NEW DELHI – *Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat gets an embarassing snubfrom inside India.*
Indian Congress declared the current Indian Chief of the Armed Staff, BipinRawat a leader of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday.
The current Indian Army Chief was called a representative of the currentpolitical party ruling the country after a massive victory in the nearpast, re-electing Narendra Modi for a second term as Prime Minister with athumping majority.
Army chief Bipin Rawat earlier in the day had criticized violence duringprotests over the citizenship law, saying “leaders are not those who leadmasses in arson and violence”. He was immediately called out for takingsides while at the helm of a designation that must be neutral andapolitical.
“Leadership is all about leading. When you move forward, everybodyfollows…But leaders are those who lead people in the right direction.Leaders are not those who lead people in inappropriate directions, as weare witnessing in a large number of university and college students, theway they are leading masses of crowds to carry out arson and violence inour cities and towns. This is not leadership,” said the outgoing Army chiefat an event in the capital of India, Delhi.
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General Rawat, who is due to retire on December 31, has spoken for thefirst time against the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Act. Buthe is not the first; before him, another top army officer made politicallytinged remarks.
At least 20 people have died, mostly in Uttar Pradesh, in clashes betweenprotesters and the police, who have also been caught firing at the crowd inmany cases.
