Bipin Rawat tells Army: Don’t talk about politics, women

New Delhi: In a candid admission that in recent times politics is making an unwanted appearance in the military, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat on Wednesday sought a return to the “good old days” when “women and politics were never discussed” in the military.

“The military should be somehow kept out of politics. Of late, we have been seeing that politicisation of the military has been taking place. I think we operate in a very secular environment. We have a very vibrant democracy where the military should stay far away from the polity,” Gen. Rawat said in his address at the United Services Institution’s annual lecture on national security on Wednesday.

“Whenever an issue linking any military establishment or military personnel with a political entity comes in... that is best avoided,” he said, adding that the military performs best when it doesn’t get into the political affairs of the country.

Known not to mince words or hold his punches back, Gen. Rawat may well have been mouthing Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu’s famous deceptive war strategies as he appeared to solicit the Indian media’s help to deceive the enemy into thinking what is not.

Admitting that while the purpose of the media is to come out with the truth, to highlight the truth and to keep the citizenry informed, Gen. Rawat said: “At times there may be a requirement to spread some disinformation, spread some half-truths... Surprise and deception require a lot of disinformation... This is one area where I think the military needs to move forward.”

“For this, it is important that we have all the media channels on board so that they appreciate what is the purpose of the information that is being communicated... not all of which will be usable... some of it will be disinformation which is being spread across for the purpose of deception... so there the media has to understand why half-truths (are) being informed to them and why the military insists on the publication of half-truths... it is for the purpose of surprise and disinformation”.

“That is what the media has to understand and support the armed forces in ensuring the surprise and deception package of the military makes headway... this is one issue which we are addressing but we will need the support of the media in this,” he said.

On Sunday, the Army Chief’s extensive details about a cross-border surgical strike on June 15, 2015 by the Army’s special forces against NSCN(K) militant hideouts in Myanmar caused the government’s security mandarins to squirm in embarrassment as the Centre is yet to officially acknowledge the cross-border raid in Myanmar due to diplomatic reasons.