Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Line of fire
•This refers to the transcript of General J.J. Singh’s ‘Walk the Talk’ TV interview with Express editor-in-chief, Shekhar Gupta. I beg to join issue with the distinguished general when he states, “Very few armies have officer casualties. But ours has been a tradition in which officers have always led from the front.”
Are higher casualties among officers a matter of pride or concern? Why is there an hierarchy in the army, if senior officers cannot delegate powers and must themselves execute the odd operation, like dislodging a terrorist from a building? Why do we have JCOs and non-commissioned officers, if they cannot be entrusted with such roles? It’s high time, the JCO’s rank is abolished. This category has proved completely ineffective during mutiny-type situations in some units following Operation Bluestar and, more recently, in J&K operations. Mounting casualties among the officer ranks may be one reason why many serving officers want to opt for premature retirement.
— Lt Col Dalip Singh (retd)
New Delhi
RAW’s different
•In your editorials and articles, you have compared RAW with the CIA. The fact is the CIA/FBI are run on a much larger scale than the RAW/IB. In fact, their operations are conducted on an international scale and tend to heavily influence US foreign policy, particularly when things goes wrong, like in the Bay Of Pigs. The same situation exists in Russia and Britain. In India, in contrast, the functioning of the secret service is mainly limited to counter-espionage — ie, fire-walling foreign intelligence services from attempting to penetrate India. Therefore, the degree of control required is less. Moreover, taking V.K. Singh’s case, he appears to have leaked the names of companies supplying sensitive technologies for security agencies.
— Karthikeya Ramesh
New Delhi
Worrying verdict
•The recent Supreme Court order rejecting the plea to examine the merits of the UP governor’s decision not to grant mandatory sanction for prosecuting Mayawati and others in the Taj Corridor Case is not a welcome one. In fact, the same court had devised the concept of “continuing mandamus” in the celebrated Vineet Narain Case (1997), under which the judiciary is supposed to monitor the progress of ongoing cases involving the political elite, so that investigators don’t come under undue pressure. I would also like to highlight a grave anomaly, even after the historic verdict of the Supreme Court delivered last December mandated that there’s no need to seek sanction from a competent authority in the prosecution of public servants in corruption cases. Although it was hailed, a thorough perusal shows that it covers only those who have ceased to be public servants or have become public servants in a different capacity. It doesn’t cover those who continue to hold the same positions they are alleged to have abused, as in case of the UP CM.
— Hemant Kumar
Ambala
Making it pay
•This refers to the article, ‘‘Government disservice’’. An apocryphal story in the context of the Pay Commission goes like this. A delegation of six SHOs of the Delhi Police approached a senior IPS officer of the Delhi Police. They said, “Jenab, we feel very humiliated to see our sahib asking for a few hundred rupees of pay increase. Please tell us how much you need and we’ll arrange it.” The officer asked them to leave his room and had a good laugh. My only worry is that one day, the officer may not ask them to leave his room!
— Rakesh Jaruhar
Delhi
