Loaded comments: Serving defence officials should avoid political remarks

The army chief's disregard for the proprieties of his office has evidently acted as a signal for loquaciousness down the ranks

Within a week, two senior serving army officers have chosen to enter the lists of political discourse, setting troubling precedents for the well-settled relationship between the defence forces and civilian power. First came comments by Chief of Army Staff Bipin Rawat at a seminar in New Delhi. Talking about security threats in the Northeast, he suggested that Pakistan and China were fighting a proxy war in the region by encouraging illegal immigration. In that context, he referred to a local party, the All India United Democratic Front, or AIUDF, growing at a quicker pace than the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)