Status of Army in a democracy

A news item in Hindustan times
------------------------------------------------
Army officers, studying in MHOW, allegedly broke window panes and ransacked furniture of the Sri Aurobindo College of Medical Sciences (SACMS), Indore, late Monday in retaliation against medicos allegedly attacking two of their colleagues earlier in the day.

'The officers, yet to be identified, created ruckus at the college as they went there on some 30 to 40 motorcycles, pelted stones, entered the college hostel and ransacked furniture in the rooms and the mess,' said Senior Superintendent of Police Vipin Maheshwari.

'They however dispersed as police arrived,' he said.

Earlier in the day two army officers had picked up a fight with medicos while they were dropping a student of SACMS to the college hostel, officials said.

Following the fight police was posted at the college.

'Acting on the complaint of Lt Ramandeep Singh Negi, Banganga police Monday registered cases against 10 students of SACMS under various sections of Indian Penal Code and arrested Ayush Gupta and Akash,' a police officer said.

SACMS administration said that they had also lodged a complaint against the army officers alleging that they had forcibly entered the hostel premises at around 3 a.m. Tuesday.

'We have lodged a complaint against the army officers at the Banganga police station and expect prompt action,' said SACMS COO G.S. Khanuja.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



It is a familiar story for anybody who knows Mhow.

the civvies street is very quick to point out that we live in a democracy and army cannot flout the laws of the land and civil police are the sole authority for enforcing law.

fair enough.

what i would like to tell my civilian friends is that, in a so called democracy, army personnel have none of the rights that a civilian takes for granted. They cannot strike work like trade unions, cannot go on mass casual leave like our pilots, cannot bring a system to a stand still like our political parties, local or national. when a lawyer is roughed up, the judicial system comes to a halt, when a pilot is sacked, all air traffic is frozen, when a truck runs over someone , the local basti (often encroachments with the blessings of a political party) blocks the highway. And army personnel are not 'locals' anywhere, so they cannot expect local support anywhere; they are apolitical and so have no political support; they cannot be involved in business activities and so no money power either.


When someone misbehaves with an army officer, he is expected to report to the local police, who also knows that army has no rights in a democracy. He is expected to swallow the insult and move on. A war-horse hitched on to a wagon and made a work-horse for a day, cannot be expected to be used for war again.Well, these are the young officers who got the Kargil back for you. A million shiv sainiks or congresswallahs could not have done that.


This country does not deserve this army.