More than MCAPs needed : Tarnishing the image of the Army
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 27, 2013 -

Not exactly irreversible.

But it will take more than tough postures or even stringent action against the senior Army officer found travelling with a huge consignment of drugs to undo the damage that has been inflicted on the image of the Indian Army and by extension on other Central Para-Military Forces.

Not that the Army or CPMF have enjoyed the unalloyed trust and confidence of the people, but the blot cast by the Pallel incident will certainly require something more than Military Civic Action Programmes to erase.

Ever since the whole of Manipur was declared a disturbed area and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was enforced more than thirty years back, the security forces have come under a lot of stick and flak and not without reasons.

The nude protest in front of Kangla in 2004, which then housed the Assam Rifles, is a clear manifestation of the deep divide between the civil population and the security forces and this particular incident seemed to open the eyes and ears of the Army and the Assam Rifles deployed in Manipur, to some extent.

It also shook Delhi to the grim reality here.

The Prime Minister of India flew down to Imphal to placate the people, the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission was instituted, the office of the IGAR (South) was opened and gradually there were visible attempts being made to reach out to the general population.

Military Civic Action Programmes were taken up with missionary zeal and offices of the Public Relations Officers of the Army and the Assam Rifles began to get more active.

In the arrest of the Army PRO along with a huge consignment of drugs perhaps lies the biggest irony.

An officer posted to be the public face of the Army caught travelling with a huge consignment of drugs and the damage inflicted on the image of the Army cannot be more serious than this.

It remains to be seen how the Ministry of Defence will respond to the situation. It also remains to be seen how things will unfold, as the matter is in the Court, but what is irrefutable is the fact that the image of the security forces operating in Manipur has taken a beating.

Another irony is also palpably clear. If the image of the Army has taken a severe beating then proportionately or otherwise, the image of the State police has gone up a notch or two higher, after the Pallel incident.

This is not in any way an attempt to paint the Army establishment with the same brush, but stating facts and reality.

If not handled correctly and sensitively by the authority concerned, it could well turn out to be a case of a drop of poison poisoning the whole glass of milk.

A reality check is what the Ministry of Defence and the Army establishment need to do.

This is not the first time that the conduct of an individual personnel has cast aspersion and thrown muck on the Army as a whole and this may not be the last time either.

Mere damage control exercise or will the Defence Ministry and the Army authority go the whole hog to refurbish its image ? Only time will tell, but the people will be watching.

For starters how long will it take for the relevant authority to depute an officer to look after the office of the PRO, PIB Defence Wing, Imphal ?

For the media, this is an interesting and important question and The Sangai Express will keep on raising this question, for sure.

Perhaps this is where the first indication of how seriously the authority con- cerned has taken to erase the blot on its image will emerge.