West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is often too shrill for a major political leader, and this sometimes explains her inability to put things in perspective. But the nation must pay attention to the point she raised on civil-military ties. The West Bengal leader’s hackles were raised lately as the Army had set up checkpoints at toll gates in her state, including one near the state secretariat in Kolkata. She has said permission to do so was not sought from the state government.
The Army says it was part of a routine exercise to determine the numbers of vehicles it can hope to access for its own use in case of an emergency. The defence minister was facetious about this in Parliament when he ascribed the CM’s reaction to “frustration”. It was also loosely suggested that the Army “was in communication with the state”, whatever that means. If the Army really wants to know how many civilian vehicles of any particular specification are available in a state for possible military use in a crisis, all it has to do is to ask the transport department for data.
Setting up checkpoints without the permission of the local authorities is a different matter altogether, and does need an explanation. It’s no argument that similar exercises had been run in some other states earlier. In every state, the Army has been given land where it has built facilities for itself. But any interface with the civil sector needs the state authorities’ clearance. This is necessary to retain the civil-military balance.
