The Indian Army may have more reason to worry abouat the serious breach of discipline in a clash between a few jawans and an officer in the course of a route march somewhere in the north-eastern sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The death of a jawan is, of course, a tragedy, but one which armies around the world tend to take in their stride as a professional hazard in a calling that makes greater demands on the physical and mental makeup of a soldier than most professions in civilian life.
The hardships of endurance training in difficult terrain cannot be underestimated, though in this particular case there seemed to have been a warning of physical discomfort by way of chest pain, which a doctor attended to and cleared the soldier to march on. This aspect of a medical prognosis may have to be inquired into. No army likes to have the ranks question the authority of those up the chain of command. It is with extreme discipline and on their stomachs that armies are said to march.
A few soldiers may have grown emotional, but their grappling with an officer could not have gone down well with the top brass. In these days of hyperactive social media, some colour may have been lent to the incident in blowing it up into a “mutiny”, a word any army abhors. The Army is to probe the command and control failure and it is up to it now not only to tend to the disaffection in a few jawans but also to adequately compensate the kin of the victim who marched beyond the call of normal duty.
