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When army men run riot

It is a matter of grave concern when the members of the Army — a force invested with the principal responsibilities of safeguarding the territorial integrity of the nation from external aggression and assisting the civil administration in providing internal security — take the law into their own hands. The army men who forced their way at gunpoint into a Kolkata police station in order to free two officers arrested on charges of molestation and disorderly behaviour have badly damaged the image of the force. What is particularly shocking is that this rampaging group of eleven — which assaulted policemen, damaged furniture, and freed civilians in the same lock-up — was led by three officers. It is imperative that the inquiry instituted by the Army into this violent and unruly act is completed quickly and that those found guilty are strictly punished. The Kolkata police would have done well to inform those at the helm of the Eastern Command about the incident soon after the two Army officers were apprehended — under the law, it is the Army that has the jurisdiction to inquire into any criminal charge against its personnel with the exception of very grave ones such as rape and murder. But it is important to underline that the germane issue here is not about procedure. It is about a rogue group of army men that breached the law by behaving in an outrageous manner.

This is not the first instance of brutality by army personnel in civilian environment. Early last year, a group of jawans from the Rajputana Rifles threw six passengers out of a speeding train in Uttar Pradesh, killing five of them instantly. The provocation for this savagery was a trifling dispute over whether the compartment they were travelling in was reserved for armed forces personnel. The armed forces, by the very nature of their responsibilities, wield an extraordinary amount of power. The most effective way of checking the misuse of this power is to ensure that firm action is taken whenever there is an infraction. Any successful democracy is founded on the legal and civilian control of the armed forces. It would be dangerous if even a small group within the armed forces goes out of control and takes on the police or other civil authority. The armed forces have a strict code of discipline, but much more has to be done in sensitising individual army men to the need for proper conduct and interaction with outsiders. The regrettable incident in Kolkata is bound to have dented public confidence in the Army. It is now up to the Army to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law by taking firm and speedy action against the errant group of automatic weapon brandishing army men that beat up policemen and vandalised the police station in Kolkata.

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