Gen Rawat asks troops to directly approach him with grievances

Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat addressing the annual Army press conference in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Twitter handle @PIB_India

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Jan 13

Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday said “we need to wait and watch the Pakistan response in Jammu and Kashmir, in case they act wrongly we reserve the right to retaliate”.

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Addressing a press conference here ahead of Army Day (January 15), General Rawat said the DGMOs of both sides have spoken to each other and want peace and tranquillity along the Line of Control (LoC). The two officers spoke on November 23 and since then there has been relative peace along LoC.On being asked if surgical strikes conducted across the LoC and also into Myanmar would be part of the doctrine, General Rawat said, “We have told the adversary to accept peace and in case that offer is not reciprocated this method of operations (surgical strikes) shall continue.”On the gap in readiness (referred to as hollowness in military parlance), the Chief said “we have some issue of hollowness that need to addressed when we factor in a two-front war scenario —a simultaneous military engagement with Pakistan and China”.The Army chief blamed the ongoing Pakistan-backed proxy war for disrupting the secular fabric of the country.On being asked if Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi had spoken to him, General Rawat said, “We both have reached out to each other.” On the recent airing of an audio recording of Lt General Bakshi alleging that there was a malicious campaign to malign him, General Rawat said if I get a formal complaint we will take action.Lt Gen Rawat was appointed as Chief overlooking the seniority of Lt Gen Bakshi.On the issue of women joining combat, General Rawat said, “If women are okay with leading a life of combat so be it we are ready.”The Army has moved a proposal to rationalise the system of sahayaks. “We can have civilian aides in non-combat locations,” the Chief said.Gen Rawat also said a jawan can directly approach him if he is having any grievance and it will be ensured that his identity is not revealed.If he is unsatisfied with the action taken, he can choose other ways (of voicing his grievance), the Army Chief said after a video uploaded on social media by an Army jawan alleged harassment by superiors for writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the problems faced by the soldiers, Gen Rawat said personnel can also use suggestion and complaint box at Army Headquarters and Commands to air their grievances.A video of an Army jawan had surfaced on social media on Thursday in which he has alleged harassment by superiors for writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the problems faced by the soldiers, soon after similar videos of complaint came to light from a BSF jawan and a CRPF constable.In the video, Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh, posted in 42 Infantry Brigade in Dehradun, said after he wrote to the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the President and the Supreme Court in June last year, his brigade received a communication from PMO asking for a probe into his grievances.But, Singh said, instead of investigating the issue, his superiors began harassing him and also initiated an enquiry, which could potentially result in his court-martial. — With agencies