OP Vijay, OP Meghdoot, Indo-Pak War 1971 - These examples brag a lot of the valour, wisdom, guts and glory of the Indian Armed Forces and the Indian Army specifically. But this is only one side of the coin, the other side flips the entire image of the organization.
The recent revelations in the Adarsh Housing Society scam is not a singular incident where the top brass of Army are found indulged in, but this may be the only one where two former Chiefs are alleged to be the beneficiaries.
Prior to this there have been number of cases where officers, as senior as Corps Commanders and Army Commanders were found guilty by Court of Inquiries and were subsequently court-marshaled. In fact, there have been more than 600* court marshals since 2001. In many of these, senior officers of rank Maj Gen and above were penalized. Not only this, but the year 2006 alone witnessed more than 105* court marshal cases. The charges in these cases varied from rape and murder to severe embezzlement.
In one such cases Maj Gen AK Lal was dismissed on 12 Sept 2008 after found guilty of sexually assaulting a junior lady officer. And also, in a recent case Lt Gen AK Nanda, the Engineer-in Chief of the Army was forced to resign this year following the allegations against him for sexually assaulting his junior officer's wife. However, Nanda is yet not found guilty in the initial probe, but he has become the senior most officer of Indian Army to face such charges.
Numerous cases of corruption have further smeared the reputation of the coveted organization. Various scams like Sukhna land scam, dry rations scam, frozen meat scam and liquor scam have tarnished the dignified uniform.
The gravity of such cases can be realized when there were allegations that the then COAS, Gen Deepak Kapoor had been soft on Lt Gen Awadhesh Prakash , who was found guilty in the Sukhna Land Scam. Prakash was the Chief's military secretary when he was found guilty of allowing a private institution to purchase 70 acres of land, which belonged to the military. Not only Prakash, but Lt Gen Rath who had to take charge of deputy army chief was also indicted in the scam and also, when the COI recommended these officers to be sacked, Gen Kapoor recommended just an administrative action against them. Finally the defence minister, Antony had to step in and write a letter to the chief asking for their court marshal.
Kapoor was further put on the receiving end, when this Adarsh Society scam was unveiled. Fingers were also raised at another former army chief NC Vij when he was also found of possessing a flat at the Adarsh Cooperative housing society. However, Kapoor has also been alleged of possessing assets disproportionate to his income by Trinamool Congress MP, Ambika Banerjee. In her letter to the defence minister, Banerjee notified that properties owned by Deepak Kapoor include a flat in Dwarka Sector 29, three flats in Gurgaon Sector 23, one flat in Gurgaon Sector 42/44, a flat in Gurgaon Phase 3 and a house in Lokhandwala in Mumbai.
Besides these, Army has been tainted many a times by its superior officers. There is no dearth of scandals and scams revealed or concealed within the organization. One of the scams was deliberately kept under the veil when Lt Gen HS Panag, Army Commander, Northern Command was transferred to take charge as Commander of Central Command in the mid of his two year tenure. Panag, as commander in northern command was said to receive an anonymous letter apprising him of a scam in purchasing of tents worth Rs 16 crore* using special financial powers of Area Commander. Following this Panag ordered to stop the future promotions of Maj Gen Malhotra of Ordnance Corps after a COI found him guilty of siphoning off Rs 1.6 crore*. Consequently Panag had his transfer orders on the table.
In such an organization where the Commanders are morally corrupt, the junior officers and men are continuously striving for the dignity of the force. As per the statistics illustrated in the recent cases, the officers indulged in the discrepancies are of the rank of Brigadier and above, but there is no doubt that this vicious cycle of committing and protecting the misappropriations would soon grip the the juniors too. Also, in spite of the success gained in various ops and exercises, the malfunctions of the higher echelons have starkly affected the morale of troops.
Therefore, when we talk about vying with the strong Chinese army, the capabilities of our highly venerated Indian Army are fogged behind the mist of corruption.
An article by Gaurav Tripathi produced in general interest of public by G.A.A.P
*statistics not verified and based upon news articles published in various daily newspapers.
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