Jawans complaining on social media can create divide within armed forces: Security analyst

Commenting on the recent videos emerging in the social media where soldiers were seen complaining of poor treatment and supply of bad quality food, security analyst Nitin Gokhale on Sunday said such videos have the capacity to carry a long term repercussion and can create divide within the forces.

"These videos need to be seen as aberrations and not to paint such huge forces entirely wrong. This has long term repercussions and can create a divide within the forces," Gokhale told ANI.

Resonating with the views of Army Chief General Bipin Rawat who asked the soldiers to share their grievances with him and not on social media, Gokhale said that there are robust mechanisms within forces, military and central armed police forces, to redress the grievances.

"I am glad that the Army Chief gave this message. But we also have to see that how the social media can be harnessed for the better use," he added.

Days after a BSF soldier, Tej Bahadur Yadav, deployed along the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, alleged in a Facebook video that troops are served bad quality food, General Rawat on Sunday urged the jawans to discuss their grievances directly with him instead of posting them on social media.

Addressing the Army Day function, he said, "There are proper channels in place for the jawans to put across their grievances. If they are not satisfied with action taken, they can contact me directly instead of airing their problems."

"A few of our friends have taken to social media to speak about their complaints. This affects the soldiers deployed at the borders," he added.

Earlier on Friday, General Rawat announced a new grievance re-dressal system under which complaints would reach him directly while the identity of the complainant would be kept a secret.

Last week, Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh of 42 Infantry brigade expressed his grievances against the sahayak (orderly) system in the army and how soldiers were forced to "wash clothes, polish boots and walk dogs" for seniors.

He said that he was being victimised by his superiors for complaining against it.

On Saturday a second soldier, Nursing Assistant Naik Ram Bhagat, expressed concerns against discrimination in another video in which he said, "It is not just his pain. It is the pain of the whole Army.