Dear Editor,
When Gen SF Rodrigues was appointed Army Chief, there was a headline saying he was the first Christian to lead the third largest Army of the world. When Gen Bikram Singh was promoted as Chief, the headline read ‘Second Sikh officer takes over Indian Army’. We have had three supreme commanders (Presidents) from the largest minority community, but not a single Army Chief. When an officer is promoted as Army Commander, he is fit enough to be promoted as Chief. All Army Commanders are on a par professionally. The Chief, at best, is a link between the army and the government. If the supersession of Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi was unavoidable, Lt Gen PM Hariz could have been a very appropriate successor that would have erased a bit of the ‘saffron’ taint and would have established the secular credentials of the BJP.
Col Jaspal Singh (Retd),
Ludhiana
