HARYANARCHY : PART 2 /9- BLUNTING THE INSTRUMENT OF LAST RESORT

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                                                      PART  TWO/NINE                                                                                                             REFERENCES :-

(K)Part- 11/X:-  https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2020/12/jat-reservation-agitation.html

(J) Part-10/ X:-      https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/sourcehttpwww.html

(I) Part-9/9:-  https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-videos-politics-of-denial.html

(H) Part-8/9 :-     https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-part-8-let-there-be-no-more.html

  (G) PART- 7/9:-  https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-part-79-let-truth-behind.html

 (F)  Part- 6/9:-    https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-part-6-9-face-to-face-with.html

(E)  Part -5/9:-    https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-part-5-days-later-govt.html

(D)  Part -4/9:-  https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-part-4-why-haryana.html

(C)  Part -3/9:-     https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/harynarchy-part-3-backward-march-who.html                                              

 (B)  Part -2/9:-   https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/03/haryanarchy-part-2-blunting-instrument.html

( A)  Part -1/9:-   https://bcvasundhra.blogspot.com/2016/02/internal-security-indian-army-goof-up.html

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

             BLUNTING THE INSTRUMENT
                                      OF
                             LAST RESORT

                                        By 

Lt Gen NS Brar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd)

                     

 Now  that the nation and its institutions have lost as nothing appears to have been gained by the agitation. The issue of reservations is a complex and emotive national socio – political matter within which the sub text of the Jat agitation was played out. Perhaps nothing in the country is so deeply mired in politics, to the exclusion of all else, as caste, ethnicity and religion focussed on reservations. In the final analysis the country, its leadership and the people will have to address and redress the whole question of reservation sooner rather than later. There is no doubt that there will be many such agitations to come. What is imperative is the way they are handled with specific reference to employment of the Army (and the armed forces).

The military is a nation’s instrument of last resort. ‘It’s the final argument of kings’. If it fails the nation has nothing to fall back on. Consequently, the nation has to ensure that it is maintained and employed to deliver when all else fails. 

It was quite apparent that the Jat agitation, soon after its launch, had degenerated into a serious law and order problem and needed firm handling. However, the inability of the state to act only confirmed that like its neighbour Punjab, the police and civil administration of Haryana had been totally politicised and compromised. So when the mobs came out to block highways and railways, and allegedly rape, the state machinery did not act and instead requisitioned the Army. It simply abdicated its responsibility, which was bad enough, but what followed was worse. Having called out the Army it failed to hand over restoring the situation to the Army by the simple expedient of not executing the legal provisions for doing so. Here was a situation, when leave aside clearing the road blocks, the Army was unable to move its own vehicle columns to the affected areas and employed helicopters to so. 

The law mandates and authorises the civil administration to requisition the Army for ‘aid to civil authority’ for restoring law and order or in situations of natural disasters. Inbuilt into the authority is the proviso that the civil administration has employed and exhausted all means available at its disposal and has no other option. The law also provides that a designated magistrate has to sign and hand over the situation to be restored and the Army having done that hands back the situation to the civil administration. It also implies that the magistrate has to be present on the spot to assess and hand over the situation. In short the Army does not come out on its own and nor does it act on its own to restore law and order.  

  

Here was a situation when mobs were damaging and looting public and private property indicating a total breakdown of law and order. The administration was unable or unwilling to employ the police to control the situation and to add oil to the fire was unwilling to hand over the situation to the Army. Seeing the lumpen mobs vandalising public and private property and the ‘State’ unwilling to hand over to the Army a soldier on the spot would well ask why was he there if he was not to be employed for the purpose for which he was deployed. The military legal system binds a soldier to obey a ‘lawful command’. Seeing mobs on the rampage and the civil administration unwilling to hand over and situation to the Army may be interpreted as an ‘unlawful command’ by the designated civil authority prompting the military commander on the spot to act to execute a ‘lawful command’ without the formal handing over by the magistrate. The soldier would not have ‘taken the law into his own hands’ but would have abided by the law. Perhaps the courts of the land will adjudicate on this aspect one day and if it finds favour, it would render a serious blow to the democratic principle of civil control of the military. It would not be of the making of the military.

The politics of employment of the Army, as played out, should also enlighten those who propagate doing away with the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSP) in disturbed areas. Consider a terrorist induced situation where the civil administration and police is obviously unable to handle it and in the absence of the state being declared disturbed, and AFSP not being promulgated, the Army cannot act without formal requisition and handing over by a magistrate. And, the magistrate is either not available or is unwilling to hand over!

The country has paramilitary and armed police strength perhaps equal to or more than the Army. The proliferation in its strength has been matched by the proliferation in adopting military uniforms, badges of rank and protocols but it has not adopted the military leadership and accountability. Needless to say it does not inspire confidence in the populace at large. Resultantly, the Army columns carried placards to so as to distinguish them from the paramilitary. Implying therefore that the columns were not from the paramilitary with its known inability and ineffectiveness. Having done that the Army too was made ineffective by political and legal jugglery. 

We seem to have spared no efforts to blunt the instrument of last resort by playing politics with it. Whether it is the Sikh Regiment at the Republic Day Parade, One Rank One Pension, requisitioning the Army in aid to civil authority for mundane tasks or calling out the Army and then playing politics over its employment even when the mobs run riot. The Jat agitation and its handling, and specifically the employment of the Army, chipped away at the purpose and perception of its capability both within the Army and the public at large. It added in blunting the instrument. If the decision and directions from the highest quarters was not to use force then why call out the instrument of force ? There will be many more such agitations to come. The nation needs to be alive as to how it employs the Army to respond to such agitations. Mishandling obviously has grave long term consequences for the Army and the country.