Persons, occupying high places, are expected to be cautious in choosing words while making public statements, always. Unfortunately, this golden rule is often flouted in our country. It seems now the top post holders in the country are now competing each other are in making irresponsible statements. It is time now for those people to realise that restraint in speaking is key to the success, not vice-versa.
Although starting from political leaders to top government officials, everyone contributed generously to the list of irresponsible speaking, the stand out performance in this regard has come from our Army Chief Vipin Rawat. His selection to the top post was not free from controversy. The Central Government had ignored the rightful claims of couple of officers to put Rawat at the top post. The argument that the Centre placed before the nation during the controversy, was that Rawat is well versed with the situation in Kashmir. But since taking over as the Army Chief, Rawat did nothing notable to justify this claim. Terrorists continue to infiltrate from other side of international border. Attacks of various army and paramilitary forces and establishments stand as a testimony to this fact. Yet Rawat seems indomitable. Without making efforts to plug the loopholes, he is indulging in all sorts of rhetoric. Recently he made a comment of the education system of Kashmir. According to the army chief the situation in Kashmir cannot be changed till the state’s education system is revamped. Besides, he targeted the Madrassas running in the state. He blamed such institutions for creating a terror mindset.
Hearing our army chief to make such a statement, we are only stunned by the foolishness of such a statement. What were we doing during the last 70 years when such a simple solution of the Kashmir problem was available? If the solution of the Kashmir problem lies in closing down the educational institutions, why didn’t we opt for that? Why we failed to understand that the Kashmiri youths who cleared all the hurdles to become top officials and worked for Government of India are all having terrorist mindsets? Besides, a couple of days after making the said statement, the Army Chief opined that restrictions should be in place so that social media is not misused. We have nothing against the thoughts of our army chief. If he thinks that by using such measures path for return of peace in Kashmir can be prepared, let it be. Our only request to him would be that before making any public statements he should consult the government first. He should check it out whether the government is in sync with his ideas. If the government put its stamp on his ideas, go ahead with it. Otherwise, think about alternatives. No wonder that political parties in Kashmir have raised hue and cry over the army chief’s statement and it is the terrorists who are actually benefitting from the situation. Such an occurrence can easily be prevented if the army chief used restraint while speaking. As an administrator, many times secrecy also has to be maintained about a particular policy. There is nothing wrong in it as that is done keeping the welfare of the citizens in mind. We can only hope that from now onwards, our top brass in the armed forces should not stoop to the level of some of our politicians.
