Army Chief General Bipin Rawat in fresh row as he targets protesters

New Delhi: Indian Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat jumped into the politically charged Citizenship Amendment Act controversy on Thursday as he criticised the leaders leading the protest against the citizenship law, saying leadership was “not about guiding masses, including students, to carry out arson and violence”.

His remarks came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lashed out at anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh. The Army Chief’s remarks drew flak from the Opposition parties, who said that the Army should not get involved in political issues.

“Leaders are not those who lead people in inappropriate directions, as we are witnessing in a large number of university and college students, the way they are leading masses of crowds to carry out arson and violence in our cities and towns. This is not leadership,” said Gen. Rawat at a health summit.

He said a leader was a person who leads people in the correct direction. “Gives you the right advice and then ensures you care for people,” Gen. Rawat added.

Gen. Rawat, who is due to retire by December 31 as Army Chief, is being seen as the frontrunner to be India’s first Chief of Defence Staff.

Gen. Rawat’s comments evoked a sharp response from the Opposition parties. “There are many ways in which democratic norms are being destroyed in India. But Army Chief Bipin Rawat wading into the current political controversy is a new low. Must be nipped in the bud,” said former finance minister Yashwant Sinha.

Human rights activist Yogendra Yadav said that Gen. Rawat’s comments on politics was a sharp departure from the Indian Army’s convention of staying away from political matters in the last 70 years. “This used to happen in Pakistan and Bangladesh,” he said.

“Army Chief Bipin Rawat speaking against #CAAProtests is wholly against constitutional democracy. If Army Chief is allowed to speak on political issues today, it also permits him to attempt an Army takeover tomorrow!!” tweeted Congress spokesman Brijesh Kalappa.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that leadership was about knowing the limits of one’s office. “It is about understanding the idea of civilian supremacy and preserving the integrity of the institution that you head,” he said.

The CPI(M) said that the Army Chief’s “statement underlines as to how the situation has degenerated under the Modi government, where the highest officer in uniform can so brazenly breach the limits of his institutional role”. The CPI(M) added: “It is therefore necessary to raise the question as to whether we are going the Pakistan way of politicising the military. Such obnoxious interference in matters of democratic struggles from top-ranking military professionals is unheard of in the history of independent India.”

However, Gen. Rawat found support from BJP members. “If Army Chief had glorified the violence, it would have been the right music for perpetrators in the guise of liberals, seculars and who else! The same morons don’t understand that their #Jihadi wards would consume them too, in just matter of few years,” tweeted BJP Lok Sabha member Anant Kumar Hegde.