I have addressed a detailed letter to the Defence Minister enclosing copies of the causes contributing to frequent suicides in the Indian Army.It is not the stress of the duty or the seperation from family that causes these tragic national loss but the vestiges of colonial power that still hangs in the administration of justice in the Army.The un-bridled power vested on the Army commanders combined with the total lack of concern for the welfare of the troops contributes to this sordid happenings which in the past 5 years have repeated with regular frequency.Even among the officer cadre the more than thousand officers who have applied for voluntary retirement were not inclined to take this decision out of monetary consideration but the administration in the Army leaves one in doubt whether the structure will ever recover from the fatal disease it has been infected with.Recently a retiring Lt.Gen. implicated a senior colonel commanding a batallion slapping serious charges on him and had him court-martialed to escape from being accused in a more serious case of diversion of Government funds for construction of a Golf Course in Bhopal. Even after the Colonel was not found guilty of the charges preferred against him, the Army has not proceeded to arrest the General who had engineered the whole frame up.This is the state of the army and if a Colonel could be handed down this treatment,one could visualise as to how a lowly Jawan will be treated. The MOD bears a heavey responsibilty
