Rawat: Need more control over madrasas, mosques

New Delhi: During the customary annual press conference of the Army chief at the Maneckshaw Centre on Friday, the Indian Army’s showpiece building in the national capital, General Rawat also pointed out that, in the face of an increasingly assertive China, there was a strong need to shift from the ensuing military focus on the western front with Pakistan to the northern front with China.

“…the education system in Jammu and Kashmir in the government schools is corrupted because the teachers who teach in these schools have also come up in the same way…the system of education out there needs to be given a relook…the kind of education in these schools is wrong,” he said in reply to a media query.

“The other issue is that of madrassas and masjids… what is being informed to them or incorrectly informed to them is through these madrassas and masjids... some kind of control is to be exercised there and that is what we are looking at.”

The Army, in a major shift in the counter insurgency tactics more than a year ago, had decided to operate in a “seek and engage” mode against the militancy which has resulted in the gunning down of about 160 hardcore militants offering a decisive edge to the counter-insurgency operations.

At the same time, sounding a cautionary note, Gen Rawat also expressed his resolve to continue the tough fight and intensify operations, this time in south Kashmir. “Terrorism in Kashmir is certainly not over…”.

Expressing confidence in India’s capability of handling an increasingly assertive China, the general said: “For too long we kept our focus on the western front. Now the time has come for us to focus on the northern border…therefore our infrastructure development on the northern border has to be speeded up.”

Maintaining that Chinese troops are still present in Doklam, their numbers have thinned down considerably, Gen Rawat said: “China is a powerful country, but we are not a weak nation either.”