Defense Minister orders army to clean garbage!

 

• In just three weeks, the new Raksha Mantri, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, has moved from the top of the charts to below the mid-way point with her latest and only ridiculous order asking/ tasking the army to clean up garbage and litter in the high altitude areas, left behind by uncaring and uneducated tourists.
• Unless she understands and applies her mind to the legitimate tasks of the armed forces and their pride and ethos, she is unlikely to be accepted fully and the charts will keep sliding south.
• The recent cabinet reshuffle is the BJP plan for the 2019 General Elections and the appointment of the new Raksha Mantri (RM) is more in gender terms rather than abilities! There was a sense of relief that this government has stopped treating the Defense Portfolio as a temporary pastime for its cabinet ministers.
• It seemed that after three years of governance, Modi had at last learnt that Defense was neither a part-time portfolio, nor one for a light-weight leader.
• Modi rewarded a loser (Arun Jaitley) at the elections with the two most important portfolios, viz. Finance and Defense, possibly may be due to non availability of talent. He glossed over fact that the Jaitley did not like the military, as he blamed them for his losing the only election he fought in his long political career.
• Modi might have realized that giving two major portfolios to one person are fraught with danger. 
• Nirmala Sitharaman was a professional; was intelligent; dedicated; and possessed common sense. She had handled her commerce portfolio well but built up a positive reputation of a feisty lady who kept the rapacious bureaucracy in line and carried out her assignments quietly.
• Apparently this was done at the behest of PMO to clean up garbage left by tourists in high altitude areas and other sundry instructions regarding cleaning up military stations, cantonments and bases. These orders are absurd, to put it mildly. 
• The mandarins sitting in the PMO have issued a stupid and illogical order stating that the army will clean litter left behind by uncaring tourists in high altitude areas, obviously abandoning their operational tasks and training. It is the dumbest order in the last half a century, if not more. If you use the armed forces for carrying out non-military tasks, the result will be catastrophic.
• Since the Swach Bharat Abhiyan has made little headway, the government wants to boast of at least cleaning up the litter of tourists so that their propaganda machinery can at least save face by tom-toming this!
• Defence Minister, PMO and the MoD to rescind this absurd order immediately.

When you promote a good worker who turns out to be a bad supervisor, 

you end up losing a good worker and saddled with a bad supervisor.

Common sense tells us that there is no way 'Swach Bharat Abhiyan' in its present format can succeed despite a spend of Rs.200,000 crores between 2014-19 except that it provides a platform for massive publicity for Modi & BJP which anyway no one believes its tall claims. In the process degrading and demoralizing armed forces is unpardonable. Modi as Gujarat CM in his book 'Karmayog' of 2007 writes that scavenging was an 'experience in spirituality' for the Valmikis. Modi also describes scavengers assigned role in the caste order as a "job bestowed upon them by Gods" that outraged Dalit groups and Modi silently withdrew the book from circulation. Unless running water in taps provided, improved hygiene and drainage facilities created, solid waste management systems implemented, illiteracy eradicated, all sections of people brought above poverty line, the ills associated with poverty will continue to haunt us in some form or other. Until then reckless spending will only serve publicity and scandalous purposes. And Nirmala Sitharaman proved instantly unworthy of a ministerial position, not to talk of MoD, by signing that inapt order.

Rs.10 lakh compensation to human shield in Kashmir

 Farooq Ahmad Dar, the 26-year-old shawl artisan from Kashmir, tied to a jeep as a human shield

• The use of human shields is considered a war crime by nations that are parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
•  "The court of inquiry regarding the April 9 incident is under finalisation. While awarding the officer, all factors, including notable performance of the officer and overall emerging indicators of the court of inquiry, have been well-considered" when the army chief honoured Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi. Gen. Bipin Rawat, the army chief, handed the commendation card to the major in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The announcement of the commendation suggests the government and the military are viewing the officer's treatment of the alleged stone-thrower as an exemplary gesture that helped defuse an explosive situation.
• Dar, an embroidery artisan, had this question for the person who rewarded the major: "If his son faces a similar treatment at the hands of the officer, I would see whether he will still reward him."
• Dar has challenged those who had claimed he was a stone-thrower to prove that he ever picked a stone and he iterates that he was among the few people who voted that day in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election.
• H.S. Panag, a retired lieutenant general, said: "Whatever be the circumstances, the incident was contrary to army rules and regulations. The circumstances under which the award has been given to Major Gogoi is not clear. It is a wrong message being sent."

My View:

People in public positions must realize that country is not their fiefdom, to behave or act as they like to please their political masters. Their actions will be scrutinized by higher authorities, adjudicating authorities and courts. Human shields were used by Israeli's in Gaza and West bank and they were accused of huge violations of human rights. There are laws that prohibit this kind of treatment even for convicts. There was no just reason for parading the human shield for four hours but is aimed at terrorising stone pelters who are unfortunately our own citizens. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley backed the decision of the army men saying that the army was interested in saving lives and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh writing in a column that Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi should be given a distinguished services’ medal, is a matter of shame. The greatness of great nations lies in holding their institutions to the highest possible standards of law, humanity and constitutional propriety. In fighting armed militancy or any form of internal conflict, the state cannot abdicate its responsibility to uphold the fundamental rights of its citizens by holding its army accountable. I don't think this is the only option for army to protect its soldiers. Rather it is their feeling they are in war with Kashmiri Muslims and they are its enemies. The compensation should have been at least Rs.50 lakhs and also subjecting erring Major for court marshaling for exceeding his brief.