Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat quoting speculative casualty figures after strike on terror camps in PoK was a break from tradition
By Snehesh Alex Philip
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, known for speaking his mind, put himself into an awkward position this week. He said the Army had managed to kill at least 6-10 Pakistani soldiers and an equal number of terrorists besides destroying three terror camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on Sunday 20th October, in artillery strikes.
His remarks were surprising because this is a first in recent times when an Indian Army Chief was giving out speculative figures of casualties inflicted across the border. The security forces usually give out official details only after recovering the bodies as proof or after proper verification.
Former Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief, Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, had refused to comment on casualty figures even after the successful Balakot strikes in February this year. Former Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag and then-Northern Army Commander Lt Gen D.S. Hooda too did not state the number of casualty figures following the 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan.
The argument was that casualties figures don’t matter because the message had been clearly delivered to the Pakistani military that there will be severe repercussions when they step over the so-called red line. So, Army Chief Rawat giving out speculative casualty figures is surprising because it’s a break from tradition.
Not only could these numbers be questioned and would thus make the Army look similar to Pakistan military’s propaganda wing, ISPR, which routinely claims multiple casualties on Indian side, but Rawat’s comments also came barely hours before the polling was scheduled in Haryana and Maharashtra.
Do not just be apolitical but be seen as apolitical
Political leaders, election strategists, journalists and people at large had started joking about the Sunday strikes and how it happened just ahead of the polling day. Even serving officers wondered why a regular action at the Line of Control (LoC) was being played up so much in what was initially reported as Indian Army launching retaliatory attacks on terror camps inside PoK.
With certain journalists getting inputs from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and even from a wing in the Narendra Modi government, the LoC flare up was played big with one channel calling it ‘Surgical Strike 3.0’ which killed 20 terrorists and another claiming casualties up to 100. The Army sent out multiple messages asking everyone not to speculate and even issued a formal statement to journalists on the beat without giving out any casualty figures.
But by evening, Army Chief Rawat surprised everyone with his statement, which gave a big backing to an otherwise exaggerated report being put out throughout the day by news channels and social media warriors. The Indian Army should remember that it is not only important for it to be apolitical but also to be seen as being apolitical.
Indian military must not become another ISPR
Pakistan’s Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) quickly grabbed on to the words of Gen Rawat and countered it through a series of tweets. It even organised a trip for foreign journalists and diplomats based in Pakistan to the areas where Rawat had said terror camps were struck and casualties inflicted.
The DG ISPR was cunning enough to extend an invite to the Indian High Commission officials as well, which was of course not accepted. But this gave an opportunity to them to question the Army Chief again, saying the Indian High Commission officials failed to back their chief and accompany foreign diplomats to the location.
Army officers explained that Chief Rawat had to step in and give out actual figures as the media was running amok with speculation. But if at all the Army had to control it, it could have used the Army’s PRO, a Colonel rank officer, to issue a formal statement or used its Twitter handle to put out the right information instead of the chief himself coming out to the front to issue a statement.
What this does is put a question mark on future statements. The Indian Army should not look like Pakistan’s ISPR, which puts out claims after claims without an iota of truth. While the Indian military’s psychological operations department has a thing or two to learn from Pakistan’s DG ISPR, it should resist reaching a state where other countries view its claims with a double scoop of doubt just like they do the ISPR’s.