Machiavellian Political Leadership Smells Coup in Kolkata

Machiavellian Political Leadership Smells Coup in Kolkata

Indian political leadership is known to be corrupt and unprincipled; in fact, it is rotten. Their misdemeanours have stopped surprising the countrymen. However, Mamata Banerjee’s charge against the military marks a new low in the sordid saga of political chicanery, falsehood and misrepresentation of facts.

Mamata locked herself up in her office to ‘guard democracy’ for 30 hours. "Don't know what will happen overnight...I will guard democracy...I will continue to be at the Bengal Secretariat till Army at all toll plazas in 18 other districts is withdrawn”, she said. She termed soldiers’ presence at the toll plazas to be akin to a military coup.

Alleging political vendetta, Mamata blamed the centre for trying to bulldoze opponents. Her party averred that soldiers were in toll plazas to counter Mamata's anti-demonetisation stand. Mamata declared that her voice could not be stifled by ‘hatching conspiracy and showing force’. Worse, she accused the army of lying about its intentions and collecting illegal money from the drivers.

True to their character, Kejriwal, Mayawati and Ghulam Nabi Azad joined Mamata’s bandwagon to fault the government. Sample their pearls of wisdom.

Kejriwal – “Mamataji is strongly raising her voice against Modiji’s wrong policies. No army men would have been deployed at the toll plazas in front of West Bengal secretariat if she had praised Modiji. By posting army personnel at the toll plazas, the Centre is trying to intimidate her, but I believe Mamataji isn’t scared of such moves. I just want to tell Mamataji that I and the whole country stand with her. Keep up the fight.”

Mayawati – “This is not correct, our party strongly condemns the move and the central government should not do this. The central government is trying to humiliate Mamata Banerjee as she has been raising her voice against demonetisation. This is unfair to the West Bengal Chief Minister. This step is a grave attack on the constitution. One should not politicise the army.”

Ghulam Nabi Azad – “It seems out of the way. Army doesn’t collect toll? There is no law and order issue in West Bengal for army to be deployed. The centre must clarify it, in fact, PM must clarify as to why state’s rights are being impinged upon,” Azad said

Facts of the Case

All military formations prepare exhaustive logistic plans for mobilisation of forces and their subsequent maintenance during operational emergencies. Logistics pose a huge challenge when war is imminent as time is of utmost importance.

Logistics include concentration of required troops and ordnance at the specified locations expeditiously in the operationally acceptable time frame. To supplement their integral transport resources, the services are allowed to requisition aircrafts, ships, railways and vehicles for logistic support. It is a standard practice the world over: all means of transportation are considered national assets.

In all the wars fought by India, civilian transportation services played a stellar role. Their support was invaluable. Tales of round-the-clock commitment of the railways and the bravery of the civilian truck drivers are legendary. All soldiers hold them in high regard.

To prepare realistic logistic plans, military formations have to have data of the likely number of civilian trucks that would be available for requisition at different locations in the country. For that, a few soldiers are stationed at some selected places to count the number of load carriers crossing those points during a given period.

Based on the data collected, likely availability of load carriers for requisition purposes is deduced and logistic plans made accordingly. To keep logistic plans updated, this exercise is carried out annually in states that impact mobilisation.

The counting exercise is by far the most innocuous and routine affair. A handful of military policemen and soldiers are tasked for the job. Stickers are given to the counted vehicles to avoid repetitive counting of the same vehicle at subsequent checkpoints.  

In the recent case at Kolkatta, the police was duly informed and the checkpoints were jointly sited. Army had suggested 28, 29 and 30 December for data collection but the dates were changed to 01 and 02 December on the advice of the police. Interestingly, similar exercise was done in November 2015 as well. No objections were raised by the state government at that time.

Finally

A military coup is a very serious occurrence. It always proves ruinous to the country and should never be talked about in a flippant and slapdash manner. In any case, coups are not staged by a handful of military police personnel with stickers and notebooks in hand. Tanks and armoured cars patrol the streets to take over centres of power. Moreover, coups aim at usurping absolute power in a country and hence always target the national capital. State capitals in a federal structure need not lose their sleep on that account.  

Mamata Banerjee’s accusations are extremely grave and damaging to the army. One cannot help wondering at the reasons for her behaviour. She appears to have lost her cool and equilibrium. A leader resorts to cheap political stunts only when cornered for lies.

After the army released the letters proving that the police had been duly informed well in advance, she realised that her bluff had been called and lies exposed. In desperation, she has started accusing the soldiers of collecting toll illegally. When asked to produce any proof, she nonchalantly cited media reports. It was a most unfortunate development.

Her intense opposition to demonetisation is well known. Instead of fighting political battles politically, she has converted them into a personal feud. “I’ll die or live but will remove PM Modi from Indian politics,” she declared.

Political frustration or vendetta politics should never harm national institutions. Why drag the army and cast aspersions on its credentials? Political narrative should never be allowed to sink to such abysmal depths that it starts stinking of anti-nationalism.*****