Rising soldier casualties-who is killing our men in uniform?
May we raise some serious questions on rising soldier casualties please?
Last night, I watched an astonishingly stupid show on Republic TV. This show wasn’t an exception; most of the shows on this channel are exceedingly silly and are designed to make the viewers angry. The hashtag of the show was; #DhoniKeepTheGlove
Now you may call me a silly person who was devoting his dinner time to Arnab and his madness. I accept the charge but sometimes it makes sense to find out the nature of our discourse. And I was doing that precisely.
The men on the panel were discussing whether Mahinder Singh Dhoni should sport his regimental symbol on his ICC World Cup gloves. Some were supporting Dhoni while the rest said that it was for the ICC to frame the rules over what to wear and what not to wear.
Before I ramble further, I’d like to make two points here;
One, Dhoni is an honorary member of the Territorial Army.
Two- the Cricket World Cup is an ICC event and it is the responsibility of this body to decide on what to wear during this tournament. Reportedly, the ICC has asked Dhoni to take off his gloves which bear a symbol that is not approved by it.
I am not going into whether Dhoni is right or is ICC doing the right thing? But what astonished me is that a responsible TV channel like the Republic is not debating issues that are more important.
Rising soldier casualties
Now there are several important topics to be discussed but the one that we need to focus immediately is our rising soldier casualties. And we also need to ask some serious questions on the rising number of IAF plane crashes.
IAF planes crashing regularly
Do you know, we lose more than 15 aircraft of the Indian Air Force every year because of accidents?
Since 1947, we have lost more than 1500 fighter planes, helicopters, and other planes because of various reasons. This number includes those planes that crashed during the two wars that we fought with Pakistan and the Kargil expedition. However, the number of planes lost due to wars isn’t much- maybe 100-150.
And it’s not just the planes that we are losing- we are also losing pilots who form the backbone of the Indian Air Force. But sadly, no one cares anymore.
A few days back, we lost an AN-32 aircraft transport aircraft with 13 people aboard. It was a on a flight in the north-eastern part of India but just after taking off, the plane lost its connection with ground control authorities. At the time of writing this article, the India Air Force was still searching for this plane and its passengers.
I am not saying that working in the services is a no-risk affair. You deal with guns, and ships and planes so obviously there is some risk involved. But losing 20 planes every year is simply not acceptable.
Sadly, barring a few, nobody raises issues like these on the mainstream and social media. We are awestruck with insignificant matters like Dhoni and his gloves.
Non-battle casualties in the Forces
I did a simple web search on the annual number of non-battle casualties in all the three arms of our defense services. And here is the figure- 1,600. We lose this number of soldiers, airmen, and sailors every year because of road accidents, suicides, and other reasons. Can someone senior enough in our government stand up and say something about it? I dare say that it is because of bad training and leadership that India is losing its men in uniform in significant numbers.
Is the IAF prepared?
Coming back to the planes falling down because of accidents, don’t you think this is a serious security issue? If we don’t have a good number of fighter planes, how will we defend our frontiers?
Come to think of it, is our Indian Air Force prepared to take any battle beyond our borders?
Just take your mind to the events of February 2019 when a couple of Pakistani fighter aircraft intruded into our territory in Kashmir. Did the IAF launch a counter-attack into Pakistan? No. Was it because of a lack of aircraft?
Dhoni and Cricket are more important for our media
Sadly, when you raise these questions in social media, those are ignored. If you persist, you are branded anti-national. Even the retired generals and other officers of the services ignore these issues. Perhaps the only things they are interested in are OROP and other salary-related benefits. I wish these men had a little bit of spine and could stand up to the government and demand answers.
Time to ask tough questions, Mr. Modi
And what can we say about the Narendra Modi government which prides itself on the security and defense of India? Between 2012 and 2019, we have lost nearly 70 planes belonging to the India Air Force. During the UPA-2 government, we still lost planes in large numbers- in this case, the number was 73! Clearly, our governments simply do not care about our defense preparedness.
There is another worrisome statistic about our rising soldier casualties.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, we have lost around 1400 jawans in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir. And, all these people have died within our borders. They fell down to badly trained terrorists who came from Pakistan. Isn’t this a serious issue?
Why are we losing our soldiers within our borders?
What do we have to say about our training standards?
Who will be held responsible for this bad leadership?
Why are our generals silent on this matter? I wish we had answers to all these questions.
Dear talking heads, it’s fine to discuss Dhoni and his cricketing skills but you need to get your priorities right. It’s time you brought in the actual issues and asked tough questions on our rising soldier casualties within our borders.
