As Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan gets ready to resign over the controversy of allotment of flats in Mumbai meant for the widows of Kargil heroes to unauthorized people, questions arise regarding the factors that led to him being abandoned by his party leadership.
Certainly this is a face saving exercise by the Indian National Congress to ride against the wave of public resentment. But corruption by political leaders is nothing new in our country. The recent Commonwealth Games scam shamed us in front of the entire world but no action has been taken against any one as such, no one has been asked to resign. So could there be other factors for the immediate action against Ashok Chavan?
Like the political clout of the Indian Army, for instance?
Unlike many third world countries the Indian military has always shown an aversion to direct meddling in the internal political scenario of the nation. This is not to say that the army has no say at all or has not influenced major decisions over the past few decades. Indeed no country can afford to deny the army think-tank a major role in the process of nation building.
In India controversy still abounds over the decisions made during the 1971 India –Pak war and the liberation of Bangladesh. Many former military personnel have argued that the decision of the Indian army to march to Dhaka was a purely military one and the political leadership only came to know about it later.
There is every reason to believe that the immediate action against Ashok Chavan could have been at the insistence of the army brass. Corruption in the name of Kargil martyrs is bound to make a soldier’s blood boil, even more than ours.
The inherent message is clear – don’t touch the army.
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