EDITOR'S NOTE
This interesting piece by Gp Capt AG Bewoor is on a topic that has seen many articles in the past besides TV shows and news items, too. Many of our past generals have been named as potential Coup Masters like Thimayya, Manekshaw, SK Sinha, VK Singh, etc.
Several generals who didn't make it to the top most appt have often been branded as 'too strong' and hence not appointed chief.
In these present times, when the appointment of the new Army Chief is eagerly awaited, this piece would surely enlighten readers about this subject and linked complex issues. The original article was a lengthy one written many years back.
It is now being republished by MVI into three interlinked parts to retain readers' interest and curiosity.
Editor, MVI
Part 1
Introduction
1. In our 77th year some Indians lament that Faujis are a drain on Indian resources, this is pure inferior thinking. Self-proclaimed experts and pseudo-defense analysts belittle the Armed Forces’ officers as having poor intellectual acumen; they never see the big picture and remain strategic pygmies, and they say so at every opportunity. Why? Because they elaborate, the Indian military abhors intellectually smart people in their midst. Media pundits give prominence to such utterances to promote their status as pillars of freedom of speech. This distasteful Fauji bashing gets a fillip when retired military officers; seeking fleeting aura under lights, denigrate their Service, casting aspersions on the integrity, loyalty, and capability of present incumbents. They handily forget that, when they sat in those powerful chairs; they could have made the changes they demand today, but froze, fearing the validity of those changes. Now hiding behind the ‘ghunghat’ of retirement, they pontificate, knowing that the officer they besmirch will never retaliate. The hullabaloo about Agniveers is a glaring example. Readers must wonder what all this has to do with a coup, it does.
2. Faujis Are Jealous of Civilians. From the foregoing, ordinary Indians would believe that Fauji officers are pedestrian material, and apart from wielding weapons or banging their feet on parade grounds, do precious little else, occasionally killing civilians. The canard being spread is that faujis thrive only in a strict disciplined atmosphere where issuing and receiving orders is the sole activity. The fabrication adds that, seeing the flourishing world outside the barbed wire fence; with freedoms, privileges, and financial benefits, a jealousy germinates against the civilians who administer India. The Fauji believes, the fable further adds, that he too needs to be an active part of governance to enjoy the profits. But being an Armed Forces officer his job is to serve the civilian government and not be a part of it. The military officer’s place is broadcast; is in the barracks with his soldiers or on the battlefield defending India so that the civil administrator operates in safety. And, finally the canard, this discriminatory attitude by the politician, bureaucrat, judiciary, and legislature, which denies the military officer a share in running the nation; generates a spark in him to forcibly enter the governance arena. In other words, Armed Forces officers wish to stage a coup, if they could, and start running India. Sounds ridiculous today in 2024, and was just as absurd back in the 1950s, when this misleading fabrication mischievously took birth in India. Readers will be appalled to know that such horrendous tales were spread when our nation was but five years old in 1952. During these years, till 2024, there has been no evidence that such has been Fauji intent. Then why is it that even today, there lurks in the suspicious minds of bureaucrats, intelligence pundits, netas, technocrats, media barons, and armchair strategists that the Fauji ‘afsar’ wants to do a coup? Such morally offensive thoughts need to be destroyed, never to contaminate us Indians. How to do it, and who will do it?
Higher Defence Organisation or HDO
3. What Can the CDS Do? What has triggered this story is the media reaction to the delay in appointing a CDS after the tragic loss of General Rawat. There was 'Andar ki baat’ in the media that; the babu-neta-intelligence triumvirate is collectively raising the bogey of a military coup by a powerful CDS. Was it fake news, or is it a fact? Mercifully General Chauhan was appointed the CDS, and at least as yet no one has cast aspersions on his inclination to engineer a coup. There is an intrinsic fault in this deduction about a CDS doing a coup. Readers, especially the non-military, must understand the ever-present inviolable rule that governs the actions of all faujis which asks; have I received a lawful command? In the Army, Navy & Air Force, an officer or soldier/sailor/airman, will refuse to obey an Unlawful Command. Engineering a coup is an act against India, and is not a Lawful Command; it will be disobeyed by all military Officers and Other Ranks. But this apart, it is asinine to believe that the persona of the CDS, whatever his charisma, can execute a coup-d’état in India.
4. Privacy & Freedom or Security? A wide spectrum of military, civilian, academic, financial, intelligence, security, and even selected corporate moghuls should debate the structure of our Higher Defence Organisation HDO. The agenda must be wide as benefits our diversity, complexity, and population. The CDS is just one man in the HDO, there are many operational/logistic/administrative/financial and intelligence elements in the HDO. The deliberations on the structure, anatomy, and management of HDO must be unhurried. The present environment of Right to Information, Gender Equality, Open Society, Freedom to Report and Nation Must Know cannot be applied to these deliberations which ought to happen under exacting security. Leaks will not empower Indians but will strengthen India’sadversaries to interpret how we are building our HDO. It is prudent to never forget that privacy and openness is not always an alloyed good. A society that gives Privacy & Openness priority and brilliance over Security, invites paralyzing disorder and injustices that will cripple the very freedoms that Privacy & Openness wants to ensure.Bin Laden’s SAT phone went dead when media revealed that Americans had locked onto it. How many lives were lost with that revelation, and whose freedom and privacy did the media protect? Did the world have a right to know? Did the media have the right to tell? Creating a manageable balance between Privacy, Freedom, Openness and Security ensures that all flourish in safety.
5. Create a HDO for India. Wide and varied professionals taking part in deliberations on HDO will bring forth the pent-up angst that has been hidden in the hearts and minds of everyone for years. So much has been written about the dissonance between the Armed Forces on one side; and the Civil Services which includes the Police, Para-Military, Auditors, Intelligence, Railways, Scientists, Businessmen, and ordinary citizens, on the other. Odious comparisons with bitterness and blame games of who is undercutting who remains well documented. The cardinal rule that in India, the Fauj must be under the control of civilian power has on many occasions been corrupted to denigrate the Armed Forces. Faulty comparisons and fake data have been used freely by both sides, to get privileges and perks. This battle will not stop. We aim to create an HDO which integrates all agencies to fortify the security, freedom, and safety of India. Nothing else matters. Deliberations done with sincere reflection and confidentiality will encourage the repressed venom to be ejected; there will be hurt, acrimony, and thorniness during debates but the path will become clear, clean and smooth. That is the intent. One thing is unquestionably certain; the HDO with Service Chiefs, a CDS, and the Integrated Defence Staff which includes civilian officers, all put together will never be able to do a coup d’état. Readers will vehemently protest and ask, why ever not? After all, did not Gen VK Singh then COAS do something similar in January 2012? Did he? All by himself? Not one other general, colonel, brigadier, or subedar was involved. The Air Force & Navy Chiefs had no inkling. The rest of the Indian Army was in cahoots with Gen VK Singh? Coups are engineered by just a couple of persons, are they? Detailed planning and months of secret parleys must take place to execute a coup in a country like India. It is not like cutting a ‘tarbooz’ and giving each one his slice. HDO functions with integration and consolidation which intrinsically disallows a coup to be planned. The existing HDO with Indian Faujis will not even bruise, let alone injure India.
The Counterpoise to a Military Coup
6. Why the Fear of a Coup D’Etat? Innumerable writers repeatedly said that the political-bureaucratic-intelligence aggregate decided soon after 1947 to create conditions to forestall a coup by the new Indian Army. Why would the Army do a coup in the first few years of our nation’s life? Had the Indian component of the erstwhile British Indian Army/ Air Force / Navy shown indications of such desires? Not one historical noting says so. British Indian Armed Forces had never been used to suppress freedom agitations. Not one Indian Armed Forces officer would have led his men against freedom fighters, and every politician/babu/policeman, Gora or Kala, knew this. Then why should any Neta doubt the loyalty of the officers of independent India’s Armed Forces? It had to be a deliberate fabrication to mislead and frighten the politicians and through the misinform the populace. Shocking, shameful, and despicable as it is, it was done by our Desi charlatans, and we Faujis know about it. It is time that the public also know about this.
7. So What Was Done? It is recorded that independent India’s political leaders, egged on by intelligence and bureaucratic Babus, placed top military officers under surveillance and made efforts to create internal strife within the senior military leadership, especially the Army. The first four Navy chiefs were British, the first three Air Force chiefs were British and the first two C-in-Cs of the Indian Army were British. Cariappa became C-in-C in January 1949,Mukherjee became CAS in March 1954 and Katari was made CNS in April 1958. It sounds disingenuous and disagreeable that, from about 1949 there were efforts made to pre-empt the supposed coup that the Indian Army would engineer, and that too while the Air Force and Navy were commanded by British officers. Such is the nonsensical ‘jadoo’ that India’s babus and policemen conjured for Nehru, Pant, Patel, BaldevSingh, Maulana Azad, Kidwai, Jagjivan, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar, Katju and others? Along with this fraud, the civil servants urged their political masters to create para-military police forces under their control; to become the main counterweight against the Army. The Police Forces were raised officially for internal security or insurgency. In truth, they were created to defeat the Armed Forces coup if these forces were not created swiftly.
Stunning is it not? Our politicians had acquired modest administrative exposure before independence, but the civil servants /policemen were trained by the British. Ournetas had to accept these tales only from their civilian advisers, and deplorably, this thrives even today and is foolishly lapped up as unadulterated truth. Pity. Many civilians will be deeply pained to know this reality. We need to look at what was and stays the principles for the loyalty of the officers and jawans of the Indian Armed Forces. Also, find out what type of officers plan and execute military coups. This is in Part 2.
Comentarios