It is such a shock. They had all
the intelligence (indeed it didn’t need much intelligence) and the all the time
in the world, and still we have a case of few people crossing the
border with all the ammunition of their choice and enter into, what is supposed
to be high security zone –military base for god sake, as comfortably. So much
money is going into defence, at the expense of other basic and pressing needs
of the country, and this is what we get. Some unfortunate soldiers were caught off-guard
in the mess, the Defence minister was quoted as saying ‘unlucky’. When will these
politicians know to keep shut? And then we have a senior army officer getting
killed trying to defuse a bomb, it is clear from the reports that procedures
were not followed. Nobody should die like this, that too a senior officer wherein
the country has invested so much. Meanwhile we also have stories wherein
soldiers held their position despite being grievously injured, includes a soldier
who won gold medal in Commonwealth games. A major tragedy was averted because of
bravery of these soldiers. They were ‘unlucky’ because of amazing incompetence
of policy makers. Hopefully the nation honours them with highest awards. In the meanwhile
Defence Minister’s (more significantly NSA) position is untenable, it is a job
that needs high level of responsibility, clarity of action and collaborative ways.
What is shocking is that they haven’t evolved a mechanism to deal with these crucial
situations.
This blogger is amazed by the shoddiness
exhibited in Pathankot terrorist attack, it is a typical concoction of pettiness
of protecting the turf, ego, general incompetence and sycophancy to superior
forces. That people’s lives come low on priority is a known matter but this
level of ineptitude is beyond words. This blogger is not an admirer of Army, and
considers it as only a regrettable need and feel sorry for the people who
have to join these. Exaggeration in popular media for army or uniformed forces is
understandable reflection of jingoism that feeds patriarchy and feudal values,
quite common in primitive societies. Incidentally this is true for most part of
the world, the reason why the world is the way it is. There are some people who are ready to give away life for fictional realities and society consolidates this deviance as heroism, it is important for survival of nation state. So while they divide land
into nations and fiercely protect, the wily corporate dig the land and sell it
wholesale, meanwhile property sharks deal the people into dreams while family members kill each
other for inherited piece of land. So much so for human being, and the way they
keep themselves busy! This blogger was always skeptical of values of valour emanating
from this framework that the West tends to fall back to romanticize, the
jingoism of force of good. There really aren’t any good guys in the war; it is
a matter of geography. But yes people who put their life at risk should be adequately
compensated; the state is duty-bound. Hence this blogger asserts that this nonsense
of one rank one pension makes a joke of this reality. There really cannot be One
Rank One Pension. No soldier of the same rank can be compensated equally. It has to
be dependent on the risk they have faced and critical responsibilities held
while the serving the nation. It is not the rank or position you hold that is important but what you do. For preordained primitive Indians these surely are not easy to comprehend. We have had ridiculous demand of retired generals’
cribbing that someone from lower rank shouldn’t get more!! They have quite clearly
taken concept of rank into squatter’s framework hence this arrogance and sacrosanct
nature of demands. This society has lots of problems and needs but despite
these defence forces have been looked after fairly well. The other day CNR Rao
was saying that the money for higher research in fundamental sciences is going
to nuclear and defence. The amount of money spent is staggering, even here the indigenous
efforts have always been constantly undermined by vested forces and manipulators.
HAL is minor example, of what could be produced is imported while projects are scuttled,
delayed…so much resources are lost while friends and relatives of powerful people turn
arms dealers and facilitators, jobs that mediocre manipulative Indian elites are so much suited to. Though
recently things are changing, but it’s a long way to go….
