Pune : If the civil administration decides to use the army “for protection and killing an insurgency network“, the army should be allowed to control it by “firing straight“, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said here on Saturday. “I don't want to train the army to use lathis,“ he added.
The issue has come to the fore because of a recent judgment about the Northeast, he said, referring to the Supreme Court lashing out over the long deployment of the armed forces and the imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which seeks to grants army personnel legal immunity for their actions, in Manipur.
“We can't lose people. So, wherever the army is used, the powers will have to be there, otherwise don't use the army. In fact, I will be very happy if we don't use the army anywhere in the country, other than disaster mana gement,“ he said.
Earlier in the day, asked by reporters to comment on the Kashmir situation, Parrikar, who was inaugurating a new building for the office of the principal director of defence estates, said the question should be directed at the home minister as the defence ministry is not direct ly involved in maintaining law and order in the state.
Referring to videos on social media showing Indian army men purportedly indulging in brutality, Parrikar said these were morphed and asserted that the Indian Army is not a brutal force.“We don't kill for the sake of it. Kabhi kabhi galti hota hai (sometimes mistakes do happen). Indian army is capable of killing, but it is not a brutal army. This is a hallmark. I have not seen Indian soldiers doing something cruel.Army has a high morality standard... It has capability, training and it is one of the best forces in the world“, he said. India does believe in going and occupying another country, “but that does not mean that we should allow people to come and attack us“, Parrikar said later at a book release function. “I am saying this purposely, though sometimes, some aspects are wrongly understood. I will fight for human rights... yes. I will fight for environment... but before Prakash Javadekar came, the environment department was blocking most of our roads going into the Northeast and the borders.
They were saying you have to cut so many trees, you may endanger such and such species. I had to ask once if someone at tacks us, will he be bothered about all this? We have to understand what is the importance of national security.“
Taking a dig at actor Aamir Khan without naming him, the minister said: “One actor made a mistake of saying that my wife fears for her life and talks of going abroad. It was an arrogant statement. However poor my family is or however small my house is, I have to love it. I will always aim to make a bungalow with the right means, but you can't feel ashamed of yourself “.
(Source- Toi)
