Friends, The controversy generated by the Indian Express report (20th September 2013) on Gen. V. K. Singh has created quite a storm. The report said to be based on govt.sources highlights a covert unit set up by General V.K. Singh during his tenure as the army chief.It alleges that secret funds were used by this unit to carry on quite a few covert operations including payments to ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir government and an attempt to destabilise the elected government of the current chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.This last has raised quite a furore as this was seen as an attempt to subverting the basic democratic principle of the military being subordinate to democratic civilian rule in a democracy. In a mail to the audience cell of the news channel NDTV we had highlighted how this was reminiscent of the operations of the military- industrial complexes of the 20th century. We had also highlighted in the mail how peace movements since then had consistently struggled against such legacies of this period. Gen. V.K. Singh since has refuted the allegations in an interview with an NDTV correspondent and in statements to other sections of the media saying that his association with the opposition parties including his presence at a recent pre- election rally in Rewari had raised this campaign against him.
Subsequently in a programme " The Big Fight" broadcast by NDTV last Saturday (28th September 2013 and recorded earlier) the issue came up in a debate.Some of us who attended this debate as audience in the studios were struck by the heat and the animation the issue generated.The panel was composed of distinguished politicians and equally distinguished retired senior officers of the armed forces along with a young journalist who tried to put across their perspectives on the issue. General Raj Kadyan was of the opinion that revelations had certainly damaged the reputation of the army but this should be seen as an aberrant episode.Another member of the panel, Mr. Tarun Vijay, was of the opinion that infact the government source who revealed the ministry report should be seen as a 'traitor'.Brig. Mahalingam and Gen. Arora were more sombre in their assessments.Mr.Surjewala(Congress) and the spokesman of National Conference too put forward sober assessments. However the dominant feeling was the wish that this episode should not have happened.
How do we see this debate? As the NDTV website put it that it is for the first time since the independence that such a high level security officer(rank of a general) of the country has been involved in a fracas with the government in an episode widely seen to be hurting India's security.Recent portrayals of India as modernising in the global and indeed post- industrial context has brought forward the concept of security.Indeed since the time of French Revolution as societies went through modernisation in different contexts the issue of security has been centre-stage.For modernisation is marked by emergence of civil society in separation from the political state.The enlightenment thinkers including Karl Marx had argued in the 19th century that security is the highest social concept of civil society.This expressed the fact that the whole of society exists in order to 'guarantee to each of its members the preservation of of his person,his rights and his property'.Article 8 of the Constitution of 1793 after the French Revolution put it explicitly even then:"Security consists in the protection afforded by society to each of its members for the preservation of his person,his rights and his property'.Hegel later on in the early 19th century saw the civil society as the 'state of need and reason' However by the end of the 19th century certain trends became clear as to why the early optimism surrounding the emergence of civil society did not translate in to an effective modernisation.It was becoming evident that within the organisation of national life and perhaps chauvinist nationalism was not enabling a transition of individual citizens and their labour and work to the 'level of social elements'.Further chauvinist politics separated the individual from the state as a whole and civil society was constituted as discrete societies within society based on narrow corporate criteria of ethnicity, caste etc.These narrow corporations then determined the individual's relation to the state.While the political process did try to overcome these odds within the context of industrialisation and rising capitalism in Europe and elsewhere, the situation became complicated with militarism and colonialism which promoted and used narrow identities.Consequently we see the process of misanthropic(human hating) materialism emerging within the civil society.It is to combat such trends that we see the emergence of genuine international movements for peace and cosmopolitanism in Europe and America.It is with these movements India's early patriots including the Ghadar activists allied to promote a genuinely internationalist anti colonial struggle.
The issue of security then acquired a broadbased dimension as well.Though the coming of the post- industrial societies gave a new dynamic to identity politics,today we see the legacy of broad based concept of security in international civil society and global citizenship movements.The attempt is to make the political process responsive to individual rights,life and liberty the cornerstones of the concept of security since the French revolution.With emphasis on freedom of speech, expression and press today's movements have taken a step forward from certain practises of the French Revolution where press freedom did come under attack.
It is in this context that the General V. K. Singh episode which blew up in the context of current pre-election campaigns in India assumes significance.There has been a tendency by some political and other forces to play politics with the issue.We argue that the issue of security is too important for it to be politicised in this manner.It is important here that modernisation of security forces be carried out. It is equally important that the military should be made subordinate to democratically formed civilian government.To take the concept of security forward moreover it is important that the current election campaigns of all political parties be responsible, healthier, democratic and free from violence. The recent communal violence and killings in Muzaffarnagar in the wake of the coming elections and other such violence only tends to undermine what the concept of security stands for. Strengthening democracy and democratic processes is the way forward from the Gen. V.K. Singh episode and perhaps to overcome the damage caused by it.(SFC, PG IGNOU, with the help of Mr. Ajay Mahurkar and Dr. Dolly Mathew).
Subsequently in a programme " The Big Fight" broadcast by NDTV last Saturday (28th September 2013 and recorded earlier) the issue came up in a debate.Some of us who attended this debate as audience in the studios were struck by the heat and the animation the issue generated.The panel was composed of distinguished politicians and equally distinguished retired senior officers of the armed forces along with a young journalist who tried to put across their perspectives on the issue. General Raj Kadyan was of the opinion that revelations had certainly damaged the reputation of the army but this should be seen as an aberrant episode.Another member of the panel, Mr. Tarun Vijay, was of the opinion that infact the government source who revealed the ministry report should be seen as a 'traitor'.Brig. Mahalingam and Gen. Arora were more sombre in their assessments.Mr.Surjewala(Congress) and the spokesman of National Conference too put forward sober assessments. However the dominant feeling was the wish that this episode should not have happened.
How do we see this debate? As the NDTV website put it that it is for the first time since the independence that such a high level security officer(rank of a general) of the country has been involved in a fracas with the government in an episode widely seen to be hurting India's security.Recent portrayals of India as modernising in the global and indeed post- industrial context has brought forward the concept of security.Indeed since the time of French Revolution as societies went through modernisation in different contexts the issue of security has been centre-stage.For modernisation is marked by emergence of civil society in separation from the political state.The enlightenment thinkers including Karl Marx had argued in the 19th century that security is the highest social concept of civil society.This expressed the fact that the whole of society exists in order to 'guarantee to each of its members the preservation of of his person,his rights and his property'.Article 8 of the Constitution of 1793 after the French Revolution put it explicitly even then:"Security consists in the protection afforded by society to each of its members for the preservation of his person,his rights and his property'.Hegel later on in the early 19th century saw the civil society as the 'state of need and reason' However by the end of the 19th century certain trends became clear as to why the early optimism surrounding the emergence of civil society did not translate in to an effective modernisation.It was becoming evident that within the organisation of national life and perhaps chauvinist nationalism was not enabling a transition of individual citizens and their labour and work to the 'level of social elements'.Further chauvinist politics separated the individual from the state as a whole and civil society was constituted as discrete societies within society based on narrow corporate criteria of ethnicity, caste etc.These narrow corporations then determined the individual's relation to the state.While the political process did try to overcome these odds within the context of industrialisation and rising capitalism in Europe and elsewhere, the situation became complicated with militarism and colonialism which promoted and used narrow identities.Consequently we see the process of misanthropic(human hating) materialism emerging within the civil society.It is to combat such trends that we see the emergence of genuine international movements for peace and cosmopolitanism in Europe and America.It is with these movements India's early patriots including the Ghadar activists allied to promote a genuinely internationalist anti colonial struggle.
The issue of security then acquired a broadbased dimension as well.Though the coming of the post- industrial societies gave a new dynamic to identity politics,today we see the legacy of broad based concept of security in international civil society and global citizenship movements.The attempt is to make the political process responsive to individual rights,life and liberty the cornerstones of the concept of security since the French revolution.With emphasis on freedom of speech, expression and press today's movements have taken a step forward from certain practises of the French Revolution where press freedom did come under attack.
It is in this context that the General V. K. Singh episode which blew up in the context of current pre-election campaigns in India assumes significance.There has been a tendency by some political and other forces to play politics with the issue.We argue that the issue of security is too important for it to be politicised in this manner.It is important here that modernisation of security forces be carried out. It is equally important that the military should be made subordinate to democratically formed civilian government.To take the concept of security forward moreover it is important that the current election campaigns of all political parties be responsible, healthier, democratic and free from violence. The recent communal violence and killings in Muzaffarnagar in the wake of the coming elections and other such violence only tends to undermine what the concept of security stands for. Strengthening democracy and democratic processes is the way forward from the Gen. V.K. Singh episode and perhaps to overcome the damage caused by it.(SFC, PG IGNOU, with the help of Mr. Ajay Mahurkar and Dr. Dolly Mathew).
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