Army: Whither honour?

Whither honour?

For the Indian Army the year 2004 was a year they would like to forget. Much to their despair, all efforts by Army to improve their public image were in vain due to few incidents that have caused great embarrassment to the Army establishment. In one such incident the expose by Hindustan Times about fake 'killing of Pakistanis' in Siachen managed by an officer of the rank of Major stands out. The Army after its preliminary inquiry found the charges to be true and later sacked the accused Major Surinder Singh, who had staged the fake battles to win a gallantry award and sentenced him to three year imprisonment in a court martial.

Major Singh was the second officer of the Army to have been sacked this year. Earlier in November, Col HS Kohli, commanding officer of an artillery regiment in Assam, was dismissed and an unnamed major stripped off five years of service after a court martial found them guilty of taking photographs of civilians posing as dead terrorists to win gallantry awards. The two allegedly splashed tomato ketchup on the civilians to make them look as if they had been killed in a bloody encounter.

Another embarrassing moment for the Army came in following revelations about the rape of a woman and her 10-year-old daughter by its personnel in the Kashmir valley. The incident sparked off violent protests within the state of Jammu and Kashmir and eventually the Army had to remove the officer, Major Rehman Hussain from the command. Army today, needs a fresh look to initiate steps to win over the confidence of the people particularly in the troubled regions of the country.

- Prakash Pillai