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| http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1018158.cms JJ Singh: A true officer and a gentle man JOSY JOSEPH TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2005 03:21:02 PM ] NEW DELHI: When General Joginder Jaswant Singh took over as the Chief Of Army Staff nobody expected him to declare war on Pakistan. And he didn't. But what he did, and said, has everybody bewildered. A few days after the Government announced his name as the new army chief, the General was speaking to reporters in Chandigarh. He was recalling his experience of dealing with the family of a misguided youth who had taken to guns in Kashmir. As cameras focussed on him, Singh went silent and shut his eyes. And then he wept. Nicknamed 'Tiger' and labelled the 'Ferocious Fighter', the COAS in tears was an unbelievable sight, especially for those in uniform. How could the alpha male of India, a decorated Sikh army officer, the chief of a million strong force, cry, that too for a militant? How could a man who earned most of his laurels in Kashmir Valley and one who has led several operations against nation's enemies, let his guards down? The incident had many of his colleagues wondering how their new chief would measure up, especially with the flamboyant, media-savvy General Pervez Musharraf, his counterpart across the border. Singh's Pakistani counterpart has built a reputation for himself, having carried out a military coup while aboard a plane that was being denied permission to land in Pakistan. He is the man who orchestrated Kargil incursion with a smile, he is the CEO of Pakistan who stormed out of Agra summit with scant regard for hosts and negotiations. The sight of the General in tears may have confounded many. But the chatteratti had a new topic to talk about. Is the new army chief a metro-sexual man, they wondered, one who could fight as well as cry without any qualms. On the face of it, it seems Singh a shrewd warrior. Is he using the media to generate a 'humane face' for the Army, which has recently been embroiled in embarrasing controversies, especially over human rights violations? Is this his efforts to better image for his Army? One wonders. His order to soldiers to hold the guns down, not at people, even as he was adopting a Kashmiri orphan, seems a part of this clever strategy. On the personal front, with his unconventional initiatives, Singh might be trying to shape up an individual image, away from the Army, that would match Manekshaw or Sunderji's. On February 1, within minutes of taking over, General Singh said something that has the observers and analysts still flummoxed. The performance of Army units in Kashmir, Singh said, would not be measured against the number of militants killed. "To say we had 10 kills during this month, that is a word that will not be used by the Army. It will not be used as a language because you are talking of misguided young men of our own country," Singh said. He added there was an unhealthy competition among battalions to score over each other. The Army chief was inadvertently admitting that the Indian Army had developed a trigger-happy culture in the Valley. Over last 15 years, Singh admitted, the Army may have killed many innocents in the quest for glory. The Pakistani media is having a field day over such utterances. A Pakistani news site reports on his recent comments in Kashmir on how almost a generation may have been lost to strife. The news report has turned the article into a virtual confessional on Army excesses in the Valley. Ironically, as a Brigade Commander in the Valley, Singh had personally led many operations against militants, and emerged as a promising senior officer. According to Army sources, his brigade killed 300 so-called militants in just over two years. On a recent visit to Srinagar, Singh showed that he is not just a man of words. Singh took a perfect shot at a bottle placed amongst soldiers to prove the need for sharp shooting, and sharper soldiering skills. As for those potbellied soldiers, he has already sent out strong warnings. On Thursday, General Singh ordered all Army officers and jawans in peace stations to report to office in camouflage, as a statement of their solidarity with colleagues deployed against terrorists. It is a solidarity that the jawans and officers in the Northeast and Kashmir desperately need. Army has been fighting separatists in the Northeast since early 1950s, but success is still elusive. In Kashmir, after thousands of deaths, Army is yet to figure out a concrete strategy to bring an end to the war. The General sounds sincere, very different from his predecessors. Many were sharp, good soldiers and famed heroes, but almost all of them identified themselves as the representatives of the existing Army culture of their times. Singh is forging a definition for the Army that is distinct from reality. At the risk of sounding like a Prophet ahead of his times, Singh has a Herculean task of turning around the colonial Army into a modern institution, curtailng human rights violations and generating a pro-people image for Army in strife-torn areas of the country. As in external strikes, internal strife too depends on complex logistics. If the General will be able to change it at all, only time will tell. |
 | JJ Singh: A true officer ... (Sodhi Mahanjot Singh - 11.Feb.05) |
| . . Re: JJ Singh: A true offi... (Harpreet Singhh - 12.Feb.05) | |
| . . Re: JJ Singh: A true offi... (Gurufateh Singh - 12.Feb.05) | |
| . . . . Re: JJ Singh: A true offi... (Bhupinder_ Singh - 12.Feb.05) | |
| . . . . . . Re: JJ Singh: A true offi... (Gurufateh Singh - 13.Feb.05) | |
| . . . . . . . . Re: JJ Singh: A true offi... (Bhupinder_ Singh - 13.Feb.05) | |
| . . Re: JJ Singh: A true offi... (Kuldip S. Virdi - 17.Feb.05) |
