SN Misra
The government’s announcement of Lt. Gen Bipin Rawat as the next army chief superseding seniors such as Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi and Lt Gen PM Hariz likens to the supersession of Lt Gen SK Sinha by Gen AS Vaidya in the summer of 1983.
The Congress has gone ballistic about the present government’s motives, but Indira Gandhi had, in her tenure as PM, not only superseded Lt. Gen Sinha as chief of army staff but also did likewise to three judges to appoint Justice AN Ray as the chief justice of India in 1973.
The supersession prompted Nani Palkhiwala, the famous lawyer, to observe: “The judges owe their allegiance to the Constitution and not to the party in power.” The three superseded judges Jaishanker Manilal Shelat, AN Grover and KS Hegde resigned soon after. The supersession of Lt. Gen Sinha a decade later was a rare repeat in the history of such appointments.
Lt Gen Sinha, who passed away recently, was a fiercely independent-minded officer and was the best cadet of his batch. He had a penchant for standing for soldiers’ rights. The announcement of free ration for soldiers on January 26, 1983, was testimony to his tenacity and popularity among the forces.
Sinha, an erudite scholar averse to gossip, had opted for voluntary retirement and settled down in Patna. I have interacted with him at the AN Sinha Institute library on several occasions and in one rare moment of candour I could elicit his views on supersession particularly with reference to his own.
“The Delhi durbar does not like naysayers. We should never tinker with seniority, unless there are grave allegations against the most senior,” he said. For him, the apolitical nature of the Army was of paramount importance.
But it was an irony that Lt Gen Sinha joined politics soon after, became Janata Party MP of Patna, and later Ambassador to Nepal and Governor of Jammu & Kashmir. Notwithstanding his crossover to politics, what Lt Gen Sinha said is still clear in my memory. He had said: “Do not tinker with merit and seniority in the armed forces. Do not encourage lobbying.”
The current supersession is certainly shrouded in secrecy and the explanation that Lt Gen Rawat has better strategic exposure in the Kashmir valley is facile.
Fareed Zakaria in his book ‘The Future of Freedom’ calls constitutional liberalism as vital to a democracy and says that it goes beyond mere conduct of free and fair elections. He observes how nearly 50 per cent of democratically elected nations in the world practice illiberal democracy by exhibiting extremely illiberal attitude towards legitimate contrarian opinion, trump up nationalism, and do not give credence to the rule of law.
This makes democratic discourse impossible, as is happening in India in debates such as demonetisation and the Kashmir issue. Former US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, an arch enemy of communism, has observed: “You are either with us, or you are against us.” Such binary perspective of fundamental issues affecting a pluralistic, multicultural country is inherently undemocratic.
Social and political theorist and philosopher Isaiah Berlin aptly observes: “Constitutional liberalism is about limitation of power.”
There is parlour gossip that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is close to the prime minister, has facilitated the promotion of Lt Gen Rawat as he hails from the NSA’s native district. The armoured corps is understandably peeved that they have again been upstaged by an officer from the Infantry Corps.
The issue, though, is not about discontent among corps, but of backdoor entry of politicking and lobbying for plum postings in the defence forces. This is indeed a sad development.
The armed forces are protectors of the nation’s sovereignty and security. They also pre-empt internal turmoil through counter insurgency and play a commendable role when natural calamities strike.
Ajay Shukla, a noted journalist and former armoured corps officer, once observed how Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was in two minds before appointing Gen Cariappa as the first Commander in Chief of India as he was a very upright officer.
However, after his initial prevarication better sense prevailed over Nehru. The country was not so lucky with his daughter. While the Supreme Court has been able to repulse the possibility of committed judges, the present supersession in the armed forces is likely to leave a trail of bitterness and encourage lobbying within the defence forces.
Ironically, Lt. Gen Sinha, who shared the ideology of the BJP, argued fervently against political interference in the matter of appointment of chiefs of army staff.
The hallmark of constitutional liberalism is to honour seniority with merit. There was no taint afflicting the overlooked Generals. The supersession move by the government seriously undermines its democratic credentials. The spectre of an army committed to party in power is too worrying to ignore.
The author teaches economics and is Dean, KSOM.
