By : Bikram Vohra

I want to share a thought. I come from a family of four brothers, the only ones in any army in the world who made the rank of a general. No other commissioned band of brothers has four. My dad was the eldest.

He once made me leave the table because I had not checked on the driver’s arrangements for sleeping and ensured his dinner. There was a grace and a dignity to being an officer and a gentleman.

Against that kind of upbringing and the code of conduct that typified not just the officer but his family members too, the very idea of a retired four star general ‘tweeting’ messages against a brother officer and a chief designate at that is so appalling that it leaves one dumbfounded. If the outgoing army chief found it fit to ‘resurrect’ the fortunes of Lt Gen Suhag and make him his successor where does this former chief and current minister in the BJP government fit in. Someone should tell Gen. VK Singh he has been out of it for years and has no role in the running of the army. And it does not befit a four star general tweeting vituperative. Who does that?
You are out, you are retired, take a hike.

One can make a very strong case against such conduct being detrimental to the morale of the armed forces and even indict those who try to arouse rage and encourage divisiveness in the forces and one hopes that the BJP will shut this man up.

Once you have left your seat it does not matter what discipline or organization you were in. You do not badmouth those who are still there and you do not try to ruin careers by proxy.

This is the first general who sat at Anna Hazare’s feet and then shifted allegiance to the BJP when it suited him.

I was thinking, would generals of my father’s seniority who never questioned the hierarchy or an order even understand what this man does? It is so alien to the military code, so foreign to spirit de corps of the uniform that if my dad were alive he would be completely mystified.

Some things you just don’t do.

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