A woman Army Officer or for that matter,anybody, committing siucide is rather sad.However when a woman Army Officer commits suicide,it is time for the Services to wake up and ask them selves,'Whether is it really necessary for the Services to have women as Officers in the Armed forces?'The answer is a clear & loud'NO'.It is a fact of life,that women are not the ideal choice for service in the Armed forces except in the Army Medical Corps(AMC).Just because there are women serving as Officers in the US Army or the Israeli Army, it does not mean that the Indian Army/ Air Force & Navy too should ape them and induct women as Officers in the Armed Forces.We as Indians have our own ethos, culture, values & way of life.Life in the Armed forces is serious business.Women Officers in no way contribute to better performance or increased efficiencyin the Army.That being so,inducting women in the Armed forces,which is neither necessary nor inescapable,amounts to purchasing unnecessary trouble;whichwe can easily do without.I am no MCP.All that I am saying as a soldier with over thirty three years service is,let us be practical;and let not the head rule over the heart.Colonelrajan@rediffmail.com
RE:It is time to wake up
by rayker on Jun 20, 2006 09:11 PM Permalink
sir, i whole heartedly agree with your view. i have been raving and ranting about the same. sexism has nothing to do with ground realities. women and men mix with greater freedom in western armies. also the 'army'physical fitness of indian men is not much compared to the average western men (not the americas where there's a largest concentration of obese, while this is not a generalisation - yu can see the results in sports where indians lack in fitness). the women are even less so when it comes to 'army'fitness. besides women are 'protected' (note the quote, pls dont label me an MCP) in indian culture, and not actively sent into the physically demanding jobs (there will be exceptions, but if yu look around, yu will find only in the recent years that a small of women have taken towards the rigorous fitness). so i feel Colonel SS RAJAN is absolutely right in his assessment. any person committing suicide is bad enough. if men and women want to be treated equally, why the furore when one female commits suicide ? why do they sit silent when the males die ? its sheer hypocrisy - if yu'd want to protect your kind and label every male person as MCPs.
