BSF points a finger but fails to answer questions

Staring at a public relations disaster following a facebook post and videos posted by BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav with allegations of senior officers siphoning off money meant for providing ration to jawans posted at the bordergoing viral, the BSF on Tuesday succeeded in raising more questions than answers.

BSF Inspector General DK Upadhyay told the media at Jammu that the jawan had breached discipline by using his mobile phone to make Facebook posts while on duty. However both the media and jawans in service were quick to point out that even army jawans at forward posts are seen listening to music and chatting on phone with their earplugs on almost all the time.

Indeed both the army and the BSF have in the past blamed the mobile phone for the increasing incidence of suicide in the ranks. Earlier jawans heard from home through snail mail which reached them after weeks. But now they get reports of family squabbles, fights and disputes in almost real time over the cell phone. So Yadav cannot be the only one using his mobile on the border.

Nor could BSF officials deny the veracity of the videos. While the IG attempted to gloss over the allegations by asserting that dehydrated tinned food in winter may not quite taste ‘great’, the videos show half-burnt chapatis and watery daal being served instead of tinned food alluded to by the BSF IG. Asked repeatedly about the authenticity of the videos, officials have been cautious in saying that inquiries would be held and the guilty, if any, would be punished.

Meanwhile BSF DIG MDS Mann informed the media that the jawan had four bad entries in his service record in the last 20 years of his service. He was apparently close to being court martialled in 2010 and officials were at pains to explain that the jawan in question was not trusted with sensitive and responsible work.

But photographs posted by the jawan show him with not one but two firearms. What is more, while officials claimed that the jawan was posted at an administrative office, people familiar with the terrain in Jammu held that it was almost certain that he is actually posted on the border. The question is why would he be posted there in view of everything that the officials have said about his past record?

The BSF IG said that the jawan has been shifted out so that a ‘fair’ inquiry can be held.

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