Was it a political or a policy statement by General Rawat?

Attempts to gloss over Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s unfortunate warning to stone-pelting Kashmiris continued on Friday. While Lt Gen (Rtd) Ata Hasnain wrote in The Times of India that General Rawat did not declare war on Kashmiris, Minister of State at the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh asserted that what General Rawat had said amounted to an expression of ‘worry, not warning’.

The Army Chief was quoted by a section of the media as saying, “We would now tell the local population that people who have picked up arms, and they are the local boys, if they want to continue with the acts of terrorism, displaying flags of IS and Pakistan, then we will treat them as anti-national elements and go for them. They may survive today but we will get them tomorrow. Our relentless operations will continue."

From whichever way one looks at it, there is no escaping the conclusion that the Army Chief was speaking the language of politicians. While it is no secret that sections of the Indian armed forces have been politicised, General Rawat’s statement serves actually to seal the debate. The Army Chief’s statement confirmed the following:

• Arms have been picked up against the army by local people as opposed to foreign militants
• These people are displaying flags of the Islamic State and Pakistan
• Today or tomorrow the Indian Army will get them

Even as the statement appears to have had the opposite effect on the people the General had in mind, with protesters pelting stones and displaying Pakistani flags after Friday prayers on February 17, observers warned that the General’s outburst would be taken as admission that a civil-war like situation does indeed exist in a part of Jammu & Kashmir.

The Army, observers pointed out, has been leading the anti-insurgency operation in the state for the last 28 years. The Army Chief’s tacit admission that a section of local civilians have been fighting the army, suggested an article in Firstpost referred above could actually attract the provisions of Geneva Convention or, at the least, uncomfortable international attention.

In a perceptive piece in Hindustan Times a long-term Kashmir observer Harinder Baweja suggested that the Army Chief should actually be asking himself the following questions:

• Why are the youth so enraged?
• Why are they unafraid of dying?
• Why are the women unafraid?
• Why is the Valley back in a phase where local Kashmiri militants outnumber the foreign terrorists?
• Why is an entire population alienated?

In the Valley itself, General Rawat’s statement was greeted with scorn. “It is a confession that militants have mass support,” said Syed Ali Shah Geelani in a statement. Even the National Conference felt the statement amounted to a moral victory for the militants. Others perceived it as a warning to carry out civilian killings.

There is growing uneasiness in the Army and para-military forces at the high casualty figures in the Valley in recent months. While 2016 was a particularly bad year, as many as 188 jawans are said to have lost their lives in the Valley during the last 30 months. It is no secret that hawks in the Indian establishment want the ‘Army’ to be given a free hand to deal with the situation. Because it is their contention that the Army has not been able to bring the situation under control because of being forced to fight with a hand tied to the back.

Kunal Verma, who co-authored the autobiography of former army chief General VK Singh, attacked the Government in a blogpost and advocated strong-arm tactics hinted at by General Rawat in the following words: “The anger just under the surface is fast reaching boiling point. Junior officers and men, who see the Government day in and day out take steps to humiliate soldiers while mouthing meaningless platitudes, is going to explode sooner or later. We the people, cannot accept this situation, and if individuals have to die, well, ruthlessly shoot down those who dare to abuse the state... instead of sacrificing those who are doing their bit to protect it.”

With Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar supporting the Army Chief and sentiments running high, observers have been left to wonder if the time for exercising restraint is really over and whether the Government and the Army Chief can ever dismount from the tiger.