After PM frowns,Service chiefs told not to talk out of turn

While the government has always been uncomfortable with Service chiefs voicing their opinion in public,things came to a head after the Naxal attack in Dantewada last month that left 76 security personnel dead. The government was in particular not happy with comments on the attack by both the Army and Air Force Chiefs.

A circular was issued by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar on behalf of the Prime Minister,reminding ministries that the Home Ministry was competent to react and comment on matters relating to internal security. The circular received by the Defence Ministry was then marked to the three Service Chiefs.

In January 2010,reported comments by the former Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor on the issue of Maoist cadres joining the Nepalese Army had kicked up a storm in the neighbouring country. The Indian embassy in Kathmandu was forced on to damage control mode and a press statement was released that said that the Army Chief’s comments were “highly distorted” and did not “reflect Government of India’s position on the issue”.

Earlier,in November,Kapoor had talked about the possibility of limited war under the nuclear overhang in the Indian subcontinent. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,who was on a visit to the US,was forced to make an assertive statement saying that Pakistan does not face any threat from India. “Any other statement distorted out of context should not carry the weight when I have stated categorically that Pakistan faces no threat whatsoever from our side,” he had said in reference to Kapoor’s comments.