Blustering Indian Army leadership

When it comes to the Indian Army chief, it is not difficult to predict about the requirements of his job. He has to talk about the China threat, the Kashmir issue, the Pakistan conundrum, the state of readiness of the Indian armed forces and what not. But while there could be many takers of his statements and threats in India, it altogether is a different story abroad. And there are genuine reasons why he is considered pretty non-serious and loudmouthed in most countries of South Asia besides China.

For example, last month, General Bipin Rawat warned that a new round of surgical strikes could be used to eliminate “staging areas for militants located across the border in Kashmir.” The chief ranted that his troops were ready to force infiltrators into their graves. "Terrorists will keep coming because the (terror) camps are operational there (across the LoC). Even we are ready. We will keep receiving them (infiltrators) to dispatch them two-and-a-half feet below the ground," he said. But then giving such statements that do not have an iota of truth is his job requirement. The policy of Modi Sarkar as everybody can see is to blame Pakistan for the violence generated by Indian security agencies in Indian occupied Kashmir. The policy entails killing innocent civilians across the Line of Control in Azad Kashmir and Working Boundary, giving statements against imaginary militants crossing the fortified Line of Control every other day and talking about the surgical strike in Azad Kashmir that never happened except for the Indian minds.

The so-called surgical strike in last September in Azad Kashmir was about allegedly taking out “terror launch pads where terrorists waiting there were planning to attack major Indian metros.” No proof of the so-called strike was ever available but Rawat still said "The strike was a message we wanted to communicate to them and they have understood what we mean... that things could follow up, if required." Even serious analysts across the border, not flushed in deep-rooted patriotism, are not sure about the imaginary strike, whose film understandably has not been released.

In another statement General Rawat made, he hinted that the (alleged) proxy war being carried out by Pakistan in India is likely to continue and that the possibility of peace with the neighbouring country is negligible. “Because of this proxy war, there is always a scope of conflict with our western neighbour.” What proxy war is he talking about as Pakistan is engaged in countering the Indian proxy war, especially in Fata and Balochistan. 

Referring to China, General Rawat stated that India has to be prepared for situations like its northern adversary taking over swathes of Indian territory and testing its limits, which may gradually emerge into conflicts. “Whether these conflicts will be confined or limited in space and time or whether these can turn into war along the entire front, with the western adversary taking advantage of the situation developing on the northern border, is very much likely,” he claimed. The most interesting thing is that the Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat recently said neither China nor Pakistan was an imminent threat to the country. He declared on the sidelines of an event in Dehradun: “None of the country (China or Pakistan) is a threat.” When he was reminded of his previous remarks following the worst India-China military face-off at Doklam at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction, he tried to clarify: “What I had said... said.” Period.

This was a significant departure from his earlier statement wherein he had dubbed the two countries “India’s northern and western adversaries respectively and that the country needed to be prepared for a two-front war.” China had reacted to Rawat’s earlier remark, saying ties between the two countries should not be derailed. 

Not surprisingly, China’s communist party run Global Times last month declared that the Indian Army chief had a loud mouth. Not surprisingly, few statements have been given by General Rawat after this fiasco.