Military veterans seek president’s intervention in ‘protecting’ apolitical nature of armed forces

Expressing outrage over the “use” of the armed forces for “political purposes”, over 150 military veterans have written to President Ram Nath Kovind to seek his intervention in preserving the apolitical character of the services.

The letter, dated April 11, carries the names of eightformer service chiefs but two of them — former Army chief General (retd) S FRodrigues and Air Chief Marshal (retd) N C Suri — said they have not signedit.

   

Former Army vice chief Lt Gen (retd) M L Naidu also said hisconsent was not taken before listing his name as one of the signatories.

When contacted, several veterans, including former Armychiefs Gen (retd) Deepak Kapoor and Gen (retd) Shankar Roy Chowdhury,acknowledged writing the letter.

Chowdhury said the letter was written expressing sentimentsof the military veterans on an important issue.

The veterans said they chose to write to the president as heis the custodian of the Constitution as well as the supreme commander of thearmed forces.

Referring to Rodrigues and Suri denying signing the letter,Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called the allegations “fake”.

“It is absolutely condemnable that names were mentionedwithout taking permission,” he said.

The letter cites several examples of the military being usedfor political purposes, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathreferring to the armed forces as “Modiji ki Sena” and the display ofimages of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at political events.

Varthaman was captured by Pakistan after an air combat withIndia and subsequently released. In their rallies, Prime Minister Narendra Modiand a number of BJP leaders have been referring to IAF’s Balakot strikesbesides mentioning the valour of the armed forces in defending the country.

The Election Commission has already taken note of the PM’scomments asking first-time voters to dedicate their votes to those who carriedout the air strike in Balakot.

“We refer, Sir, to the unusual and completelyunacceptable practice of political leaders taking credit for militaryoperations like cross-border strikes and even going so far as to claim thearmed forces to be ‘Modi ji ki sena’,” the veterans wrote.

“This is in addition to media pictures of electionplatforms and campaigns in which party workers are seen wearing militaryuniforms and posters and images with pictures of soldiers and specially ofIndian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, displayed,”according to the letter.

They said such misuse of the armed forces would impingeadversely on the morale and fighting efficiency of the serving men and women inthe uniform.

“It could, therefore, directly affect national securityand national integrity. We, therefore, appeal to you to ensure that the secularand apolitical character of our armed forces is preserved,” the lettersays.

The veterans urged the president to take all necessary stepsand urgently direct all political parties to desist from using the military forpolitical purposes or to further their political agendas”.

The letter also lists former Navy chiefs Admiral (retired) LRamdas, Admiral (retired) Arun Prakash and Admiral (retired) Vishnu Bhagwat assignatories.

It mentions the Election Commission’s notifications to thoseviolating the model code of conduct, including to Adiyanath, but adds that theactions don’t have any impact on the ground.

“Indeed a notification has been issued asking for anexplanation for those responsible for these statements including from the ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh,” the letter says.

“However, we regret to state that these do not appearto have resulted in any substantive change of behaviour or practice on theground,” it adds.

In his reaction, Air Chief Marshal (retired) Suri said armedforces are apolitical and they report to the democratically elected government.

He added that his consent was not taken before his name was mentioned in the letter.

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