Our Army And Democracy

In 1972, I was Deputy Adjutant General, and Manekshaw was Chief and Jagjivan Ram was Defence Minister. Jagjivan Ram looked over the role of IMA cadets being commissioned and raised a query re the list sent by the commanding officer of IMA. How many SCs were on the list? I checked up and said 1 per cent. He wrote a strong note to Manekshaw. Jagjivan Ram wrote to Manekshaw saying that government had decided that there should be an SC reservation of 15 per cent and one for the STs of 7.5 per cent. Why is this not being observed?

Manekshaw sent for me. This DM has gone mad, he said, but we have to draft a reply. He knew Jagjivan Ram, and I was from Bihar. I found in the files a note that said that when reservations were introduced, there was a clause that said that this would not apply to the army.

So in my reply I said that this was the case. But that as far as ranks below officers were concerned we have more than 15 per cent Scheduled Castes already in the army. We have the Mahar regiment, and every battalion has 75-100 depressed classes as sweepers, cobblers, dhobis, etc. In terms of officers, we had hardly any SCs in 1947 but we are making progress and now have 1 per cent and it will grow further.

As Sinha told the story, “But of course (Manekshaw) was the hero of 1971, and when he came up with these reasons, and him being the hero of the war, there was little Jagjivan Ram could do.

The Congress Party has ruled the country constitutionally for 30 years,” said Tappy. “You have held a fair election without any restraints. I am happy that history will record how the Congress under your leadership stepped down from office democratically.