Dear Col. Balakrishnan,
The report is true as photos of uniformed army personnel building the pontoon bridge have been published. Just like the kings of yore, the present political masters must align with godmen having large followings to enlist their support in the battle to establish one faith and one leader in the country. The army is merely assisting in preventing mishaps in the fragile Yamuna basin when millions of devotees gather there.
Having attended several Kumbh melas and crossed rivers on such bridges I suspect this is not the first time the army's services have been used for this purpose as few other agencies have such expertise.
What you should be more worried about is the use of the army or its equipment in other parts of the country against civilians, in Nagaland and Manipur since 1947, two states brutally forced into union with independent India, in J&K since 1989, and in Gujarat in 2002, though there its inability to stop the planned genocide of a minority community was ensured by the political executive.
In Chhattisgarh and other places in the tribal belt across India and in West Bengal, where there has been virtual civil war over natural resources - between villagers trying to keep their lands and forests and state-backed international mining cartels - the army has supported civil governments in crushing public resistance by killing so-called Naxalite cadres of armed village people.
In Jharkhand, the biggest development projects besides open cast mining since 1990 have been roads into interiors to facilitate resource extraction, and huge complexes to house the headquarters of paramilitary forces like the CRPF, Cobra Battalian, BSF and other special forces.
This has become a necessity because governments since the 90s have faced fierce civil opposition wherever lands and other vital resources have been snatched from their traditional owners and handed over to a new set of owners - the immensely affluent industrial barons who determine the electoral fortunes of all political parties.
If you look into these aspects of the issue you will see that building a few bridges for the civil government
is an exceptionally benign activity compared to what the army and paramilitaries have been doing in border States and the mineral rich districts in India.
Joya Roy
Heads Must Roll: Angry Ex-Col on Use of Army for Sri Sri's Event
http://www.thequint.com/blogs/2016/03/09/heads-must-roll-angry-ex-colonel-on-use-of-army-for-sri-sris-art-of-living-world-culture-festival-2016-event
Col Subin Balakrishnan (Retd)
(Col Subin Balakrishnan, @beesubin on Twitter, is an ex-Special Forces
officer from the Indian Army with over two decades of experience in
counter-terrorism operations in multiple operational theaters across
the country.)
I am terribly saddened and immensely angered to read that the Indian
Army I served with such fierce pride has been pushed to building
bridges for a culture festival, which is clearly not a state event!
It gets worse when one factors in that these bridges are operational
assets that are meant to be deployed by specialist combat troops in
war.
I'm desperately hoping this news report is false. If it is not, the
General Officer in command who authorised this (quite possibly under
duress) must be held personally liable for bringing disrepute to the
Indian Army.
The reluctance, or worse, the inability to stand up and say NO to what
is clearly an inappropriate request (or order) must be equated with
cowardice as per Army law, and appropriately dealt with. This nation
looks up to our men and women in uniform. We CANNOT let down trust by
bringing disrepute to the very hard earned respect that our countrymen
and women hold for that uniform.
Our men and women in uniform are known for their straight spine. Let
us keep it that way, please.
Once again, if indeed this news report is true, Heads MUST roll !!!
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