their calling; no itches are required. Yet one wonders as to how the ex-Air Marshal’s itch for frontline action could have been satisfied by a peacetime posting to the headquarters of Western Air Command located in Delhi? Without detracting from the Air Marshal’s valiant past, one only wishes to point towards the MP’s attempt to communalise and politicise a matter of serious military indiscipline and violation of service norms. Had the same MP been as vocal and forthright at the time of an out-of-hand dismissal of a Chief of Naval Staff and removal of a Corps Commander of an elite strike corps when deployed for battle, one would have given credit to him for standing up for the right and honourable. After all, as per the MP’s philosophy, in those two cases too the honour and sentiment of a community and the whole of the armed forces stood insulted and
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Air Marshal Sekhon, by initiating correspondence with the Chief Minister of Punjab, violated ethics and norms of his service. Yet Mr Badal has chosen to pressurise the Government of India to review Sekhon’s case. Mr Badal has gone on record (TNS) to assert that Sekhon’s communication to him was an act “inadvertence”, which merited no more than a mild reproof. It is a matter of regret for as senior and respected a politician as Mr Badal to be blatantly pursuing sectarian politics. He couldn’t care a fig for the contrary effect it would have no psyche of the armed forces in general and the serving Sikh soldiers in particular. Some writers, commenting on the case, have emphasised that politico — bureaucratic machinations by senior rungs in the armed forces were an ongoing phenomenon. The question that arises is: should such manipulation be taken as a norm for future? It would be disastrous for the country if its politicians, bureaucrats and powerful people (Mafiosi type) were to be permitted to start rearing senior defence service officers as mascots of their community and political parties. It is obvious that they have little or no knowledge of military ethics and code of conduct. In brief, the three cardinals of military ethics are preservation of humanity, followed by unflinching and loyal service to its client (the nation) and last of all glorification of its own profession. The cardinals are so interwoven that ignoring of any one automatically has a negative effect on the other. The politicisation process and violation of cardinals of military ethics in 1962 with disastrous consequences, is not so far behind so as to be forgotten. A simple Jawan from my battalion (1 Sikh), deployed at Sela to face the Chinese, summed up the situation in one sentence. It was when Lieut General B.M. Kaul returned to Tezpur to resume command of IV Corps (Kaul had flown off from Thagla area (NEFA) due to sudden illness, leaving troops on ground to be decimated by the Chinese), the Jawan said — “Sahib Bahadur, sunaiya hai keh jawanon nu marvaan wala jarnail pher wapas aagaya hai” (Sir, it is heard that the General who gets troops killed has retured). Senior officers impoverished in basic values and ethos of a soldier will seldom find it possible to lead their men, in peace and war, particularly when the chips are down. Our armed forces have a glorious tradition of being apolitical and loyal. The Indian officer and soldier continues to remain ethical and professional. It is for India’s polity, intellectuals and masses to ponder as to how long can they draw upon soldier’s resolve. Air Marshal Sekhon and senior officers like him are victims of the ongoing degradation in contemporary life. It is for the country’s governance, polity and public to keep its military insulated from effects of communalisation, fundamentalism, politico-bureaucratic manipulation and expanding scope for corruption. Maj-Gen K.
KHORANA (retd.), Panchkula |
Common programme Although the Congress government in Punjab has a clear mandate with a history of secular national policy, a few Sikh intellectuals are sponsoring themselves as an extra-constitutional centre to enforce a common minimum agenda “in the larger interests of the Sikh panth” (April 26). The Amarinder Singh government has to ensure effective governance, credibility, economic resurgence and welfare of the common man. National priorities like population control and reversal of factors leading to suicides by farmers cannot be overlooked. Post-militancy aspects require a long-term strategy. The SGPC-oriented Akali misrule has spelled the ruin of a prosperous border state. The PPSC episode is only a tip of the iceberg. The overuse of precious river waters has brought miseries through extensive water-logging and soil degeneration. Doling out free electricity for agriculture has spelled bankruptcy of the PSEB. Above all, Panthic dominance generates an ethnic divide and rural urban polorisation. The Congress government has rightly established a commission to probe misdeeds and mismanagement of Akali regime. Assertive corrective measures are simultaneously imperative. These intellectuals should lend support and strength to the commission instead in the interest of Punjab and Punjabiat! K.N.
DUTT, Chandigarh Higher education Apropos of the article by D. R. Chaudhary on the status of universities in Haryana, the author has criticised the idea of including higher education in the central list. Higher education has to develop conceptual skills of an individual. The very concept of “university” stems from “universality”. So, those graduating from a university need to develop a global vision. This is not possible when university are controlled by state governments, whose approach is parochial. TEJINDER SHARMA, Kurukshetra
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