Army chief General Rawat violates Section 21 of Army Act: CPI

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Friday accused Army Chief General Bipin Rawat of violating Section 21 of the Army Act.

In a statement, the CPI said the Army Chief, who made remarks against anti-CAA protests, violated his service rules, which prohibit him from making any kind of comment unrelated to Army matters.

"The Section 21 in the Army Act, 1950 makes it abundantly clear that serving army personnel whether at the top or at the bottom rank are serving the country and not the political forces and hence to express any political views as made by General Rawat is quite a wrong thing," said the CPI.

"The Army Chief on December 26, 2019, commented upon people leading violent protests over the new citizenship law, saying leaders are not those who lead people in inappropriate directions, as we are witnessing in a large number of university and college students, the way they are leading masses of crowds to carry out arson and violence in our cities and towns. This is not leadership," said the party in the statement.

"General Rawat, who is due to retire on December 31 as Army Chief, is tipped to be India's first Chief of Defence Staff, who will be the single-point military adviser to the government on tri-services matters. It is for the government whether such a person can be given the top-most post in defence services," added the CPI in the statement.

The CPI has "appealed to all serving defence personnel to desist from committing such violation of rules in a democratic country like ours where the ruling party may change if the poll verdict is against it.