Gen Bipin Rawat will do whatever it takes to save his men. Do you object?

When asked what keeps him awake at night, US defence secretary and the most celebrated marine of his generation, James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, said, “Nothing. I keep others awake at night.” On Sunday, in an interview to PTI, Indian Army chief Bipin Rawat called the proxy war in Kashmir a “dirty war” and went on to suggest that “innovative” methods are required to tackle it.

And then all hell broke loose! One newspaper editorial cried “The General has it wrong” and proceeded to suggest that the Army chief was actually undermining the Army’s prestige (thank heavens for that editorial writer who was battling to protect the Army’s prestige from the Army chief himself). An eminent columnist, writing for another national daily, called it a ‘March to Spectacle’ -- painting a Kafkaesque scenario of a socio-political takeover of the institution. And then there were the trolls– yet more attempts to ‘’save” the Army from its own leader by ‘Smartphone Commandos’.

What did General Rawat say exactly? “People are throwing stones at us, people are throwing petrol bombs. If my men ask me what do we do, should I say, ‘just wait and die?’” Our collective punditry that generally is obsessed with the big picture (details are for minnows and the un-intellectuals), misses one point completely: The basic human instinct for self-defence and defence of one’s kith & kin. The real army, unlike the ‘army’ of Lutyens Delhi intellectuals, is a closely-knit family wherein the head of the family is responsible for the lives and well-being of other members. If a member of the family is attacked, or comes in harm’s way, then the attacker is repelled and vanquished with whatever means available.

What the general said in course of the interview was not just for the public -- he was addressing his own too. And if you are in the army, posted somewhere hostile in Kashmir, and you just heard him, you will feel that the head of your family cares about you and your safety. Isn’t that reason enough to let General Rawat be? If even a single Indian soldier feels safer after these words, or is able to fight this ‘dirty’ war more effectively – isn’t that reason enough not to troll General Rawat and drown his voice with ours?

We, as a nation, have forgotten how to talk tough to our enemies. We talk tough only to ourselves. This is not about “Bhakt” or “Sickular”, this is not about whether you love or hate Modi, this is not about the youth of Kashmir and their future – this is about a 20-something young man in uniform facing an ‘incoming’, and trying to stay alive.

Wonder what ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis would have had to say to all this. Perhaps “you can't handle the truth!” – like Col Nathan R Jessup in A Few Good Men.

The author is Editor-In-Chief DNA