Inviting death.

In the last few days there has been a lot of discussion regarding a story reported by the Indian Express in which the paper claims that the Indian government was " spooked " on the night of January 16-17 when 2 army units moved towards New Delhi. This was the day before the army chief Gen VK Singh filed an application in the Supreme Court regarding his age. One was Hissar based mechanized infantry unit and the other was Agra based 50 para brigade. Indian Express claims that the government was so worried that police units were told to raise barricades on the highway leading to the capital to slow down the movement of the units. Both Gen VK Singh and the government have ridiculed the story but Express is standing by it. Apparently army units are regularly moved around on exercises and there is no requirement to inform the government and on this occasion they were being tested for their response to foggy conditions, but the speed of the police deployment has taken people by surprise. A military coup is impossible in India. The country is too diverse and, as the recent state elections have shown, power is not concentrated in the union government. The Indian army is a million strong and no particular group is in absolute majority unlike in Pakistan where the army is controlled by Punjabis. So why are politicians so terrified of a coup. The reason is that they know they are despised by the educated middle class people many of whom openly suggest that an army led government would be able to get rid of the corrupt scoundrels in one swoop which would be good for the country. When the parliament was attacked in December 2001 people were sorry that a woman police officer died fighting the terrorists but not one politician was killed. However, it is not just the politicians who are responsible for the poisoned relations with the armed forces. There is a dark shadowy organisation within the government which formulates policy and controls every official action. It is the Indian Administrative Service or the IAS which took over from the Indian Civil Service established by the British to control and subdue the " natives ". The IAS functions much like an occupying force and keeps a complete grip on power. Ministers are known as Aya Ram, Gaya Ram or here today, gone tomorrow but IAS officers cannot be removed until they retire. They can be transferred but not sacked, have detailed knowledge about the intricate workings of government and have an iron grip on power by working in secret so that they are never called to account for their actions. All the scams, that have implicated politicians in the last few years, could not have been possible without active connivance of IAS officers. They ride roughshod over the Indian Foreign service which explains our poor foreign policy, Indian Police Service which explains the demoralised and corrupt police and the armed forces creating divisions between top officers. This is the sickness affecting the state of India and, unless removed or completely reformed, will continue to poison the system. So powerful and malevolent is the IAS that writing this invites death. Still, unless the cancer is diagnosed treatment cannot start.