Prominent signatories deny signing alleged letter by armed forces veterans

In a recent upsurge of the “open letter” trends, the most recent one being that by the bureaucrats to the president of the country, alleging lack of integrity of the election commission, we see a new one along the same lines. 150 armed forces veterans have allegedly written to the President, Ram Nath Kovind and to protest against the manner in which the ruling party is treating the armed forces. However, in light of this, several armed forces personnel, whose names were mentioned in the letter, have come out claiming otherwise.

The alleged letter, as published by the usual suspects including, ‘The Wire’ states that the armed forces veterans have accused the government of “taking credit for military operations like cross-border strikes” and for misusing the Armed Forces.

The letter read, “With the General Elections round the corner, and given the prevailing environment where political parties and candidates seem to be acting in total disregard of the declaration of the ‘model code of conduct’, we fear that such incidents may only increase as polling day draws near.”

“We respectfully urge you [President] to take all necessary steps to urgently direct all political parties that they must forthwith desist from using the military, military uniforms or symbols, and any actions by military formations or personnel, for political purposes or to further their political agendas,” the letter added.

https://twitter.com/MajChowdhury/status/1116418372349112321

However, the concerns raised herein are irrelevant as a number of army veterans have denied being signatories to the letter. They are surprised, unable to comprehend how such a public letter could purport their “supposed views” without their own consent.

The list of veterans who have out rightly denied the contents include, Gen SF Rodrigues. He was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1990 to 1993. Being cited as the first name in list, he stated, “Don’t know what it (purported letter written by armed forces veterans to President) is all about. All my life, we’ve been apolitical. After, 42 years as officer, it’s a little late to change. Always put India first. Don’t know who these people are, classic manifestation of fake news.”

Air Chief Marshal NC Suri says he is not a signatory to the letter by veterans doing the rounds on politicization of armed forces. “To put an end to it, I wrote that armed forces are apolitical and support the politically elected government. And no, my consent has not been taken for any such letter. I don’t agree with whatever has been written. We have been misquoted,” he stated.

Former Army Vice Chief Lt General ML Naidu stated, “No, my consent has not been taken for any such letter and neither have I written any such letter.”

Perhaps the most ironic fact in the situation is that sources in the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that the President had received no such correspondence. Therefore, the letter was just published by the selected few media organizations, for the citizens to read and get influenced from.

So now the questions which arise are who drafted the list? Why were signatories’ names added without their consent and what was the motive of it all? And perhaps the most worrying query of all, is this kind of tactic not politicization of armed forces itself?