Jawans clash with officers in army camp in Leh

[pmaitra]

disband the regiment

The entire regiment? Why?

 

[Bhadra]

the commanding officer is relieved from the duty and case is opened against him against present and past irregularities. regiment 226 have problematic record as per media. new commanding officer is in place

It would be very interesting to know the class composition of the unit. Disband that bloody unit and throw it in the dustbin of history.

 

[Bhadra]

• Soldier misbehaves with Major's wife.
• Major beats up the soldier then refuses him medical attention.
• Commanding officer comes, feels the mood, and publicly scolds the Major.
• Major and his colleagues beat up the commanding officer.
• Soldiers join in and beat the Major and his colleagues.

I can see where all this started from.

I agree with Bhadra, the only person fit for the army in this entire saga is the Major who beat up so many people for his wife. I say well done.

The major could have been a bad hat but not all officers present...

And look at the CO, he behaved like a typical scheming troublesome bad gunner !

He made his officers fight the men !

 

[Apollyon]

disband the regiment

Totally agree .. Army is not a Group of Sociophiles ...

 

[Dark Sorrow]

The media shouldn't report such incidents.Follow Pak model here.

In democracy everything should come in open to general public. There is a fine line between Democracy and Autocratic Protected/Closed State. Media is this fine line.
If you find it shameful then think before you act.

 

[nitesh]

different angle:

Nyoma violence: No mutiny, only indiscipline, says army

 

[Tronic]

• Soldier misbehaves with Major's wife.
• Major beats up the soldier then refuses him medical attention.
• Commanding officer comes, feels the mood, and publicly scolds the Major.
• Major and his colleagues beat up the commanding officer.
• Soldiers join in and beat the Major and his colleagues.

I can see where all this started from.

I agree with Bhadra, the only person fit for the army in this entire saga is the Major who beat up so many people for his wife. I say well done.

I would agree with you had this been some rag tag African militia!

The pillars of professional armies are strict subordination, discipline, and camaraderie.

The Major(s) involved, aswell as the Jawans, lacked all three, hence they are clearly unfit for the army!

All the men involved deserve a nice big boot up their posterior!

 

[shubhamsaikia]

Hey whats with this Anti-Artillery sentiments. Haven't you seen a mob sentiment before? It does not think but goes wild. All this incident only shows that there is trouble in the army. Like Ray Sir said, BONDING is the sole cause of all trouble. A Gunner has to go for more courses than a regular infantry officer and this clearly is showing the lack of trust and bonding amongst the men... Not only are we following the US in the system of work, we are even following them to copy their uniforms and show less.

What a blot. Disband the Unit and restructure the Regiment of Artillery. And its a fact that class composition matter. Heck why not restructure the artillery on the lines of Infantry. There hardly is any bonding even amongst the officers as a unit.

Its a very shameful event.

 

[shubhamsaikia]

also any clue of the state composition of the soldiers...?

 

[Tronic]

The CO has been relieved of command. What an embarrassment; you get this opportunity once in your lifetime and to have it taken away in such a manner, what a shame. The officers in the unit lacked leadership qualities.

 

[Bhadra]

also any clue of the state composition of the soldiers...?

Only one name has appeared ... Sepoy Suman Ghosh....
Hmmm ... The rebellious Bengali Dada.. the argumentative Indian....
It appears the unit is mixed or all india composition..
Such things are common in those outfits..

It is time for their Colonel of the Regiment to disband that unit...

The CO and SM must be thrown into Spangur Lake....
Families in practice camp ???
That is their gunners professionalism..?

the buggers wanted to to fire from all guns in rarefied high altitude and that too simultaneously...

 

[Bhadra]

Re: Army officers, jawans involved in scuffle in Ladakh





14 Corps Commander strikes deal with angry soldiers, defusing crisis — but hard questions remain

Forty-eight hours after troops of the Ladakh-based 226 Field Regiment staged a revolt against officers they said were responsible for the brutal beating of an enlisted man, the Army is facing hard questions about whether its colonial-era institutions are generating a crisis within its ranks.

Men of the 226 Field Infantry marched through the town of Nyoma late on Thursday night, armed with rods and knives, seeking to hunt down five Major-rank officers they said were responsible for the brutal beating of Suman Ghosh — an enlisted man assigned as a personal valet.

Raise slogans

The men also staged protests, using loudspeakers to shout slogans condemning the officers and raise nationalist slogans. The fighting left at least three soldiers — including the sahayak —injured.

Early on Saturday, highly-placed military sources told The Hindu, Leh-based 14 Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Ravi Dastane finally hammered out a deal with the soldiers — a deal which promises officers who used beatings against enlisted men will be punished, in return for the soldiers relocating to their base at Thiksey.

In New Delhi, the Army Headquarters described the clash — the worst of its kind since some units mutinied in 1984 — as "an incident of indiscipline," not a mutiny. The Army has set up a court to inquire into the incident.

Officers, not Gentlemen?

Late on Thursday evening, after the 226 Field Regiment finished a firing-practice session with their 105-millimetre mountain guns at the Mahé range near Nyoma, witnesses saw a fracas break out. Major A.K. Sharma, one of the unit's officers, claimed his wife was insulted by the sahayak. A highly placed source at 14 Corps Headquarters told The Hindu that the officer's wife complained that Ghosh waked into her room without knocking while she was having a shower.

The sahayak, witnesses told The Hindu, was dragged into the Beacon ground near the range, and beaten up. Major Ankur Tewari, Major Kapil Malik, Major Thomas Verghese, Major A.D. Kanade and Major Sharma himself joined in the beating, documents seen by The Hindu say.

From the witnesses' account, it is clear the men of the 226 Field Regiment did nothing — until it became clear Ghosh had suffered significant injuries. Major Kanade, however, allegedly refused the men to move Ghosh to a medical facility, perhaps fearing it would lead to an internal inquiry on his conduct.

The irate men then began arguing with the officers; witnesses say there was a heated argument, accompanied by some pushing and shoving.

226 Field Regiment commander Colonel Prasad Kadam intervened, reprimanding the officers for their conduct — only to be allegedly assaulted by the five.

The Majors, witnesses said, then fled as troops arrived, saving Colonel Kadam.

Fearing attack by other Army units, some men barricaded themselves inside the quarter-guard, housing the armoury, while others marched into the town shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai ["Long Live India"]. Major Sharma was captured and beaten; the men moved him to hospital thereafter.

Early on Friday morning, Major-General A.L. Chavan, commander of the Leh-based 3 Infantry Division, arrived in Nyoma and began negotiating with the troops, promising force would not be used.

In a press release, the Army Headquarters insisted that Col. Kadam's injuries were "superficial," but highly-placed military sources said he was still in a field hospital on Saturday afternoon.

Simmering class tensions

Earlier this month, the Army announced it was considering doing away with the colonial-era institution of the sahayak, or batmen as they were earlier known — trained soldiers who are assigned to serve as valets.

The 30,000-odd men serving as sahayaks are expected not just to ensure that their officers' uniforms are in order and their personal comfort cared for, but ferry their children to school and help with their spouses' shopping.

The batman system was long abandoned in the British Army, from where India drew it; even Pakistan dropped the institution in 2004. In India, however, it remains in place — a major cause of humiliation for men enlisted to serve their country.

It isn't only the institution of the sahayak, though, that is a cause of friction: India's two-class Army, divided rigidly between sahibs and men, ill-reflects the social realities of the country today.

For its part, the officer corps is ill-equipped to deal with a changing world. In a recent article, scholar Srinath Raghavan pointed out that the Army recruits officers "at a much younger age than most other democracies."

Colonial-era culture

Their subsequent in-house education submerges young men to the military's colonial-era culture, leaving them ill-equipped to understand the changed values and aspirations of the soldiers serving under their command.

"In the first decades after Independence," a retired officer told The Hindu, "enlisted men came from backgrounds which led them to unquestioningly accept feudal attitudes and values. The officers were also products of the same feudal landscape. It doesn't exist any more — but the institutions remain."


The Hindu : News / National : Ladakh troop revolt underlines Army class tensions

 

[Tronic]

From my sources, the Jawan did not exactly "misbehave" with the Major's wife per se; he was merely protesting against the presence of the Major's wife on the field as she was "getting in their way". This offended the Major who went on to beat the Jawan up, and than the rest is history.

Ofcourse, nothing can be confirmed 100%, so many versions of the incident flying around.

A highly placed source at 14 Corps Headquarters told The Hindu that the officer's wife complained that Ghosh walked into her room without knocking while she was having a shower.

If it was indeed a "Sahayak", than that sounds more plausible.

 

[pmaitra]

This is not a mutiny per se, because the soldiers were not disloyal to the country, but to their leaders who lacked leadership qualities.

 

[Bhadra]

This is not a mutiny per se, because the soldiers were not disloyal to the country, but to their leaders who lacked leadership qualities.

If this is not mutiny than what is this:

Fearing attack by other Army units, some men barricaded themselves inside the quarter-guard, housing the armoury, while others marched into the town shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai ["Long Live India"]. Major Sharma was captured and beaten; the men moved him to hospital thereafter.


and this :
The sahayak, witnesses told The Hindu, was dragged into the Beacon ground near the range, and beaten up. Major Ankur Tewari, Major Kapil Malik, Major Thomas Verghese, Major A.D. Kanade and Major Sharma himself joined in the beating, documents seen by The Hindu say

Collective insubordination is mutiny.....

 

[pmaitra]

If this is not mutiny than what is this:

Fearing attack by other Army units, some men barricaded themselves inside the quarter-guard, housing the armoury, while others marched into the town shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai ["Long Live India"]. Major Sharma was captured and beaten; the men moved him to hospital thereafter.


and this :
The sahayak, witnesses told The Hindu, was dragged into the Beacon ground near the range, and beaten up. Major Ankur Tewari, Major Kapil Malik, Major Thomas Verghese, Major A.D. Kanade and Major Sharma himself joined in the beating, documents seen by The Hindu say

Collective insubordination is mutiny.....

Collective insubordination against erring officers? Who knows what happened for real? The soldiers did not refuse to fight.

Going by your definition, if a unit is asked to retreat, and the unit refuses and decides to fight till death, would you still call it a mutiny? It's not as if the soldiers were betraying their country. They were standing up for a fellow comrade.

 

[Bhadra]

Collective insubordination against erring officers? Who knows what happened for real? The soldiers did not refuse to fight.

Going by your definition, if a unit is asked to retreat, and the unit refuses and decides to fight till death, would you still call it a mutiny? It's not as if the soldiers were betraying their country. They were standing up for a fellow comrade.

Read Army Act..

Law is law . Acts prove intentions and not the other way !

 

[Bhadra]

Section 37 in The Army Act, 1950 1

37. Mutiny. Any person subject to this Act who commits any of the following offences, that is to say,-
(a) begins, incites, causes, or conspires with any other persons to cause any mutiny in the military, naval or air forces of India or any forces co- operating therewith; or

(b) joins in any such mutiny; or


(c) being present at any such mutiny, does not use his utmost endeavours to suppress the same; or

(d) knowing or having reason to believe in the existence of any such mutiny, or of any intention to mutiny or of any such conspiracy, does not, without delay, give information thereof to his commanding or other superior officer; or

(e) endeavours to seduce any person in the military, naval. or air forces of India from his duty or allegiance to the Union; shall, on conviction by court- martial, be liable to suffer death or such less punishment as is in this Act mentioned.

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

Did the misbehavior by the sahayak take place and if so then why there is no inquiry about that?

Last week a news came that the sahayaks are being scrambled and there will be no more sahayak duties for the soldiers. Has this decision been implemented or will it take more time to do so....?

 

[Bhadra]

Behind Army Leh clash, breach of rules, failure of command

The violence at a Ladakh firing range, constituting one of the most serious discipline-related incidents in the Army in recent years, was the result of a series of rule breaches by officers. Sources indicated a trust deficit between officers and jawans, including failure of the command structure, and a rumour about a badly beaten jawan dying that could not be contained.

The Army has called Thursday's events a "minor scuffle" resulting in "superficial injuries" to four, who are in hospital. However, sources said the violence lasted several hours and that apart from the commanding officer of 226 Field Regiment, three majors and 10 jawans received injuries. A court of inquiry has been instituted.

In a statement issued today, the Army said the regiment was being moved back to its location, Darbuk, from the firing range. Commanding Officer Col. P Kadam is likely to be moved out for medical care. Kadam was reportedly already scheduled to relinquish command, and the Army said no one has been "removed, dismissed or suspended".

Slamming "misinterpretation" and "mischievous reporting", the Army also said, "The entire episode can at worst be seen as an isolated act of indiscipline. It can in no way be termed a mutiny."

A reconstruction of what transpired at the Army's Mahi firing range in Nyoma, around 150 km from Leh, on Thursday:

* The 226 Field Regiment had moved from Darbuk to the range for firing practice, and officers and men were staying in temporary tents. However, in a breach of rules, at least five officers allegedly also had their wives accompanying them. While families are usually invited for firing demos of artillery guns, wives and children are strictly not allowed at a firing practice session. Even at Darbuk, only a limited number of families are allowed, given that it is a designated "field area". The Army says the wives were staying at a nearby GREF (General Reserve Engineer Force) camp.
* On Thursday, as the firing practice was on, the regiment barber, identified as Suman Ghosh, is believed to have entered a major's tent. The sequence of events is unclear, but a version says that on seeing the officer's wife in the tent, Ghosh ran out in alarm. Following this, the wife allegedly created a furore.

* The major, along with two other officers, is believed to have then thrashed Ghosh, as well as denied him medical aid. This was a second breach of rules as in such cases, disciplinary action is taken while physical assault is forbidden. However, the matter was believed to have been sorted out following the intervention of Commanding Officer Kadam. Ghosh was sent for medical care to a nearby field hospital.

* In the evening though, things took an ugly turn when all the soldiers of the regiment (close to 500) returned to the barracks. A strong rumour spread that Ghosh had died after the severe beating. In a third violation of rules, the subedar major of the battalion — who is the representative of the troops — failed to quell these rumours.

* Convinced that Ghosh had died, a group of soldiers went to the temporary officer's mess and created a ruckus. As things started getting out of control and physical, Col Kadam, who was staying at the GREF camp, rushed to the spot to calm the troops. Here is when the fourth breach of discipline took place. Even as Kadam was reasoning with the troops, he was hit on the head by a stone thrown by one of the soldiers.
* A fight then broke out between the officers and men. The temporary mess is believed to have been vandalised with some fittings being burnt down by the soldiers. However, weapons are not believed to have been used.

* Officers of the unit fled from the spot, some rushing to their wives. At least two wives are believed to have been "rescued" by personnel from the GREF camp, fearing the anger of the jawans. By evening, all the officers had been accounted for, with one having fled to an Army camp in Chushul.
* By late evening, as reports of the violence reached senior officers, troops were rushed from a nearby Rajputana Rifles regiment camp. While rumours of the soldiers seizing the armoury were found to be untrue, the Raj Rif secured the artillery guns of the unit. By Friday morning, normalcy had been restored as senior officers rushed to the spot.

A shaken-up Army is now trying to get things on track. Col Yogi Sheoran, who commanded the regiment before Kadam and is believed to have a good rapport with the troops, has been rushed to the unit. The Army denied that Kadam had been attacked by fellow officers. The commander of the Nimu-based 3 Artillery Brigade was also sent to the Nyoma camp.

While the unit was to earlier stay at Mahi for a month with its artillery, the firing practice has now been cancelled and all temporary shelters set up near the Nyoma range dismantled.

The Army court of inquiry will be headed by an officer of the rank of Brigadier or above. Given the serious breach of disciple, strict action, including court martial, is likely. A preliminary report on the incident has already been forwarded by the 3 Division 14 Corps. Incidentally, the 226 Field Regiment has had disciplinary problems in the past too. An inquiry had been ordered into allegations against the commanding officer of the same unit while it was deployed on the western frontier during Operation Parakram, following a series of anonymous letters.

Behind Army Leh clash, breach of rules, failure of command - Indian Express