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Journalism of Courage
House panels April 20 meeting with the service chiefs is a step in the right direction
Now that the parliamentary standing committee on defence has invited the three service chiefs to appear before it on April 20 to discuss defence preparedness,a much-needed conversation is set to begin. Instead of talking at each other,political and military leaders will,hopefully,learn to talk to each other again. Appropriately,this conversation will take place in the highest deliberative forum where the fundamental democratic principle of accountability of government to the people is also enforced. Such a dialogue needs to be welcomed,given how deeply congealed is the distrust between the military and political establishments.
There is a need to engage with the issues but for both sides to look at each other and the issues in the eye,they must first address themselves to the distrust that has discoloured their relationship. The Indian Expresss reconstruction of the chain of events set off by the unusual troop movement on the night of January 16-17 pointed to this build-up of suspicion and anxiety. The subsequent denials the army chief called the report absolutely stupid, the defence minister called it baseless shed more sound than light in a fractious public debate. Most recently,in an interview to CNN-IBN,Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju admitted that there are protocols that govern the movement of troops,where somebody has to be informed or somebody has to be kept in the loop,but tried to transfer the responsibility of the governments panicked reaction to probably someone down the line who has read too much into it. The April 20 invitation to Parliament provides an opportunity to dispel the fog that shrouds issues ranging from postings to procurements. It is a step in the right direction. For,clearing the air is fundamental to defence preparedness.
