The garrulous general poses no danger

General VK Singh has been saying a lot of things since he took over as chief of the army staff two years ago. One was that the army cannot be used against Maoists because the army is meant to fight the external, not internal, enemy. There wasn’t much reaction to it.

When General Singh spoke again this March, first in a newspaper and a television interview, and then through his confidential exit letter to the prime minister, more than a few feathers were ruffled.

The interview referred to a bribe offer of Rs14 crore for the purchase of sub-standard trucks. The Congress maintained silence. It was an obvious thing for the party to do because the coalition government it leads is caught up in many scandals. The BJP, which has been attacking the government on corruption, could not let go of the opening provided by the general and demanded clarification from defence minister AK Antony. The Congress was not too happy with the general. It felt he should have acted against the bribe-giver immediately. And it was embarrassed by what Antony revealed: the general wanted the issue to be dropped.

What complicated General Singh’s walk in the defence minefield was his letter to the PM about deficiencies in defence preparedness, especially on the border with China; it unleashed a confused clamour on all sides. The Congress could feel indignant for the first time because it could catch on to that straw called national interest and state secrets. The BJP was distinctly uncomfortable. The socialist parties did not like what the general said because they consider China to be an enemy as it is a communist country and their ideological opposition to communism, a hangover from the old days, remains as ardent as ever. The security experts in the media were outraged by the fact that the general’s letter became public. They feel that state secrets should remain sacrosanct.

What got ignored in this hullabaloo were some basic issues. Middle-class Indians of a free market economy retain a strong nationalist prejudice that the armed forces can do no wrong. It is one of those nice primal sentiments, which is needed for national bonding. The security forces become the holy cow for the right-wing elements. The left-wingers, including rights activists, are only too ready to challenge the presumption. This would imply either that the security forces can do no wrong, or that they cannot do anything right. This Manichaean view is, of course, nothing but bunkum.

The consequences of a realistic view of the forces then will be: There is corruption but not everyone is corrupt. A corrupt deal does not always mean what has been purchased is of low quality.

There is no harm if corruption in defence is talked about and examined openly. This would not weaken or undermine the integrity of the forces. Of course, this needs to be handled with care because if there are too many whistleblowers in the army, if there is too much of debate inside the forces, then it affects cohesion and discipline. The CAG should be the watchdog of defence expenditure and not the soldiers themselves. This will be a good rule to maintain discipline as well as transparency. There are genuine challenges in running the armed forces in a democratic polity but there is no need to keep the forces above the norms of accountability. The principles of natural justice are applicable to those inside the forces and to the force as a whole.

There is also a need to discuss openly India’s vulnerabilities with regard to China without slipping into apoplexy. Even if India’s hawks want India’s China border to be fortified and sealed, it cannot be done. This does not mean that there is no need to guard the borders. There is need for vigilance as well as preparedness even if there is no outbreak of war in the next 100 years on that front.

A senior BJP leader observed that the Singh saga will be overtaken by another dramatic development, and that there is no hint of danger in any of this. Perhaps what is needed is to get beyond the responses of shock and rage, and get down to talking about procurement, development of Indian arms manufacturing capabilities, and the global balance of power. If a general’s statement is to throw the polity off its balance, then there is something seriously wrong with the emerging superpower that India is expected to be.