Army's secret warriors in J&K

Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal. A decade after the Kargil war that also displaced people living on the Akhnoor borders, the southernmost tip of the Line of Control between the two divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir, began returning from the shabby camps to their homes ravaged during the skirmishes between the Indian and Pakistani troops. It wasn't quite out of willingness, as hostilities and desertion had completely destroyed their homes and schools, left their cattle killed or lost and their fields fully or partially mined, in some cases also fenced out. Many of them said that they came back because either the government was winding up the temporary tented camps they had been putting up for a decade or because the army wanted them back. In one of these Hindu dominated villages, men rendered completely idle, sitting and gossiping or playing cards under a huge banyan tree said: "We had to come back, after all we are the army's shield." The remark wasn't made out of sarcasm but out of a sense of responsibility and importance. They, however, refused to be explicit about how they could be of any use to the army.

About 150 kilometers to the north, on the Poonch borders, during a visit to a quake effected village bang on the borders in 2005, while sitting and chatting with Fazl Haque in his home, just few yards away from the Line of Control, a soldier in civvies shouted from outside his compound, "So when are you going to the other side?" "Whenever, major sahib, wishes," pat came the response. Locals in the village in hushed whispers talked about the man being an army spy and informer. Living in a place along the Line of Control which straddles an unnatural divide, separating families and dividing villages into Indian and Pakistan administered territories, it is easy for army to co-opt, by way of intimidation or small monetary benefits, civilians to work as spies. Most of them have relatives on the other side of the border, making their survival on the alien side easier but at the same time also making them vulnerable to turning double agents. Yet, such policies of roping in civilians have been common practice for decades.

In Jammu and Kashmir, where such stories are an open secret and have moved beyond the borders ever since the years of militancy, it really didn't spring a surprise when Indian Express late September leaked the news of an army inquiry report indicting former army chief, General V.K. Singh of several irregularities including funding ministers in Omar Abdullah government and other politicians, including payment of Rs 1.2 crores to an influential minister, for toppling the Omar Abdullah government, even of getting the chief minister's phones tapped. Army in Jammu and Kashmir exercises a certain extent of power that goes beyond its role in a democracy. If army officers had all along been wielding its influence over civilians, using them as spies, informers and human shields, the shady connection with the politicians would seem as the only likely next and not at all surprising, given the army's increasing footprints and its excessive use during the elections in the last two decades in herding people from the villages and various localities to various booths to show impressive polling figures, if not influence voting patterns.

So, when the embarrassed former army chief, tried to battle the allegations by stating that the policy of offering money to politicians and civilians was routine ages old practice to generate what he called "goodwill", few here were outraged. Rather, his remarks were deemed to be the case of letting the cat out of the bag. The exception being the political class, who stood bitterly exposed by these fresh revelations - both the inquiry report and Singh's bombshell. The debate in the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly that preceded the passing of resolution against former army chief V.K. Singh was marked with guarded caution. His remarks over the news of leak of an inquiry report indicting him of squandering money and trying to topple the Jammu and Kashmir government were met with more disbelief. The minister who is said to have received Rs 1.2 crores kickback from the former army chief, Ghulam Hassan Mir, simply denied the charge and the chief minister, even as he raved and ranted about his phones being tapped, refused to take any action against his cabinet colleague.

As for the uncomfortable questions that have been raised by the controversial reports and remarks, for the sake of both moral propriety and democracy, it needs a greater probe and introspection than the simple hushing up to salvage the 'image of the army' with layers of untruths. This cannot be a remedy to the damage that has set in. If the whole affair of paying money really was about goodwill, why should it have been funded through secret funding system with no system of accountability in the first place? The army already has in place the Sadbhavna schemes for wooing the local public defying the logic of having secret funds and secret schemes for the purpose. It may not be out of place to mention the massive complaints of some of the ill-planned Sadbhavna schemes and also of irregularities that keep surfacing from the rural areas across Jammu and Kashmir. Depending on the vision of the officers posted in their areas, some of these schemes have met with some success, though without the promise of sustainable development or goodwill. If the secret funds were aimed at goodwill operations, what extra were they expected to achieve beyond the cosmetic Sadbhavna measures and why was the entire operation so covert as to rope in NGOs and ministers for generating goodwill that is being sought to be achieved through secrecy and hush-hush manner. The inquiry report already points out to the missing Rs 8 crore rupees and destruction of some military equipment whimsically, puncturing the claims of the former army chief and putting a question mark over his frustrated outburst of 'hang those who leaked the report' by terming as 'treason' the unveiling of the murky affairs within the army.

Reports pointing to secret funds being used for attempts to topple the J&K government shouldn't have come as a surprise in face of earlier revelations of the role of section of army officers, both serving and retired, in funding and aiding Hindutva activities as was demonstrated by the role of Col Purohit in Malegaon blast. That the government made no special efforts ever since to call for an indepth probe into that angle is not only alarming, it reveals that the mess is too deep for a weak leadership to even question. Sight cannot also be lost of successive army chiefs, including V.K. Singh striking down any discussion or review of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives absolute impunity to the armed forces personnel, even when the political leadership both in the state and centre has hinted at some kind of flexibility over the issue.

The increasing powers of the army, the hobnobbing with politicians both in and out of service, the unlimited funds available in the name of covert operations and the bid to stonewall probes or calls for accountability in the name of treason - all these do not augur well for democracy. Certainly, this one particular case or its relevant history may not be enough to shake the edifices of a democratic state. But complacency over the matter and unwillingness to probe the matter in-depth as also find remedial measures would surely set us on the perilious road where democracy will eventually be well out of sight.

The issue at stake is not about individuals like V.K. Singh and Ghulam Hassan Mir, it is about the sanctity of both democratic institutions and the army and this merits attention and thorough probe without the blinkered notion that patriotism and nationalism only comes dressed in a uniform, which must appear respectable and clean, howsoever much dirt it continues to shroud. It is not only the politicians of the state that come under cloud, it is also those sitting in New Delhi who blindly empowered the army or other forces to perpetuate a cycle of corruption in this state. For all this, the nation's quest needs to go beyond the V.K. Singh affair and settle for nothing less than the absolute truth.

via Kashmir Times

Indian Army , No comments