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Kejriwal government hurting our morale by insulting us: IAS association

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Kejriwal government hurting our morale by insulting us: IAS association

A government is often as good as the bureaucrats under it, for all the decisions and policies have to be executed by the ‘babus’ not by the members of the political party or alliance in power. Which is why it becomes important for a government to find ways to make the babus work the way it wants.

Often a government has to adopt carrot-and-stick policy because it can’t afford either to be entirely driven by what the babus want or become so hostile towards them that working together is not possible.

However, it appears that the Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal has got no carrots but only sticks to offer to the bureaucrats. This is a bit strange as Kejriwal himself was a bureaucrat once, and one would expect that he would know the key to how to make the babus work. But the state government appears perennially in pugnacious mood with respect to the bureaucrats.

Just recently when there was outcry over the availability of ventilators in Delhi hospitals and the kin of the patients needing to provide manual remedy to keep them alive, Kejriwal asked ‘Satinder‘, the Health Minister of his government, for clarification. The minister responded and blamed it on a bureaucrat:



Not only the Health Minister shrugged off the responsibility, Chief Minister Kejriwal himself re-tweeted a message that made personal comments on the particular bureaucrat and dragged him into party politics:

Arvind Kejriwal re-tweeted this message targeting the bureaucrat

Triggered by this incident, the IAS and DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) cadre associations convened a joint meeting on Tuesday to highlight this approach by the state government. The association claimed that their members were continuously humiliated and their image tarnished by the political executive of GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi) and they were not even allowed to defend themselves, which was hurting their morale and functioning.

Following is the copy of the resolution passed by IAS Association and DANICS Association:

This isn’t the first time Kejriwal and his government has been accused of humiliating the officials. Back in 2015 during the Shakuntala Gamlin fiasco, after being removed as the principal secretary by Kejriwal, senior bureaucrat Anindo Majumdar was humiliated by being locked out of his office.

Similarly in June of this year, a Delhi Jal Board official had resigned after Kejriwal suspended two engineers and humiliated other top officials in a meeting to review the water supply. The President of the Engineers association had also claimed that Kejriwal had used foul language against the engineers.

Apart from humiliating, Kejriwal government has also been infamous for deflecting responsibility by blaming the bureaucrats. Just recently the state government had received a rap from the Supreme Court for blaming officials for the Chikunguniya outbreak in Delhi.

While a government must have control over the bureaucracy, a working relationship is not possible if the two are always at loggerheads.

The fake ‘dog meat’ news reports that sent Hyderabadis into shock

OpIndia Staff
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The fake ‘dog meat’ news reports that sent Hyderabadis into shock

Shah Ghouse, a Hyderabadi restaurant famous for its delicacies, has recently taken a hit due to widespread rumours against it. On 12th December 2016, social media was rife with the messages and forwards that Shah Ghouse was serving dog meat in place of mutton. Images of slaughtered dogs were being on the social media, sending people into disgust and anger against the restaurant.


As per ABN Telugu news, someone approached Raidurgum Police Station to lodge complaint about usage of dog meat in the Shah Ghouse Hotel and Restaurant. Police instead asked him approach food inspectors. The agitated person allegedly started posting the messages on WhatsApp and social media sites, and soon it created a buzz.

As the rumours spread wide and fast, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials had to step in. GHMC did serve a notice to the restaurant, but for not using meat procured from certified slaughter houses. The officials also acknowledged that all the three branches of the restaurant were inspected due to rumours.

As reported by Deccan Chronicle, Cyberabad police has not registered any case against the hotel. The police has said that the rumours about dog meat were false and spread to defame the hotel.

However some local news channels and blogs not only reported that Shah Ghouse was using dog meat, but they also claimed that the police had arrested the hotel owner.

A snapshot of an article from a website, which was later deleted.

The hotel management has filed a complaint with the Cyberabad Police to act against two TV channels for telecasting fake news against them.

This is why Rahul Gandhi so desperately wants to speak in the parliament

Editorial Desk
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This is why Rahul Gandhi so desperately wants to speak in the parliament

For many days now Rahul Gandhi has been complaining that he isn’t being allowed to speak in the Parliament by the BJP. He even went into a Rahul-ism claiming that if he speaks in the Parliament there would be an earthquake. No body quite knew why Rahul Gandhi was so insistent on speaking in the Parliament, as after all some years ago Rahul wasn’t even interested in attending parliament, let alone taking part in debates.

But now it seems the cat is out of the bag. Today Rahul Gandhi claimed that he was privy to some personal information regarding corruption by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that he wanted to reveal this in the Parliament but the BJP was not allowing this. Plus he went to the extent of claiming that PM Modi was terrified over the fact that Rahul had that information.

The natural reaction of most people was to wonder why did he have to insist on speaking inside the parliament to reveal such a explosive piece of information. Assuming Rahul Gandhi has some real concrete actionable information, it would serve his party and the entire opposition a lot if he took one of trademark roll-up-sleeves press conferences where he exposes the entire deal of corruption.

The answer to this lies in our assumption that Rahul Gandhi actually has some credible information in the first place. The fact is, according to the Article 105(2) of the constitution, anybody speaking in the Parliament gets complete immunity from any legal consequences. It states that:

“No member of Parliament shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in Parliament or any committee thereof, and no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of either House of Parliament of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.”

As stated, the law grants a sweeping immunity from any sort of prosecution for speaking absolutely anything in the Parliament, however libelous it may be (the Speaker at best can order to expunge the remarks). So Rahul Gandhi can lie inside the parliament, and then people can repeat the same outside the parliament by merely “reporting” what Rahul said.

And it is very possible that Rahul Gandhi is hoping to take support of this very clause to save himself. After all Rahul Gandhi is still on trial for his claim that RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi, which he had made at an election rally. And has been subject to another defamation case for his Khoon Ki Dalali comment.

Even Arvind Kejriwal seems to be taunting Rahul after his latest expose by asking the question everyone has on their minds.



Maybe Kejriwal himself is aware of this Modus Operandi as when on the floor of the Delhi Assembly he brought out documents alleging corruption by Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat CM, but conspicuously refrained from overtly claiming the same in either a press conference. In Kejriwal’s case, he probably was using the Article 194(2) of the constitution that grants the same immunity to state assemblies.

Furthermore, the corruption claims made by Kejriwal against Prime Minister Modi has been discredited by the Supreme Court last month. The apex court said that the “proof” about such alleged bribe to Modi was “sub par”. The Judges further said that if such proofs were considered credible, anyone in the world can be accused of any wrongdoing.

Since the proof is not legally tenable, the best a politician can do is to make this claim inside a legislative house and shield himself legally, and hope that his supporters and media will make the lie travel wide and far. And this is what Rahul Gandhi is trying to do.

The most infamous example of misuse of this immunity is the JMM bribery case. In that case, the Supreme Court had granted immunity from prosecution to the JMM MPs who had taken a bribe for voting to save the Congress government back in 1993. The court in its judgement had held that those who took bribe but did not vote were liable to be prosecuted under Prevention of Corruption Act as they would not be entitled to immunity from prosecution granted to MPs.

Allegations against Kiren Rijiju and the controversial officer at the heart of it

OpIndia Staff
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Allegations against Kiren Rijiju and the controversial officer at the heart of it

Union Minister of State, Home, Kiren Rijiju has been accused by Congress of being involved in a 450 crore hydro-projects scam in Arunachal Pradesh. This is the first time a Union Minister in the Modi Government has been connected to an alleged scam. Following is a recap of the entire controversy:

How it all began:

The Chief Vigilance Officer of  North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), Satish Verma had written a 129 page report alleging an “elaborate conspiracy” involving contractors, NEEPCO officials and the West Kameng district administration to defraud NEEPCO and the government of funds that “may extend” up to Rs 450 crore (estimated total budget of transportation of boulders and sands).

This report was sent to the Central Vigilance Commissioner, the CBI, and the Power Ministry in July 2016. Verma alleged corruption in the construction of two dams for the 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project, wherein he claimed that several inflated bills under the pretext of transporting boulders to the dam site were presented and that the main contractor for the dam, Patel Engineering (PEL) provided many fake transportation chalans.

PEL was awarded the dam construction project in 2004, while they were awarded the work of transportation of boulders and sands in 2012. They had been getting their bills cleared from time to time, before Verma came up with his report.

As a result, clearance of bills, primarily between the period of May and July 2015, of PEL was stopped by NEEPCO after Verma sent an advisory to the Head of Project flagging the alleged irregularities. CBI is reportedly in the process of collecting all documents and related papers and they have made two “surprise checks”, but they have not come up with any report yet.

What is Kiren Rijiju connection?

The hydro-electric project falls under Kiren Rijiju’s constituency. As payments to PEL for the transportation costs were stopped, PEL in turn didn’t pay various sub-contractors employed it. One of the sub-contractors was Mr, Goboi Rijiju, who is being claimed as a cousin of Kiren Rijiju.

There is an audio recording where Goboi Rijiju is heard invoking Kiren Rijiju’s name in a meeting with CVO Satish Verma for clearing all the pending payments. This recording is part of the report prepared by Verma, who in all probability recorded the conversation himself to back up his allegations of corruption.

While these are indirect connections, what made Rijiju’s connection somewhat direct is a letter to the Power Ministry he wrote on 4th Nov 2015, requesting the Ministry to consider releasing the payments that were blocked after Verma’s report.

Congress now claims that this letter proves that Kiren Rijiju is directly involved in the scam and thus he should resign.

Kiren Rijiju’s defence:

Kiran Rijiju denies that Goboi Rijiju is his relative. He claimed that the concerned person belongs to his village and comes from the same clan, and that’s why some media persons are referring to him as his cousin, but there is no blood relation.

He defended his letter to the Power Ministry by claiming that he was just helping out his constituency residents (the sub contractors) who approached him with their problem (of payments being blocked by NEEPCO). He further pointed out that if there was any scam, it was under the Congress regime as the contracts were awarded before the current government took charge.

Rijiju also questioned the amount of 450 crore rupees being thrown around, claiming that 400 crore rupees was spent on transportation since 2004 and 90% of the work was completed so on what basis media was flashing it as 450 crore rupees scam?

The government also came out in support of Kiren Rijuju, pointing out that the payments were released not after the MoS, Home wrote the letter to the Power Minister, but because Satish Verma himself authorised in October 2015 – a month before Rijuju wrote the letter – to release 60% of the billed amount. Government blamed Verma of creating this whole controversy by making baseless allegations.

Who is the Satish Verma?

An IPS officer from the Gujarat cadre, he was one of the three members of the Gujarat High Court appointed SIT to probe the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. He differed from the other members and believed that the encounter was fake. He is accused of torturing RVS Mani, former under secretary in the Home Ministry, to file a second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case which implicated his seniors and wherein the references to the alleged links of Ishrat Jahan with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were removed.

Verma is also alleged as being a crazy conspiracy theorist who believes that both 26/11 (Mumbai terror attacks) and 2001 Parliament attacks were orchestrated by the Government of India.

In July this year, Verma was removed as CVO NEEPCO, since he was charge-sheeted in May for continued violation of CVC instructions and for not performing his duties with due diligence and care. Government claims that Verma is now trying to get even for the disciplinary action taken against him.

Chanda-bandi hits Aam Aadmi Party while it runs down note-bandi

OpIndia Staff
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Chanda-bandi hits Aam Aadmi Party while it runs down note-bandi

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been in the forefront of fighting note-bandi (demonetisation) by terming it anti-poor and a scam. For the same, its party members including supremo Arvind Kejriwal have been making all kinds of claims – mostly dubious, mischievous, and downright lies – even as the party opted out of some local body elections, allegedly because it didn’t have enough money to fight them.

It can’t be said with certainty that the funds shortage that the party is facing is entirely due to demonetisation, but it seems that the party will have to deal with more problems with its fund-raising in the coming days.

A former member of the party and ex co-convener of the NRI cell of AAP, Dr. Munish Raizada has asked for “Chanda band Satyagrah” where he is asking people to not donate to AAP till the party puts the list of donors back on its website. He has launched even a website www.nolistnodonation.com for the same.

It should be recalled that AAP had won a lot of public support after it declared that it will focus on funding itself by collecting chanda (donations) from the common man rather than by accepting big donations from corporate houses or anonymous donors with suspect intentions. The party claimed that this way it will be accountable to the public and work for their interests rather than working for groups with vested interests.

To showcase the donation process and to claim transparency in its dealings, the party put a public list of donors on its website. The list was updated in real time and one could know the quantum and frequency of donations the party was receiving every day. This indeed was different and welcome approach when compared with other political parties of India.

There were some loopholes right from the beginning e.g. one could enter fake names and contribute to the party fund. People used names like “Narendra Modi” and “weloveYedaKejriwal” (sic) to contribute. But the party claimed that these were minor issues as all donations were accepted either through digital means or through cheques, thus there was proper documentation in the backend.

But the claim of proper documentation received a serious setback in February last year when the party couldn’t explain properly how it received 2 crore rupees and who were the real donors. The party continued to claim it as a conspiracy against itself and instead pointed fingers at dubious sources of funding of other political parties.

Nonetheless, the list of donors continued to exist on its website and the party would often use the data (donation trends) to claim how the party continued to receive public support. There were numerous news articles citing how donations jumped after any ink attack on Kejriwal or any other allegation.

But in July this year, the list of donors was taken off from the party’s website. July 6 was the last date on which the party updated its list of donors, after which one found the following message in place of the public list:

Screenshot of AAP's websitee
Over six months have passed, but it still says “coming soon”.

The other donation related links and features on the party’s website continued to function without problem though i.e. one can still donate using their online form and digital transaction – something that the party supporters are nowadays attacking after some Twitter accounts were hacked. People assumed that there might be some technical issue and the list will be back in a few days.

However, even after six months, the party has not put back its list of donors on the website.

There has been wide range of speculations over why the party has decided to go back on its promise of transparency. Former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav believes that the party is no longer receiving substantial donations from the common man and it has become like yet another political party getting funds from “traditional” sources, which is why it is not showing the list to public.

Such chatter has now led former supporters like Dr. Munish Raizada to announce chanda-bandi till AAP makes it funding public again. He has even called on people to assemble at Raj Ghat in Delhi on 24th December at 10 AM to do satyagrah if the party doesn’t bring back the list.

How two Economists destroyed Manmohan Singh’s arguments against demonetisation

OpIndia Staff
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How two Economists destroyed Manmohan Singh’s arguments against demonetisation

Manmohan Singh has been in the news recently after shocking everyone by speaking in the Rajya Sabha. He then went a step ahead and on December 9th published an op-ed in The Hindu titled, ‘Making of a mammoth tragedy‘ while referring to the mammoth exercise of demonetisation undertaken by the Modi government.

While his credentials as a politician have never been flaunted by either him or his party, his qualifications as an economist, be it his degrees from foreign universities, stint as an RBI governor, or most importantly, his role in opening up the economy have long been heavily sold by the Congress party and its ecosystem. So when he wrote the op-ed on demonetisation, his views were presented as gospel truth coming from an economist of high repute and knowledge.

However, not everyone was impressed. Two economists – S Gurumurthy and Bibek Debroy – have now stepped in and demonstrated why Manmohan Singh’s op-ed was mostly high on rhetoric and low on content.

Bibek Debroy is a member of the Niti Aayog, and has also studied at the Trinity College in Cambridge which might come as a relief to Mr Singh’s supporters obsessed with foreign degrees. In the article titled, ‘Asking the right questions‘, he was sarcastically critical of Dr. Singh, who failed to set things right, or even make an attempt towards that, when he had the opportunity.

S Gurumurthy is an economic analyst and a Chartered Accountant. He is also the co-convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. His opinion titled ‘Not a tragedy, but the remedy‘, he exposed the disease that was inflicted upon the Indian economy by the UPA, due to which the remedy was needed badly.

Below are some highlights of Mr Singh’s arguments and S Gurumurthy and Bibek Debroy’s counter-arguments.

Low banking penetration:

Manmohan Singh had written that: 90% of the workforce in India still gets paid in cash. These people comprise of hundreds of millions of agriculture workers, construction workers whose life has now been thrown into a disarray as there are still more than 600 million Indians who live in a town or village with no bank.

To this, Mr. Debroy quoted Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech of 2012, where he had stated, “Just 10 years back only three out of every 10 households in our villages were benefiting from banking services. Today more than half of the rural households get the benefit of bank accounts. It will be our endeavor to ensure that all households benefit from bank accounts in the next two years.”

So what data was Manmohan Singh quoting? Did he make false claims in his speech four years back that most Indians will be brought into the banking network? And that was four years back. Even if one assumes Manmohan Singh did nothing after 2012, there has been PM Modi’s Jan-Dhan Yojna, through which 258.2 million additional bank accounts have been opened till 2016.

Citing more data and some survey findings, Mr. Debroy demonstrated that Manmohan Singh was painting an alarmist picture just to back his mammoth claim.

Black money is not all cash:

Manmohan Singh, while acknowledging that black money is a serious problem, had argued that only a tiny fraction of the black money was stored in form of cash and the major storage areas being, gold, land and foreign reserves among others.

Mr. Debroy wondered when did anyone from the current government claim that black money was all cash. Even Prime Minister Modi has been hinting that he will now target benaami property and other forms of black money.

Mr. Debroy further pointed out the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act of 2016, which covered both moveable and immoveable property, was notified by the current government. He reminded the former Prime Minister that the act was passed in 1988, but rules were not framed by successive governments.

Demonetisation will derail GDP growth and job creation:

In his op-ed, Dr. Singh had predicted that demonetisation could have ripple effects on GDP growth and job creation and could spell doom for both of these. Many from the Congress ecosystem had flashed how the tenure of Manmohan Singh had seen decent growth and development.

But this entire cheerleading of Manmohan Singh’s tenure was taken to the cleaners by Mr. Gurumurthy, who put the numbers in perspective in his article.

Mr. Gurumurthy compared Dr. Singh’s tenure (2004-14) to the NDA’s rule (1999-04). The GDP during the NDA regime grew a total of 27.8% and a whopping 600 lakh jobs were created. While during the UPA regime, GDP grew a total of 50.8% but only a paltry 27 lakh jobs were created. This, he claimed as due to the UPA government benefitting from the huge asset price inflation, which is treated as wealth by modern economists and gets added to the GDP.

Stocks and gold prices jumped annually by 60 per cent and property prices doubled every two-three years under Manmohan Singh. This was enabled by a huge percentage of cash transactions, with most cash being held in high denomination notes (HDNs). Gurumurthy demonstrated how both the trends – cash with public as well as proportion of HDNs rose sharply under UPA. All helping with asset price inflation and giving an illusion of growth.

Mr. Gurumurthy argued that the option before Prime Minister Modi was to continue with this where GDP growth appears high but real economic growth is elusive, or to take a strict corrective step that may appear like derailing growth. PM Modi went for corrective step – the remedy.

Owaisi joins Sibal and Kejriwal in giving communal colour to demonetisation

OpIndia Staff
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Owaisi joins Sibal and Kejriwal in giving communal colour to demonetisation

It is no secret that the opposition parties are trying their best do discredit the demonetisation drive by the union government and they have been coming up with all kinds of arguments. While criticisms like cash crunch and inconvenience to people are logical and valid, some leaders have gone to the illogical extent of linking it with religions.

The latest to do so is the AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who has claimed that the Modi Government was not supplying cash in banks and ATMs present in Muslim dominated areas! Owaisi virtually accused the government of profiling its citizens based on religious grounds and practicing discriminatory policies.

The absurdity of this claim was rejected by Muslims themselves, who claimed – as per a survey conducted by India Today – that they were inconvenienced as much as any other Indian citizen and faced no special discrimination in getting cash.

Owaisi’s claims are further ridiculous as it suggests that there is some grand conspiracy to keep Muslims out of the banking system, whereas the truth is that the Modi government has actually been under attack from its traditional supporters for toying with ideas like Islamic Banking to bring Muslims into the banking system.

But Owaisi is not the first one or the only one to give communal colours to the demonetisation drive.

One of the earliest ones to drag religion into the whole affair was Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who tweeted that demonetisation had ruined Hindus:



While BJP rubbished Kejriwal’s claims, one group has supported his statement. Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha has claimed that demonetisation was anti-Hindu and it will bring the downfall of the government.

Arvind Kejriwal has often mocked the Modi government that its demonetisation drive received support from Vijay Mallya, who is accused of financial malpractices. Now it will be interesting to know what he thinks about himself as his thoughts have been supported by a group like Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.

The other party to bring communal angle to demonetisation was Congress. Senior leader of the party Kapil Sibal claimed that Muslims were the most discomforted due to demonetisation as they choose not to open bank accounts, for earning interest (on deposits) is haram (forbidden) in Islam.


Maybe Sibal and Owaisi should first meet and decide whether Muslims have bank accounts or not.

Satyendra Jain deletes old embarrassing tweets to Kejriwal, but we have a copy

OpIndia Staff
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Satyendra Jain deletes old embarrassing tweets to Kejriwal, but we have a copy

Satyendra Jain is a trusted soldier of AAP, that too possessing a high rank of cabinet minister, and holding the health portfolio. This is of course because AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal considers him as one of his close aides. This was also seen when AAP & Kejriwal rallied behind Jain and gave him a clean chit when allegations of financial impropriety were flung at Jain.

But it appears their relation was not always so close. Twitter users had dug out some old tweets of Satyendra Kumar Jain in which he was seen making some rather “amusing” remarks about his new found hero Arvind Kejriwal. Social media users trolled Jain for these old tweets a lot:


And finally it emerges now, that “Satinder” deleted all these old embarrassing tweets, which is why you cant see the embedded tweets in the above troll tweets. But screenshots live forever:

The deleted tweets

In the first case he had referred to Kejriwal as “Aalo”, meaning potato, a word which became synonymous with Kejriwal after allegations that it was a name given to him by a woman with whom he had an alleged extramarital affair. In the second case it appears Satyendar was taunting Kejriwal rather coarsely for indulging in only words and no action, even comparing him to a dog.

Jain may have deleted these embarrassing tweets, but they live on forever.

Banks facing the heat in demonetisation crack-down

OpIndia Staff
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Banks facing the heat in demonetisation crack-down

After the Income Tax department conducted a series of raids on Axis Bank Delhi and found crores of dubious money deposited in fake accounts, people were anxious to know how is the government tackling these cases. While people are standing outside ATMs/banks for hours for 2000 rupees, these officials were helping in conversion of crores of black money. These incidents were bound to infuriate people against Axis Bank, and they did too.


As the days after the declaration of demonetisation scheme are progressing, PM Narendra Modi is stunning everyone by revealing unexpected strategies made by his team to catch black-money holders and officials who are aiding them. After several raids and speculations on banks, Modi humorously spoke how the I-T department is quick to identify these hoarders and bankers.

In his speech at inauguration of an Amul unit in Deesa, Modi said,

Corrupt Bank officials are going to jail. People who ran away with big bundles of cash are going to jail. They thought, Modi ji has banned Rs 1000, Rs 500 but they would do something from the back gate. But they didn’t know, Modi has put cameras on the back gates. All of them will be arrested, no one will be spared.

Today media houses are reporting that the government has conducted sting operations in around 500 branches of banks across the country.


Some of the news are also reporting the possibility of cancellation of Axis Bank licence.


Things will only get clearer after the Finance Ministry puts official statements on the sting operations. However, the sting news will certainly give a warning and fear to those bankers who are abetting the corrupts.

Appointment of the Army Chief – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

rohitagarwal
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Appointment of the Army Chief – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Amidst speculation and heated debates about the delay in appointment of the next Army Chief, rumours about the two senior army commanders likely to be superseded are doing rounds. One argument being forwarded is – “shouldn’t merit rather than seniority be the criterion?” As arguments go, it is a tempting one, one which is difficult to disagree with. But it’s not without its pitfalls.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that there is significant difference between Army Commanders in terms of their merit or suitability for the job. What would be the parameters on which such differences could be measured? How would the performance of a Northern Army Commander dealing with Counter Insurgency operations be compared with that of, say the Western Army Commander who’s peacetime deliverables would be substantially different? Or with the Vice Chief, who may have nothing to show but procurement projects which are delayed for no fault of his?

Since there is no objective mechanism to ascertain any differences in merit, even if they do exist, there is bound to be subjectivity in making such a choice. Even this may work without causing much of an upheaval as long as there is a strong government in place. But imagine this scenario sometime in the future.

Say there is a weak coalition government in place at the centre. There are three or four regional satraps jointly keeping the government afloat, each with just enough MPs to bring the government down if it comes to a crunch. And you have seven Army Commanders, each of whom is now in the running for the Army Chief post based on precedence set by selecting a chief ‘on merit’ rather than on seniority as used to happen earlier. Imagine if each of them is lobbying with one or more of the regional satraps to help them. You will have a situation where politicians are rooting for their ‘candidate’ to be the next Army Chief. Regional, cast and religious affiliations would come into play.

We recently saw the CM of a state creating a huge controversy over a routine army exercise. In future such controversies could become a way of ‘eliminating’ a candidate in the race for chief. Matter would be further complicated by the central government rooting for its own candidate, advised by the incumbent chief, probably based on Regimental or arm affiliations. Further unfolding and ramifications of such a scenario are actually too disturbing to imagine.

For the past seven decades, the Armed Forces have carried out their role professionally, having earned universal trust and respect in the country. They have remained steadfastly apolitical, and though appointment of the chiefs have been a political decision, there has been no politics involved in the decision itself. This is because the principle of senior most army commander becoming the chief has been strictly followed, leaving the government of the day very little room for playing favourites.

When the system has worked well for the past seven decades, there shouldn’t be any reason to tamper with it unnecessarily. Even if well intentioned, a move which is presently unnecessary and potential damaging in the long run, must be avoided at all costs. So, Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere or as the Americans, now our ‘major defence partners’ say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

(Author is an ex army-man; the article first appeared on author’s blog)

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