OF 'MISTAKEN', BAD AND UGLY "MISTAKE" !
'Mistaken' Mistake
On November 04,2014 at Chhatergam, Anantnag in South Kashmir, a patrol party of Rashtriya rifle shoots at a Maruti car due to MISTAKEN IDENTITY because the car did not stop at the two road blocks set up by the patrol party. As a results, two youths get killed. Loss of innocent human lives is unacceptable. It was never intended by the Patrol party. But it had happened due to wrong judgment.
May be , I would call it an ENFORCED ERROR by instant conduct of the boys NOT stopping , when signaled to stop. I do take it that they were innocents but it could have been otherwise, too. We must know that terrorists do not move about with head bands. And Kashmir is a definitely a disturbed area. Soldiers are deployed to do a job. How are they to make out, who was innocent and who was not?
It is very well for media and local politicians to make noise on this ENFORCED ERROR. But certainly, it was NOT a mistake. In a similar kind of incident in Jorhat , Assam, on 26/27 January 1990, my unit had shot at an Army Brigadier and wounded him because his gypsy, too, had not stopped at the road blocks. As a CO, I was under a lot of pressure to punish the shooters but Chief of Staff 3 Corps then, Maj General Ian D'cruz and the Corps Commander Lt General Jameel Mehmood understood this ENFORCED ERROR and refused to accept it as a mistake of the Patrol Party. Instead, they patted the boys for good shooting.
We must understand that JUDGMENT OF ERROR took place in the Chattergam incident because of the partial fault of the boys, too. They enforced this error on the patrol party. Unfortunately, media and local population does not understand this because they do not know the complexities of ongoing WOM ( War by Other Means). It is no more insurgency or a proxy war but a FULL FLEDGED WAR . Unfortunately, army and its hierarchy has not been able to explain the nature of this war to the people in general. How can they when the top brass of the army,too, thinks that it was MILITANCY or INSURGENCY or even PROXY WAR. Pakistan had evolved this format of war years back and it has skillfully employed its ' Irregular Soldiers' to bleed Indian Army over the las 25 years in Kashmir. The basic ingredient of this war is to "Blow Hot; Blow Cold". Therefore, such errors on you will be enforced. It was for the army to take it in its own stride and not to go with a whipping leash to whip its erring boys. Such "MISTAKEN IDENTITY MISTAKES" will occur when you fight WOM. You got to ignore them.
Bad Mistake
Chattergam incident had created a lot of hue and cry. Such incidents are the oxygen for the WOM. They ought to be avoided but there was no impregnable military procedures/ drills/tactics which can prevent them. When army is deployed in disturbed areas, it implies all other state instruments of restoration have failed and army is the last resort. Its failure means the failure of the nation. Therefore it has no scope for failure. Some lapses might take place in the course of performance of the duty , they ought to be accepted.
What is not acceptable is to term ERROR OF JUDGMENT by your own men as MISTAKES. It generates a guilt consciousness amongst the soldiers and imposes caution on them. This is a sure recipe for army's failure. And army can only allow to afford its to fail at peril to Nation's integrity. Media and local population would cry hoarse, but army has to see things through its own prism. Therefore, it was a big MISTAKE, a bad one perhaps, to publicly call the Chattergam incident a " Mistake". He could have blasted the perpetrators and their commanders in his internal messages but to say so on the public platform was a HYMALYAN BLUNDER.
It is NOT to say that soldiers indulging in wrong-doing, such as Machhil incident of 2010, have to be let off. We must know that soldiers do come from the same Indian stock as most of our civilian friends do. Obviously, they have the same characteristics as a modern Indian man has. They are not holy men from heavens. They, too , are bound to be tempted to indulge in activities detrimental to overall aim and objectives of the army. No amount of training and discipline can wash out this characteristic. It only be kept under check through strict vigilance and severe action.They ought to be given exemplary punishments to send the correct message to the environments.
Punish them but do not thump your chest in the public and disgrace the whole army. A CRPF officer, writing to an Army Major, though sarcastically, says : 'Is veham ko bna hi rehne do to achha hai…taki janta ka honsla bna rahe..----इस बहम को बना रहने दो तो अच्छा है......ताकि जनता का हौंसला बना रहे' (In order to maintain public confidence, it is better to maintain the credibility of the Army) . He has hit the nail on its head.
Calling Chattergam incident a 'Mistake' and then thumping chest in the public about the punishment meted out to Machhil wrong- doers was a real BAD MISTAKE , nay a 'Himalayan Blunder'--- which has plummeted Indian Army's image many notches and demoralized its rank and file. What does the army want from its soldiers ? To play safe? Well! This is the message when you say Chattergam incident was a mistake.
Ugly Mistake!
While Army commander and Corps commander had blundered in calling the Anantnag/ Chattergam incident a 'mistake', there comes a bombshell from our honorable Prime Minister in Srinagar on December 07,2014. I am shocked and do wonder if MISTAKE STORY was scripted in New Delhi and Army Commander had just obediently played his part in the sordid affair. I hope it does not send the message that a professional soldier of his repute and competence has finally succumbed to his post retirement ambitions. I do not know him but people who know him talk very highly of his professionalism.
I, therefore, hope what Prime Minister NARENDER Modi said , does not have his concurrence. Here is what Mr. NARENDER MODI, Prime Minister of India in Srinagar on December 07, 2014 had said,
"-----For the first time in 30 years, the Army admitted its mistake. This is the Modi government's doing. An inquiry commission probed the matter and those who fired the bullets were charged. This is proof of my good intentions. I have come to provide justice to you."
What he means is that army had committed blunders in the past but now on his prompting army had accepted its mistake. Besides, he drumbeats that mistake-makers of Chattergam have been been charged and punished. The case of INSTANCE JUSTICE! ( Sic). Won't such statements from the head of the government make soldiers PLAY SAFE in future. Haven't we fallen into the booby trap of WOM predators?
It is a very very big, nay, an UGLY MISTAKE. Besides, it divests army of its apolitical characteristic. Has the army commander realized, what a blunder he has committed? His statement has been used for political purposes. I know it is wrong on the part of Prime Minister . But , he is a politician. He has to see his political interests? The question is who must see the army's interests? Obviously, it is the top echelons of the Army. But, then,when Army has its SUCCESSION PLANS for the ARMY CHIEFS and other top appointments, who cares for the army. The policies action of the army had begun when succession plan for the Army Chiefs had been worked out in 2005, under the UPA government.
Will the present Army Chief and Northern Army Commander show some mettle in them and walk up to the Prime Minister and tell him that he should not have involved army in his political battles. If they do not, it is a poor reflection on them and damages army's very credibility what that CRPF Deputy Commandant had tauntingly said. We lose that facade of 'Fairness and Just'. We have been fooled for the OROP, it is still accepted. But using army for political purposes is just not accepted. Let the army not become a pawn in the chess board game of politicians. It must stop and standing upright both of you can make it stop.
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